becoming a comic, writing jokes. (part III)
the way i learned to put together not only jokes but an act was to concentrate on writing 5 minutes of material. not ten nor twenty but only 5. once i had 5 golden minutes, i broke it in two and put 2.5 minutes up front and 2.5 minutes to close and in the middle of that i put a new 5 minutes. that way, i opened well and closed well and was able to concentrate on that middle 5 minutes. eventually, i had ten minutes and then did the same; put 5 golden in front, 5 golden to close with and another 5 minutes in the middle. i continued with this until i had a 20 minute act which is what you needed to open. once i passed that level, the writing became much easier and especially when i got to the newspaper stories which basically write themselves.
jerry seinfield once said that if a joke does not get a "house laugh" 98% of the time then that joke does not belong in your routine. comics who say "that joke was just for me" are kidding themselves and shortchanging the audience. the jokes are for THE AUDIENCE. i have always used this criteria for whether a joke stays in the rotation.
i then learned the wonderful world of "tags." jay leno said that any good joke should be tagged if possible, why get just one laugh out of a good joke when two or three or possibly four can be squeezed out? my first killer routine was about houston traffic, a pedistrian subject i will admit but, hey i was new. it became a routine of a few good lines and some killer tags.
the first joke was "four way stops are lessons in psychological warfare." tag. "guy with biggest balls has the right of way." tag. "if you have little bitty balls you could spend all day at certain intersections." tag. "best bring your lunch with you when you drive." tag. "like a friend of mine once said, if you are wondering whose turn it is....ain't yours." tag. "the women in the room understand that i am using the term "balls", metaphorically. i have known women with more and bigger balls than any man will ever hope to have." tag. "i know because i have married a couple of them." tag. "i like women with balls. ... it is when they put on the dildo that i drew the line." tag. "i don't mind you having balls, baby, but that dick has to go!" tag. "but i was younger then. get me drunk...pinch my nipples, spank my ass, tell me i am a little whore; see what i will do."
that way i turned one good line into a couple of minutes of good lines. each laugh gets bigger because of the flow. (this is on DEEP IN THE HEART OF TEXAS and you can hear how it builds and builds)
i did the same with freeway driving; starting with one line, "at the speed limit you are a traffic hazzard." tag. "people are dodging your ass. ((demostrate)) eaaakkkk, sumabitch was parked there!" and so on and so forth. this also can be found on DITHOT c.d.
van seats was written on the way to a church gig. i know, that is hard to believe. they had called the COMEDY WORKSHOP office and i just happened to be there and had answered the phone. they said they needed a comic who could do 30 clean minutes and i said i had just the guy, ron shock. they said can he work clean? and i, of course, answered, "no fucking problem." i saw the guy with the van seats and the routine came to me right then and over the years it has changed very little if at all. it killed at the church group and killed last night at the trop.
the 14 minute long ORAL ROBERTS AND HIS 900 FOOT TALL, FLOATING UP IN THE AIR, JESUS took me almost two years to perfect. same with WORLD'S GREATEST DOPE STORY. the long ones are difficult because there is no way to bail if it starts going sideways on you. oral started with one idea; that he, oral, had to be the hardest man in the world to impress if jesus the christ had to grow to 900 feet tall to get his attention. one day i was driving down the road and the four possibilities came to me and for the first and only time I WROTE SOMETHING DOWN, i pulled off the road, went into a denny's, got a napkin and wrote. "CRAZY. LSD. LIED. TRUE. " (i still have that napkin)
being around such funny people it became easier to "think funny" and that is a great asset to have if one plans on being a comedian. our lunches and dinners were funnier than any movie ever made. the conversation would jump from one to another and pretty soon laughter would be booming. it was great. the TEXAS OUTLAW COMICS came out of a mexican meal at 3 in the morning.
oh, and incidently there were SEVEN PEOPLE IN THE TEXAS OUTLAW COMICS. (now i hear of dozens of people who claim to be one of us but there were only 7.) BILL HICKS, STEVE EPSTEIN, RILEY BARBER, ANDY HUGGINS, JOHN FARNETTI, JIMMY PINEAPPLE AND ME. if you see or hear any other comic claim that title...call them on it. you can tell them that you got it from one of the founders of the group.
well, there you go for what it is worth. that is how i wrote material. if i think of anything else i will put it in another post.
peace be to us all.
jerry seinfield once said that if a joke does not get a "house laugh" 98% of the time then that joke does not belong in your routine. comics who say "that joke was just for me" are kidding themselves and shortchanging the audience. the jokes are for THE AUDIENCE. i have always used this criteria for whether a joke stays in the rotation.
i then learned the wonderful world of "tags." jay leno said that any good joke should be tagged if possible, why get just one laugh out of a good joke when two or three or possibly four can be squeezed out? my first killer routine was about houston traffic, a pedistrian subject i will admit but, hey i was new. it became a routine of a few good lines and some killer tags.
the first joke was "four way stops are lessons in psychological warfare." tag. "guy with biggest balls has the right of way." tag. "if you have little bitty balls you could spend all day at certain intersections." tag. "best bring your lunch with you when you drive." tag. "like a friend of mine once said, if you are wondering whose turn it is....ain't yours." tag. "the women in the room understand that i am using the term "balls", metaphorically. i have known women with more and bigger balls than any man will ever hope to have." tag. "i know because i have married a couple of them." tag. "i like women with balls. ... it is when they put on the dildo that i drew the line." tag. "i don't mind you having balls, baby, but that dick has to go!" tag. "but i was younger then. get me drunk...pinch my nipples, spank my ass, tell me i am a little whore; see what i will do."
