I have come to the realization that performing stand up comedy is something that is way over dramatized by comedians.  Comedians will sometimes say that they stand naked on the stage.  They make it sound like going on stage and performing comedy is some sort of brave and heroic act.  As if bombing on stage is the worst thing ever.  When all actuality what they do is not something that is really hard.  The audience is primed to be entertained.  They have self selected that comedy is the way they want to be entertained tonight and built themselves into having a good time.  Then they are fed alcohol.  This is a pretty safe situation to enter.  People buzzed on alcohol who have come to laugh and you have to make them do what they have already come to do.  It's a controlled environment for the most part.

Similarly, I have a friend who went to get hypnotized to quit smoking.  He is 8 weeks free of smoking.  But think of this, for the hypnotist.  My friend is there with the goal to quit, he spent time and money to commit to quit by paying this hypnotist and listening to his seminar.  All the hypnotist has to do is close the deal for the audience.  The person has already decided, put time and money into it.  He is primed to quit.  Don't flunk the dunk.

If the comic or hypnotist really were taking a risk they would be approaching people off the street and performing for them like an old David Blaine video.  So why do comics make their job sound so hard?

Public speaking and depression.

Here’s a hot tip : most of us, aren’t as funny as we think we are. So, stand up comedy looks really easy from the couch.

Hot tip number 2 : public speaking ain’t that easy, especially if your goal is to be funny and engaging for an hour.

Because it is hard.

You make it sound as if any average Joe can walk into an open mic night, where the audience have come specifically to laugh and are imbibing alcohol, and make them laugh consistently for a set amount of time. It's not that easy. If you tried it, you would fail spectacularly. Perhaps you'd succeed in making the crowd laugh, but they would only be laughing at you.

Stand up comedy is a performance art, and like any other performance art, it requires dedication, a good script (usually), and lot of practice. Also improvisational skill is necessary, and that's not easy to come across.

Your argument is ludicrous and you could extend it to almost any profession. Film acting is easy because people who go to the theatre are expecting to watch a film and witness good acting. Ballet dancing is easy because people who go to see ballet dancing are expecting to see ballet dancing.

There are two tiers of stand up comic, the truly hilarious and the rehearsed. The second is easy to tell, because when they go into talk shows they are really boring until they are allowed to tell stories.
Now people like Robin Williams are just brilliant, their mind is racing and they can make anything funny.

The whole tears of a clown thing is true I believe...

I am almost certain I could be moderately successfil as a stand up comic, I am not scared of public speaking and I am decent at making people laugh improv.
When you work in sales, you often die on stage it just teaches you to modify and adjust to what works.

Nov 7, 2019 19:21:05 GMT theend said:

I have come to the realization that performing stand up comedy is something that is way over dramatized by comedians.  Comedians will sometimes say that they stand naked on the stage.  They make it sound like going on stage and performing comedy is some sort of brave and heroic act.  As if bombing on stage is the worst thing ever.  When all actuality what they do is not something that is really hard.  The audience is primed to be entertained.  They have self selected that comedy is the way they want to be entertained tonight and built themselves into having a good time.  Then they are fed alcohol.  This is a pretty safe situation to enter.  People buzzed on alcohol who have come to laugh and you have to make them do what they have already come to do.  It's a controlled environment for the most part.

Similarly, I have a friend who went to get hypnotized to quit smoking.  He is 8 weeks free of smoking.  But think of this, for the hypnotist.  My friend is there with the goal to quit, he spent time and money to commit to quit by paying this hypnotist and listening to his seminar.  All the hypnotist has to do is close the deal for the audience.  The person has already decided, put time and money into it.  He is primed to quit.  Don't flunk the dunk.

If the comic or hypnotist really were taking a risk they would be approaching people off the street and performing for them like an old David Blaine video.  So why do comics make their job sound so hard?

You sound like Malcom Gladwell talking to Adam Grant.

In today's ultra sensitive, hyper pc culture being a stand up comic is harder than ever. Comedy is at it's absolute finest when the comic is allowed to say whatever the hell he wants, and comics that try to conform to pc culture invariably suck ass. Thankfully Dave Chapelle and other comics like him are completely rejecting this nonsense.

If a comedian complains about how "PC culture" has made it harder to be funny, it means they're probably a shitty comedian who uses slurs and punching down as a crutch. John Mulaney absolutely kills it every time he has a show, just as the ur example, and there are plenty of others who are still good at their jobs without being "cancelled". Which isn't a real thing, by the way.

George Carlin is still just as funny today as he was when he was alive because he understood that comedy is most effective when punching UP at the powerful.





God, look at THIS snowflake, amirite?

John Mulaney SUCKS. Terrible recommendation.

Give me a Dave Chapelle or a Chris Rock any day over this bland crap. Hell I'll even take Katt Williams.

And speaking of George Carlin....



He would have gotten skewered alive if he had done that monologue today. Lets not pretend that George held his tongue in some kind of way or only targeted the powerful. George said whatever the hell he wanted when he thought it was appropriate. And that is the way comedy should be.

