How do you know what's funny?
You don't really know. (laughter) You don't really know. What you know is what's funny to you. That is what distinguishes the stand-up comedian from the funny bloke in the park. The funny bloke in the park just shares immediately what he thinks is funny and he just pushes it on you. Whereas, the stand-up comic has to identify what really is funny and that would be appealing to a bunch of strangers. Now, the only way you can begin to stay true to yourself is by getting up on stage and telling people what you think's funny, what you find funny and you stick to that. The audience will laugh or they won't laugh. If the audience laughs, that means they are telling you that is funny. If they are telling you that is funny, then you keep that and that's what you work with. Then, you move on. Then you find something new to talk about. You also share with this new audience the stuff that worked already. Therefore, now you're telling them something new. It didn't work. They're not laughing. Alright, I'll try again. It did not work. They are not laughing. Alright, try again. Oh, I'm getting a little something. That tells me that this just needs a little bit of work on, but I've got this material that works anyway. So I'm building now and I'm going to start to refine this bit that wasn't working quite as well. So I move on. I'll try again. I'll deliver it the way that it was before they still didn't laugh. Now I'm getting a bigger response. Now I'm going to start to give some conviction. I'm going to start to believe in this material that needed a little big of shaping and that's how you develop.
