That Phil Schwarzmann is a clever dude. He made an observation about my jokes the other day: "the audience often has to make a leap to get your joke". Which I actually take as a compliment, hopefully it means I'm writing something which makes them think. When the audience needs to piece my two obscure references together, they feel satisfaction in getting the joke. The other side of that is if the leap is too large and audience cant quite make it.
I felt I had a good show at Manala the other night and on at least 2 occasions my joke was met with silence from the 70 strong crowd. If you tell a joke and its bad, usually some drunk will laugh half heartily and you will hear something but on these occasions I was greeted with an amazing, deathly silence. I kind of like these moments, to me they are liberating as a comedian as we can stop and talk about why this happened. To me, when there is utter silence, its not just a bad joke, the audience didn't even grasp that it was actually a joke at all or they could feel it was a punchline but the leap was waaay too big for them to make.
Getting the right mix takes time. I have a few other gags which take the audience about 2 seconds for the joke to sink in. They are some of my favorite, there is that scary wait after the punchline has been delivered, that faith that in 2 seconds the penny will drop for these good people who have paid to see a decent comedy show. That 2 seconds can feel like an eternity on stage. With luck it comes. If it doesn't, you better have something else to say real quick.
Cultural Learnings of Europe For Make Benefit
Glorious Nation of Australia
Glorious Nation of Australia
Contact Louis
Email: louis@zezeran.com
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Louis Zezeran, Comedian
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Louis is a stand up comedian based in Helsinki and regularly performs across Finland, Estonia and Sweden. This is his blog of both comedy and adventure and the adventure of comedy because sitting still is very difficult for him.
Louis is the co-founder of Comedy Estonia, putting on the very first series of Stand Up shows in Eestimaa.
We Do Comedy is the booking agency Louis runs in Finland to promote English speaking comedians
Comedy Finland is the place to find the best English shows in Finland
Louis is a stand up comedian based in Helsinki and regularly performs across Finland, Estonia and Sweden. This is his blog of both comedy and adventure and the adventure of comedy because sitting still is very difficult for him.
Louis is the co-founder of Comedy Estonia, putting on the very first series of Stand Up shows in Eestimaa.
We Do Comedy is the booking agency Louis runs in Finland to promote English speaking comedians
Comedy Finland is the place to find the best English shows in Finland