that way i turned one good line into a couple of minutes of good lines. each laugh gets bigger because of the flow. (this is on DEEP IN THE HEART OF TEXAS and you can hear how it builds and builds)
i did the same with freeway driving; starting with one line, "at the speed limit you are a traffic hazzard." tag. "people are dodging your ass. ((demostrate)) eaaakkkk, sumabitch was parked there!" and so on and so forth. this also can be found on DITHOT c.d.
van seats was written on the way to a church gig. i know, that is hard to believe. they had called the COMEDY WORKSHOP office and i just happened to be there and had answered the phone. they said they needed a comic who could do 30 clean minutes and i said i had just the guy, ron shock. they said can he work clean? and i, of course, answered, "no fucking problem." i saw the guy with the van seats and the routine came to me right then and over the years it has changed very little if at all. it killed at the church group and killed last night at the trop.
the 14 minute long ORAL ROBERTS AND HIS 900 FOOT TALL, FLOATING UP IN THE AIR, JESUS took me almost two years to perfect. same with WORLD'S GREATEST DOPE STORY. the long ones are difficult because there is no way to bail if it starts going sideways on you. oral started with one idea; that he, oral, had to be the hardest man in the world to impress if jesus the christ had to grow to 900 feet tall to get his attention. one day i was driving down the road and the four possibilities came to me and for the first and only time I WROTE SOMETHING DOWN, i pulled off the road, went into a denny's, got a napkin and wrote. "CRAZY. LSD. LIED. TRUE. " (i still have that napkin)
being around such funny people it became easier to "think funny" and that is a great asset to have if one plans on being a comedian. our lunches and dinners were funnier than any movie ever made. the conversation would jump from one to another and pretty soon laughter would be booming. it was great. the TEXAS OUTLAW COMICS came out of a mexican meal at 3 in the morning.
oh, and incidently there were SEVEN PEOPLE IN THE TEXAS OUTLAW COMICS. (now i hear of dozens of people who claim to be one of us but there were only 7.) BILL HICKS, STEVE EPSTEIN, RILEY BARBER, ANDY HUGGINS, JOHN FARNETTI, JIMMY PINEAPPLE AND ME. if you see or hear any other comic claim that title...call them on it. you can tell them that you got it from one of the founders of the group.
well, there you go for what it is worth. that is how i wrote material. if i think of anything else i will put it in another post.
peace be to us all.
posted by Ron Shock | 2:26 PM
5 Comments:
That's good stuff Ron, thanks for putting it out there.
After years of listening to it, I've got to ask, where the hell did Myrtle come from?
Of course, my favorite tag is
His nut...........POPPED!
I have been trying to come up with a mathematical formula based on how long the pause is between "nut" and "popped" divided by how many minutes you've been on stage minus how many times you've done the "Shock Dance" that night.
The resulting number could have some significance, of what, I have no clue.
Peace and Love
SM
mrytle is the name of a very stupid cat that i once had. you know how a cat can run at a tree, jump about 3 feet up on it and climb from there? mrytle would bounce off the tree. her brother, fred, would look at her with undisguised distain. one night, fred took her out and lost her. she never returned. fred looked pleased for months.
Ron:
First, great post. It actually sounds like a subject for a really good book (your history combined with the Houston comedy scene in the 80's).
I have a little follow-up question. How much of skill at stand up comedy is related to learned skills developed through work, and how much is related to natural talent?
You mentioned Seinfeld. I don't know how naturally funny he is, but I do know he's probably one of the strongest students of the mechanics and art of comedy around, and he seems to be someone many comics site when talking about the work ethic necessary to be successful.
russell,
good question. i don't think comedy can be "learned" nor "taught"; a person is either funny or not. having said that, i think that with the 'natural' aptitude there then it is devoloped and honed by work and study. study of stage tactics, study of voice, study of phrasing, study of words etc. work is by doing. and then doing again and again and again until the "piece" or "bit" sounds and feels just right.
could an unfunny person devolope a successful stage act. yes. but that stage act is still unfunny. it may be successful in as that it gets work but it doesn't have the real ring of real funny. there are many acts out there who make money but who are not funny.(i am not going to name any) and to a degree, funny is subjective but if you were to put a panel of genuine funny comics and let them be the judge of funny you would find that they would agree almost unanimously upon who is funny and who is not. or said another way, you can learn to be a successful hack act but cannot learn to be an artist at the art of comedy.
all of this, of course, is just my own personal opinion. (and should be taken with that piece of salt in mind)
as far as book goes, though some, notably, BILL HICKS, AGENT OF EVOLUTION, have described the houston comedy scene to some degree or another, none have captured the whole enchilada. without due mention of paul and sharon menzel or steve and vicki farrel or danny martinez and his club nor marti beninetti (sp?) and her GOOD HUMOR BAR up north or SPELLBINDERS and the weird story behind it none would be complete. and there have been many great comics out of houston who were not in the outlaws.
houston comedy in the hands of an astute and creative writer could be the source of a wonderful book. most of the books about comedy houston have centered on bill hicks. not that he doesn't deserve it, it is just that there was much more and still is to that scene than has met the page.
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