r/Standup • u/Constant-Bridge3690 • 2d ago
What is your favorite style of comedy?
Comics seem to either tell stories about their life, make observations about society or just rapid fire jokes and punchlines. They also can do impersonations, sing funny songs or use props. Anything else?
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u/Abobo2020 2d ago
I'll tell you what I'm not a fan of. Comics yelling at the top of their lungs into a microphone.
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u/Coneskater 2d ago
No more crowd work
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u/TeeAyeKay 2d ago
While I agree, I think we are inundated with crowd work clips/reels/tiktoks/whatever because comedians are using their crowd work, rather than their actual material, when posting on social media.
Unfortunately, this leads a lot of aspiring comedians to think that it's reasonable to attempt to simply wing it and just do crowd work at mics, which turn into 5-10 minutes of utter garbage.
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u/ninfan1977 2d ago edited 2d ago
I think you are dead on. Only been doing it for 5 months but crowd work is usually just lazy and slowly just turns into attacking the audience.
To me you are there to get the audience on your side so attacking them doesn't help you in the long run. Most comics who do crowd work forget that.
The amount of writing that goes into a good set is grossly underestimated by newer comics.
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u/AdmiralPeriwinkle 2d ago
“crowd work is usually just lazy and slowly just turns into attacking the audience”
Yeah a lot of crowd work is just bullying the audience. It’s like comics can’t distinguish between crowd work and handling a heckler. It’s really bad at open mics where comics should be making an effort to build up an audience of non comics.
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u/bossfoundmylastone 2d ago
It’s really bad at open mics where comics should be making an effort to build up an audience of non comics.
... the bartender? What comedy open mic have you ever been to that had an audience other than comics waiting for their turn?
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u/Teddylupin888 2d ago
Thank you, crowd work is lazy and 9/10 not funny.
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u/Constant-Bridge3690 2d ago
Everyone is doing it now! Was it Matt Rife that made it popular? I know Todd Barry can do a whole set of just crowd work. It does seems lazy, like the comedian lost faith in their material.
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u/Obliterated-Denardos 2d ago
People do crowd work so that they can continually post content for the algorithmTM without burning their written material.
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u/kcknuckles 2d ago
And then aspiring comics see that and think this is what stand-up comedy is without writing any actual material.
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u/ninfan1977 2d ago
I think Rife made it incredibly popular so everyone tried to chase that lightning in a bottle.
However it usually is terrible. I was told more comics do it now to show off their skills and that way people see the comics tell their A material in person.
So blame the algorithms for the rise of it.
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u/External_Virus_5767 5h ago
I just saw Jimmy Cash last Saturday at The Wilbur and I thought both his openers were better than him. I think I had seen the 2nd dude at a Don’t Tell Comedy show.
I think there is a big difference between creating content for social media and doing standup with a polished set. He mostly did crowd work although the few jokes he did were funny. I think he just needs a bit more time.
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u/pogopogo890 2d ago
everyone’s gotta do some though, just don’t make it more than 10-20% of the show right?
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u/Democracysaver 2d ago edited 2d ago
They might tell completely absurd stories everyone knows its neither about their life nor true at all yet still funny, they might also just be funny by the way they are (persona), they might do meta comedy (comedy about the structure or elements of comedy)
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u/Commercial-Baker7486 2d ago edited 2d ago
Unpopular opinion(here): I love crowd work the most. When done well. It feels less staged and a lot more original for me.
Whereas written comedy can feel too prepped and polished at times. I especially don't like it when comedians reuse a lot of their material.
With crowd work you can't reuse any material, you are the material lol.
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u/Downtown-Youth-7854 2d ago
I agree with you about the flow of crowd work. But hard disagree on the originality part of it. A lot of crowd work is absolutely reused material.
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u/Commercial-Baker7486 2d ago edited 2d ago
Yeah crowd work comics mostly reference things relating to the subject(normally something to do with some person in the crowd), which most of the times isn't original. Yeah I think you're right about that. It's still very fun tho lol
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u/Leaking_Honesty 19h ago
Some comics have a “set” of material they use for crowd work si they look polished.
A really good, seasoned comic can make it a reasonably funny part of their show. If that’s ALL you are doing, it’s like you’ve given up and are pandering to the crowd (ala Matt Rife).
For the first 4 years, your stuff is pretty much garbage. You’ll look back on old tapes and cringe.
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u/Downtown-Youth-7854 18h ago
I definitely feel you there. Huge difference between Matt Rife and Big Jay.
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u/moscowramada 1d ago
I also like crowd work because it's like a comedy IQ test: you have to be fast on your feet and inherently funny to pull it off. No ghostwriter can carry you, that's all you.
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u/Faceless_213 1d ago
I like storytelling the most. Observations are funny when they make sense (meaning you have to share their view or the joke doesn't make as much sense). Rapid fire jokes are fine, but get meme-ified easily (how frequently do you hear a random coworker or social media comment saying the same thing you thought was fresh like 2 weeks ago?). Politics, impersonations, stupid songs, and crowdwork can suck on my balls. I do like props, though. Props, including puppets and magic, are fun!
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u/Constant-Bridge3690 1d ago
What do you think of Mike Birbiglia? He puts on these one man shows where he tells stories from his life. Unfortunately, the stories are actually pretty mundane slices of life that he tries to jazz up with comedic observations. I'm not a fan. The best stories are where something crazy or unusual happens, but only crazy or unusual people will have more than a handful of these stories.
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u/Faceless_213 8h ago
uggggh... Birbiglia is lame af hahaha. I think he's pushed because he's safe. But, safe is boring. I barely sat through that one special where he talks about jumping on the bed and his dad taking off his belt and his pants falling off.
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u/RadlEonk 2d ago
I like stand up. I don’t like SNL.
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u/Constant-Bridge3690 2d ago
While all of the skits on SNL are written, most of the performers have an improv comedy background.
I saw an improv show last week and realized how difficult that is for such a small payoff. Each of the performers has to trust the other people on stage so that they will: (1) react to what was just said, (2) get their bit out, and (3) leave room for the next performer to react.
You never know what will unfold and most times it won't be that funny. I imagine it could be exhilirating for the performers though.
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u/RadlEonk 2d ago
I know. I’m not big on improv. Some people like it, but it almost always misses for me.
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u/Feisty-Class-1098 1d ago
This isn’t helpful, but I find I’m good with most things if it’s done well. Like, would I say I specifically like physical comedy? No, do I love watching Chris Fleming do ridiculous shit with his corporeal being? Yes, emphatically? Do like the pace of setup-punchline, setup-punchline? Mostly not, but is Steven Wright brilliant? Yeah.
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u/bigfudge_drshokkka 1d ago
I’m a huge fan of one liners with segways. It takes longer to go stale or lose interest.
Stories are either too condensed for laughs or drawn out and boring
Observations seem like Jerry Seinfeld levels of hacky
And crowd work doesn’t work with open mics/shy crowds.
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u/jeffsuzuki 1d ago
Most of the comics I listen to (and the style I try to go for) are the life stories/societal observations.
The rapid fire jokes and punchlines are great...except they don't make someone memorable: A really, really good joke will disperse into the collective subconscious, and everyone will know the joke and nobody will remember who made it first.
Impersonations have their own issues: they're great, but they depend on the impersonated being relevant. Dana Carvey made his career on his George Bush impersonation...but does he still do that? (I assume not)
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u/Constant-Bridge3690 1d ago
Roasting is another style I forgot. Obviously very popular with the Kill Tony crowd. My local comedy club has a weekly roast battle.
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u/reamkore 2d ago
I like jokes