Womp womp womppppp. Such a bummer this week, peeps. I learned it’s not all fun and games in the comedy world. After the excitement of the musical improv show last week, I decided to try seeing a sketch comedy show- it did NOT go well. Now I’m not here to shit on anybody- I think that anyone who puts their art out there to be judged is pretty impressive, but MAN was this series of sketches a big steaming pile of terrible.
Now it seems like my new thing on this blog is attempting to give some advice, so I guess that’s what I’ll be doing today. First of all, the show began with two guys doing a bit of improv to introduce the show- one was telling the other to show the audience the injury he endured earlier in the week. The injured guy had zero interest in showing it and insisted he was too embarrassed. The whole thing made everyone in the audience feel super-duper uncomfortable. With one guy pressing and the other guy insisting he didn’t want to show it, everyone just ended up feeling crappy- not something you want at a comedy show. So that brings me to my first word of advice:
1. If your fellow performers want you to do something on stage, just go with it OR, on the other side, if someone on stage doesn’t want to do something, just drop it.
Both situations give the audience some kind of satisfaction and enable everyone to move on to the next joke.
My second bit of advice has to do with the material in the sketches. If the material is weak, a funny or outrageous actor can still redeem it. Sometimes the opposite is true- great material can be ruined by terrible acting. There’s not much to do when your actors are butchering your hilarious lines or taking attention away from the written parts. So my second tidbit is:
2. A character can make or break a sketch. When your sketch is going to be performed, plan accordingly.
Finally, and most importantly when it comes to the sketch I saw this week:
3. For the love of God, do not result to grotesque behavior when the audience isn’t responding.
In one of the sketches I saw, the audience wasn’t laughing, so the actor started being super gross with all of his lines. He ended up pulling down his pants like a big dumb idiot, which just made everyone want to leave even more than they did a minute before. Breakdowns can definitely be funny, especially unjustified ones. But if people aren’t laughing, being disgusting won’t help, guarantee it.
Now this was just one of many shows out there. They even explained at the beginning that these were brand new sketches and they would judge whether or not to keep them based on the audience’s reactions. So don’t shy away from checking out sketch shows just because there’s one bad apple. I know I’ll be in line again next week to give ‘em another chance.
Now it seems like my new thing on this blog is attempting to give some advice, so I guess that’s what I’ll be doing today. First of all, the show began with two guys doing a bit of improv to introduce the show- one was telling the other to show the audience the injury he endured earlier in the week. The injured guy had zero interest in showing it and insisted he was too embarrassed. The whole thing made everyone in the audience feel super-duper uncomfortable. With one guy pressing and the other guy insisting he didn’t want to show it, everyone just ended up feeling crappy- not something you want at a comedy show. So that brings me to my first word of advice:
1. If your fellow performers want you to do something on stage, just go with it OR, on the other side, if someone on stage doesn’t want to do something, just drop it.
Both situations give the audience some kind of satisfaction and enable everyone to move on to the next joke.
My second bit of advice has to do with the material in the sketches. If the material is weak, a funny or outrageous actor can still redeem it. Sometimes the opposite is true- great material can be ruined by terrible acting. There’s not much to do when your actors are butchering your hilarious lines or taking attention away from the written parts. So my second tidbit is:
2. A character can make or break a sketch. When your sketch is going to be performed, plan accordingly.
Finally, and most importantly when it comes to the sketch I saw this week:
3. For the love of God, do not result to grotesque behavior when the audience isn’t responding.
In one of the sketches I saw, the audience wasn’t laughing, so the actor started being super gross with all of his lines. He ended up pulling down his pants like a big dumb idiot, which just made everyone want to leave even more than they did a minute before. Breakdowns can definitely be funny, especially unjustified ones. But if people aren’t laughing, being disgusting won’t help, guarantee it.
Now this was just one of many shows out there. They even explained at the beginning that these were brand new sketches and they would judge whether or not to keep them based on the audience’s reactions. So don’t shy away from checking out sketch shows just because there’s one bad apple. I know I’ll be in line again next week to give ‘em another chance.
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