"Understanding why it is crucial to punch up or edit out titters" by stand-up comedy coach and co-writer Jim Richardson.

Titters vs. Solid Laughs

Beginning comics are often confused about rating their own acts or those of other comics.
Example:
You ask a professional comic who has just seen you perform at a local comedy open mic
what he thinks about your favorite bit
which always begins and ends with jokes that get a laugh.
Without skipping a beat, he says, "cute bit."

You are delighted, and leave the club with a swelled chest,
perhaps accidentally bumping into several customers on your way out the door.
You see yourself soon being offered $10,000,000 for your first one-hour Netflx "special."
http://stand-upcomedyworkshop.com/FunnyMoney.html

What is wrong with this picture?
Did that professional comic leave out something?

Yes: he did not say your bit was funny.
Nor did he offer you a paid slot on his next bill.

The Fundamentals of Stand-Up Comedy by Jim Richardson, Copyright © 1997-2019, page 148,
I explain the seven different editing symbols used to rate each joke in your act
in order to calculate your act's average laughs per minute (LPM).

Even seasoned comics have a hard time scoring themselves.
So, what follows on this web page is a preview of
Lesson Four, pages 138-201:
“Editing: Your Comedy or Serious Speech into an Act”
"This is where the money is."
http://stand-upcomedyworkshop.com/workshopDescriptions.html#Lesson4

I begin this web page's Lesson Four preview by explaining the biggest problem area:
failing to edit out
or punch up your jokes getting either
no response
or just titters
instead of solid laughs or better.

To determine when your act is ready to audition for paid work at local full-time comedy clubs,
refer to my The Producer's "Audition Requirements" letter
http://stand-upcomedyworkshop.com/audition/auditionLetter.html

EDITING SYMBOLS: Audio and/or video record your act every time you perform.
On your script, break the line after every punch word.
Then, mark your printed out script with a different color pen for each performance to systematically grade your work.

After 10 test performance at a comedy open mic, re-write your act to make it better by punching up or editing out titters, etc.
Eventually after 50-150 performances, middle America audience responses to each of your jokes will be pretty much consistent
unless you goof up the line or that night's audience is made up of an unique demographic.

↓= marked in your script by an arrow down. No audience response (doesn’t mean they aren’t laughing inside their heads).
Angelo Dundee and Archie Moore in evaluating “The Rumble in the Jungle” between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman, 1974, on NBC TV’s “The Greatest Fights Ever” 4/21/90: “When you miss, you lose more strength than when you hit a guy.”
Richardson’s translation for comics and speakers: when you don’t get a laugh or only get a titter where you intend to get a solid laugh, you lose the audience. It is then much harder to get them to laugh at the next joke. The worst case scenario is if you miss when trying to squelch hecklers.

(✔️) = Titter (:01-:02) seconds of combined laughter and applause marked in your script by a check mark inside parentheses. Titters are to be avoided as they always add to “set up line's time” for the next joke. Worst case scenario: 2 set up lines + punch line that only gets a titter has the overall effect of 3 set up lines. Now, if your next joke requires 2 set up lines, then this has the effect of 5 set up lines which creates a hole in your laugh pattern. Two titters in a row, each using two set up lines and a punch line = 6 set up lines added to the next joke which might have 2 set up lines of its own = 8 set up lines, and so on. Comics who kid themselves by counting titters as jokes clearly do not have a clue.

✔️ = solid laugh (:03-04) seconds of combined laughter and applause before you cut off the last second of total audience response to your joke.

Order full Workbook: Would you like to order your copy of my workbook now?
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Includes 210 pages with links to world-class online video examples,
plus my sample comedy contest with most categories taken from the workbook.
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http://stand-upcomedyworkshop.com/workshopDescriptions.html

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Questions?
•Get in touch:
415-877-4424
jim@Stand-UpComedyWorkshop.com

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Jim Richardson
Organized Comedy
PO Box 992
Mill Valley, California 94942-0992
USA

Page created: Sunday, February 10, 2019, 1 pm PST and last updated Sunday, March 17, 2019, 5:16 pm PST