To be able to write an impressive stand up material, here are a few tips you could follow:
stand up writing just like stand up comedy on its own is an art that must be mastered perfectly if you intend to excel in that field. It is the written joke that makes the performance worth it because no matter how good a performer is, they would not be able to move the crowd when the content is ‘bleh’.
A lot of people struggle with stand up writing because they think that killing the delivery makes a good performance while forgetting that people need to like the content to enjoy the performance, thus making the delivery important yet inconsequential in the grand scale of things.
Write a lot, then pick a few:
When you have a suitable stand up topic, write tones of one or two liner jokes around that topic, some may turn out hilarious, others may not. But, write tons of them and from then pick a few that you can make use of.
The reason for this is that you might have just one joke attached to the topic you thought off as at the time you thought of the topic, but something you need to understand is that that joke you attached to the topic in your mind might not sound as funny when you eventually deliver it.
However, when there are about ten two-liners attached to a certain topic, you are bound to find more than one that could make the crowd go wild, and then the rest is left to your delivery skills.
Write something about you:
People love a good story, especially when the person telling it is the main character in the story.
Try to put down all your embarrassing moments, all the emotional moments in your life, basically all that you have gone through in your life, things that you are okay with people knowing. Also, while you are trying to make sure you make use of these things that you do not mind people knowing, try to not be so conservative about these experiences, the barer you go that more interesting the content will be.
Surf the net:
YouTube is one perfect way to gain ideas on anything including stand up writing. When you watch the videos of other stand up comedians online, there may be ideas for you to use in writing yours.
While doing this, be careful not to plagiarize. Granted some jokes could sound too good to be true, and too interesting to be ignored, learn from them and ignore the thought that says “spin them”.
There has never been a time when plagiarism was not effectively punished, either by the audience who might have heard the joke before, or the owner of the joke who can recognize their content albeit twisted.
stand up writing, while it is not very easy, it is also not so complex as well. Do not lose yourself in the world of others, let your mind think far. When you have mastered the art of writing the perfect content for delivery, the sky might just be too low a barrier to keep you from flying.