But it's stand up comedy. What's the worst case scenario in failure? It not like dying on stage is death. It's only as big of deal as you make it.

🤯,, you nailed most of the inspiration of what warped my mind on this subject.

I did stand up for a short while as a teenager, it was fun but the crowds were forgiving.


I love public speaking and enjoyed ring announcing/doing promos more than i did having matches. I’d be much more comfortable on stage than having a 1 on 1 conversation with someone which seems to be the case for most introverts..I heard Rob Zombie share similar sentiments on Joe Rogan’s podcast.

Conversely the most extroverted and loud people have encountered absolutely hate public speaking and are quiet as a mouse when they have to make a speech it’s odd.

I believe you should be able to say whatever you want, but if you’re entire schtick is trying to be as offensive as possible particularly on certain topics to garner a response, you’re probably not very good.

Punch up, not down.

You people whining about “PC culture” acting like clean comedy doesn’t exist.

Jerry Seinfeld
Jim Gaffigan
Bill Cosby
Brian Regan
Ellen Degeneres
Jeff Foxworthy
Gabriel Eglasias
Dimitri Martin
Tom Papa

It’s almost like art exists for everyone and there isn’t a right and wrong way to do it. Crazy!

Nov 8, 2019 4:56:37 GMT System said:

I did stand up for a short while as a teenager, it was fun but the crowds were forgiving.


I love public speaking and enjoyed ring announcing/doing promos more than i did having matches. I’d be much more comfortable on stage than having a 1 on 1 conversation with someone which seems to be the case for most introverts..I heard Rob Zombie share similar sentiments on Joe Rogan’s podcast.

Conversely the most extroverted and loud people have encountered absolutely hate public speaking and are quiet as a mouse when they have to make a speech it’s odd.

Somewhat ironically I believe that capacity and skills in public speaking have very little to do with whether or not someone is extroverted.
Really the only difference between an introvert and extrovert is whether they draw energy from being with other people or whether you expend it when dealing with other people.
The real way to tell at the end of public speaking whether you are pumped up and energised or exhausted.

I test as slightly extroverted, and I come away from public speaking completely pumped and exhausted.
In a year or two I may have financial freedom and be able to pursue what I want to do.
I am thinking about getting into consulting, blogging and public speaking on real world problem solving, I have a bit of a knack for it.
The issue with my public speaking is that I am like an Evangelical Preacher on Amphetamines, I always get positive feedback that people love it but come away exhausted due to my high volume of content.

If you talk to any local comic they will tell you that you will likely bomb regularly for a couple of years anyhow. So, what's the big whoop?

And no, you can't apply this to any career.  Plenty of people have to present, inform and attempt to entertain people who don't want to hear them.  

Nov 8, 2019 6:32:19 GMT RT said:

You people whining about “PC culture” acting like clean comedy doesn’t exist.

Jerry Seinfeld
Jim Gaffigan
Bill Cosby
Brian Regan
Ellen Degeneres
Jeff Foxworthy
Gabriel Eglasias
Dimitri Martin
Tom Papa

It’s almost like art exists for everyone and there isn’t a right and wrong way to do it. Crazy!

Here’s the problem with PC Culture ...

I bet I could find a joke in each one of their routines/specials that if done today would cause mass hysteria.

And to go further, the problem beyond that is I could find a joke from 25 years ago for Seinfeld’s routine, throw the clip on Twitter now, and still watch the mass hysteria try to “cancel” Jerry until he apologized in the generic way we expect.

Bill Cosby is a rapist.

Not sure if it has changed but last I heard the number one fear in the world is public speaking which was even over dying. So yeah a person would rather be in the coffin instead of doing the eulogy at a funeral. And yes I heard that from a comedian.

Nov 8, 2019 17:15:33 GMT X-zero said:

Not sure if it has changed but last I heard the number one fear in the world is public speaking which was even over dying. So yeah a person would rather be in the coffin instead of doing the eulogy at a funeral. And yes I heard that from a comedian.

Pretty positive it's Seinfeld, who I think was one of the first to speak out against pc culture and playing at colleges. Course I'm not sure he's their demo really as any younger girls I've gone out with have never heard of him when I drop his name...

Nov 8, 2019 16:29:12 GMT KJ said:

Nov 8, 2019 6:32:19 GMT RT said:

You people whining about “PC culture” acting like clean comedy doesn’t exist.

Jerry Seinfeld
Jim Gaffigan
Bill Cosby
Brian Regan
Ellen Degeneres
Jeff Foxworthy
Gabriel Eglasias
Dimitri Martin
Tom Papa

It’s almost like art exists for everyone and there isn’t a right and wrong way to do it. Crazy!

Here’s the problem with PC Culture ...

I bet I could find a joke in each one of their routines/specials that if done today would cause mass hysteria.

And to go further, the problem beyond that is I could find a joke from 25 years ago for Seinfeld’s routine, throw the clip on Twitter now, and still watch the mass hysteria try to “cancel” Jerry until he apologized in the generic way we expect.

That's a good point.

