Friday, May 30, 2008

Just Do Your Joke

Whenever I did stand-up comedy, it always irked me when comics would segue into their next joke by asking an obvious "yes" question. An example would be a comic that has a joke about traffic, and segues into it by starting with "Don't you guys just hate traffic?" then waiting for a response. It would annoy the crap out of me. Yes, we all hate traffic! Just do your joke!! If the response was "No, we love traffic!" - would they have skipped that joke? Unlikely!

I wanted to develop this into a joke itself but never did, for fear of getting jumped at the bar. There was one time I asked the audience, "So, do you guys like movies?" and then just went into my next joke. I don't think they got it. So if any comics happen to read this, you can safely assume that all audiences: hate traffic, are frustrated with cellphone coverage and find dating to be difficult. No need to ask. Just do your joke.

2 comments:

PunkRoqPrncess said...

dont you guys just hate it when comics segue into their next joke w/ an obvious "yes" question??

Ken Napzok said...

I believe I was there the night you asked if we liked movies. And it was brilliant. It was funny. I got it.

And that is probably why I've retired from stand-up as well.