Neil Thornton of the NZ Comedy School spoke to us today. Neil came to NZ in 2014 on honeymoon and stayed before this he started his adult life as a teacher and at 39 years old took a stand up comedy class trying to get people to laugh in New York. Turns out that being a teacher and knowing how to write are great prerequistes for being a comedian. Neil did wonder however if he could teach stand up after being asked to take classes and ten people showed up; 6 of the ten are still doing stand up comedy. The comedy school is now Neil's full time role.
What Neil teaches in how to be a Comedian are to 1. Think up funny things, 2. Do a gig. Suck, 3. Revise, 4. Suck less, 5. Repeat.
The main ideas are:
1. Stagecraft (look like a pro) = stand still on both feet, point the mic at your mouth, speak slowly and clearly. Being heard is the most important thing in stand up. Look at the audience and have fun.
2. Creativity (Quantity over Quality) = There are no roles, write everything down, don't judge, criticize or edit. Jot down bad ideas to make room for good ones. You need lots of ideas so that we can find the funny stuff within it. Think up something funny no grammar required.
3. Joke Structure = Information, expectation, tension and provide the Punch as a surprise, exaggeration, or release for example set up the joke like Joan Rivers: "My daughter and I are very close speak every single day and I call her every day and I say the same thing. " Punch ....."Pick up! I know you're there!"
4. Connection/Conversation = the magic is the audience so the comedian is trying to make a connection. Sometimes it is a process of elimination as you try out material and being willing to get no laughs as well as some laughs. Less is more by saying less sometimes you are funnier.
5. Growth Mindset = Embrace challenges and keep going. Learn from failure and find inspiration in others. Going over and over the process, practice makes perfect, and effort is everything. When I fail I need to be analytical and work out what went well and what didn't.
We need to make comedy meaningful so this leads to the repeat process as we won't necessarily laugh at old jokes so including the element of surprise or shock helps but recognising that we all feel like a fish out of water. Neil had a great message and that is that comedy helps us to realise we are not alone in effect we are laughing at shared experiences. Thanks Neil for giving us a glimpse of your world.