Nov 8, 2019 17:08:56 GMT KING KID said:

Bill Cosby is a rapist.

I knew someone was going to say this. Doesn't change the fact that his comedy was clean.

I listened to Rogan's podcast with Kevin Smith and Smith talked about how when he was a kid his parents forbid him from listening to George Carlin because he talked dirty but he was allowed to listen to Bill Cosby because his comedy was clean.

His comedy being clean doesn’t change the fact that he’s a rapist.

Nov 8, 2019 18:29:54 GMT KING KID said:

His comedy being clean doesn’t change the fact that he’s a rapist.

No, but the equation works the same way too ... meaning they're both equally true and wholly unrelated points in the context of this conversation.

Ya lost me.

Bill Cosby being a rapist has soiled what was once an incredible body of work. He was one of the few comics that was completely clean yet still funny as hell.

Nov 8, 2019 19:39:00 GMT KING KID said:

Ya lost me.

Okay ...

Bill Cosby did clean comedy. Bill Cosby was a rapist. These comments are both facts, but they are mutually exclusive: the fact he did clean comedy doesn’t mean he’s not a rapist and vice-versa. The opinion of whether you can watch/like/enjoy his comedy now is a different statement. That’s not what RT is saying, though. RT is merely making the point he was a successful comedian that did clean bits. 

Another example: 
Chris Benoit was a great wrestler. Chris Benoit murdered his family. Both true. Both unrelated from one another as statements of fact. The subjective opinion “I can’t enjoy Chris Benoit because he murdered his family” is different than the objective statements.

I don't know how many people have told me I should do standup comedy. Those people are insane. 1) I loathe public speaking 2) standup comedy is as someone said an ARTFORM. Not just anyone can do it and be successful or we'd all be standup comedians. That being said there are only certain ones I truly enjoy. Jim Gaffigan is a big one for me. Robin Williams was a genius.

Hypnotism is also a performance art to a point. As most of you know I used to work at a nightclub. Every long weekend we had a well known (in this area) hypnotist perform. Wayne is a wonderful guy. He told me he'd never be able to hypnotize me because I was not open minded to it. He also said he could never get someone to do something they would never do otherwise. But if they had thought of it, then that was different. Like if you 100% against smoking, thought it was disgusting and he tried to make you smoke, you wouldn't. Hypnotists scare me as I've seen a couple things that I didn't like. Once was a co-worker who had gotten hypnotized at Wayne's show. Apparently, this person had put mental blocks on their mind to cover a particularly painful part of their past. After being hypnotized the blocks came 'off' and Wayne had to re-hypnotize her to put the blocks back on because she was a hysterical mess. Another time Wayne couldn't make it and we got someone else. The guy was a sleeze. He used hypnotism to get women into bed. Me and a couple of my other co-workers told my boss what we'd seen and he was never asked back. No thank you, I have enough issues with my mind I don't need someone poking around in there.

It's such a weird things that we can't talk about Bill Crosby as a comedian without referencing that he was a rapist.

I don't know when it happened that we couldn't discuss the item without mentioning the creator.
It's certainly a recent phenomenon, I mean people still love Elvis and he was almost certainly a paedophile.

The richer and more powerful the person the more they give into their dark urges simply because they can.
I don't know why we need to ban Michael Jackson songs from the radio... Life is weird.

Nov 8, 2019 16:29:12 GMT KJ said:

Nov 8, 2019 6:32:19 GMT RT said:

You people whining about “PC culture” acting like clean comedy doesn’t exist.

Jerry Seinfeld
Jim Gaffigan
Bill Cosby
Brian Regan
Ellen Degeneres
Jeff Foxworthy
Gabriel Eglasias
Dimitri Martin
Tom Papa

It’s almost like art exists for everyone and there isn’t a right and wrong way to do it. Crazy!

Here’s the problem with PC Culture ...

I bet I could find a joke in each one of their routines/specials that if done today would cause mass hysteria.

And to go further, the problem beyond that is I could find a joke from 25 years ago for Seinfeld’s routine, throw the clip on Twitter now, and still watch the mass hysteria try to “cancel” Jerry until he apologized in the generic way we expect.

Here’s the thing with PC Culture.. the more I went out of my way not to engage in any discussion about PC culture, funnily the better I was, by simply avoiding the Shapiros and Milos and so forth and anyone under 22 with an Arts degree.

I could easily find hours of offended lefties losing their minds over trivial things, and equally, hours of offended conservatives and the so called IDW defending whatever ridiculous argument they just made.

And regardless of the debate between the two, it has absolutely no impact on whatever they’re yacking about.

It’s like Dave Meltzer and Jim Cornette screaming at each other for an hour, at the end of the day it has no impact on the product, just two jackass waving their dicks around.

We give too much power to both sides of the PC wars, when really, we shouldn’t give at all.

Nov 8, 2019 17:08:56 GMT KING KID said:

Bill Cosby is a rapist.

And I poser. I remember watching the E True Hollywood documentary on Cosby. He acted as the arbiter of morality for black people.