When you first look at a stand-up comic, chances are you’ll think it’s going to be some kind of Show Business Hall of Famer or star turner. In other words: You’re probably not going to like what you’re hearing! But that doesn’t mean you can avoid taking a step back and rethinking how your approach will turn out. How can you take the guesswork out of how your stand-up is going to go down? How can you make sure that your audience gets the fully realized presentation they deserve? The answer, naturally, is DrawPlus – a projector capture feature in every phone draw that makes creating jaw-dropping graphics super easy! Check out these simple tips to get started with using DrawPlus to make stand-up comedy jaw-dropping graphics!
Get to know your audience
Before you shoot a single frame, you’ll want to get to know your audience. This is important for a few reasons. First, you’ll want to make sure you’re in tune with what they like and don’t like. These could be things as simple as someone on the internet saying, “Are you in a mood for some humor today?” or “I really enjoy your stand-up, man.” You’ll also want to make sure you’re creating content that guides the audience’s questions and helps them form an understanding of what you’re doing. What are you trying to get across? How can you make sure that your audience gets the full story? These will all help you get a good feel for your audience, and what they really want to hear.
Be specific
It’s easy to get overwhelmed when you’re trying to host events for large crowds. You might get a request for a talk about your new book, but you don’t know the person’s slang or what they usually drink. You don’t want to stress yourself out when you could be giving a workshop on how to create stand-up comedy and lose yourself in concentration instead! Here are a couple of tips to help you stay on track. – Be specific. Describe what you’re doing and what your audience is trying to get across. – Be very descriptive. Don’t let your writing get out of control. Every word has an intended meaning. – Keep it simple. Don’t be afraid to shake things up sometimes. Start up with a quick monologue, for example, or a sketch about your day off work. Your audience will remember what you said, and that will help you stay focused and on-task. – Don’t be afraid to give each piece a unique feel. Don’t be afraid to explore different topics; that’ll help you stay on course and keep your audience on topic.
Keep it simple
Writing for the phone is different from writing for a printed stage or the web. You don’t have the luxury of the availability of an massive cast or crew to help you out. You also don’t have the luxury of fancy lights or sound. You have to stick to simple, applicable language. For your phone drawings, use simple language and don’t go overboard. It can feel cheap when you use fancy words or phrases that your audience doesn’t understand. It could also feel pressure-cooker, which would make your audience feel Medina-icky. Stick to topics that your audience will easily relate to, like anxiety and frustration, and you’ll be fine.
Don’t be afraid to give each piece a unique feel
You don’t have to be a pro to do this; it’s really easy to get into flow and make good use of your clients’ unique sound, visual, and gesture cues. Even a beginner can balance the volume, pitch, and cadence of a performance, which can help make their stand-up stand out. Why not add a vignette or two to break the silence that adds to the humor? You can use your client’s hand-drawn messages to break the silence, too. It doesn’t have to be a gag, either. You can break the silence with something meaningful and insightful, like a client’s voice-over, their voice-claimer, or a monologue.
Explore different topics
This can feel scary at first. You may feel overwhelmed by the array of different topics and styles of stand-up comedy. You may feel like the topics you choose for your clients are a little nerdy or out-of-date. This isn’t a good thing! In fact, it can be the deciding factor for which tours you choose. It all comes down to personal taste, though. Get your mind off the format and the performers you’re looking out for! – Pick a sub-genre or two that you’d like to explore more. – Be as generic as possible. Don’t overthink it. You don’t need to be a pro to do this! It’s really easy to get lost in thought and forget about what you have to do. You can get in some really great practice by just doing nothing!
Keep it Simple
You don’t have to overthink things when it comes to your stand-up. In fact, you don’t have to over think anything! All you have to do is keep it simple; that’s what starts with “A”. Your stand-up has to be a single-handed effort, and it has to be as basic and straightforward as possible. If you have a particular style or aesthetic you want to go into overdrive to duplicate on stage, that’s a different story. But even if your stand-up is a little more advanced than others are going through, it still has to be pretty basic.
Don’t be afraid to shake things up sometimes
It’s easy to get too entrenched in a pattern or two when you’re creating for the public. You don’t have to do these exact routines, but you do have to try out new and interesting routines on stage. It’s also important to remember that you don’t have to do this pose one way or the other. You can do whatever moves you feel comfortable with, and you don’t have to do this pose exact or in exactly the way that someone else is doing it. Just try out new moves and see what happens.
Wrapping the Kills: A Final Tip
When you’ve got your foot in the door and you’re ready to take your stand-up to the next level, it’s important to remember that the art of stand-up is all about surprise. Surprise your audience that you can do things from a different angle or bring in a different character. Surprise them that you can actually move your body and think out of the ordinary. That’s confidence. That’s creativity. That’s respect for your audience. In short, it’s doing what you have to do, and anything else that gets in the way is just words.