Shayne-Michael.COMedy

Are You Funny? - by Shayne Michael

Every beginning comedy book will give you a test to determine if you are funny. No quiz will ever tell you if you can or will be a comedian. Everyone has the capacity to be funny. Most of these tests, that determine if you’re funny, are vague and read like a poorly constructed horoscope that could apply to anyone. What you answer to each question will only tell you if you’re more likely to be a comic.

Most of the time these quizzes look for dysfunction in your family. When they find that dysfunction, or signs of psychological distress, the quiz usually declares you’re fit to be a comic. Then, after hearing what you want to hear in the first page of the first chapter, you throw down your money and buy that book.

All the quiz really tells you is do you fit the profile of the average comedian. Do you have enough problems to make jokes out of. The big problem with the question is, if you’re even considering comedy, you have enough problems to publicly display them for a general audience.

If you want to know if you’re funny, the answer is "yes”. To a degree everyone has a sense of humor. Ben Stiller can be hysterical in the right situation. But I guarantee nobody ever used the phrase, "That Ben Stiller is a real cut-up." Consequently, "Are you funny?” is the wrong question.

Don’t ask yourself "If you’re funny." The correct question is "Do I have a message to convey? And do I know how to convey that message with humor?"

Asking The Relevant Questions

Why don’t I like these tests? I don’t like tests that ask you, "Have you ever hated your boss?" First off, "Duh". Everyone I know hates his or her boss. Second I don’t know anyone who comes from a functional family.

That doesn’t mean everyone should be a comic.

If that were true the best breeding grounds for comics would be homeless shelters, recovery clinics, and abuse shelters. Most comics actually come from only mildly abusive parents and relationships. The truth is, if they came from the type of severe dysfunction that resulted in newspaper headlines, they’d be a headline after their father shot them for exposing family secrets.

Comedians live on the borderline and imagine they live on a further extreme; they allow their jokes to take them to the extreme.

If their dad hit them with a belt, in their jokes their dad hit them with a whip, and then used it on their mother. If in their life cousin Jeff jumped into a 62-degree pool, in their joke 62 degrees was the temperature of the air, and the pool was drained when cousin Jeff jumped off the diving board.

In each case, the comic was stretching reality.

Why Reality Is Rarely Interesting

In most cases a joke is reality + imagination. You can’t be successful as a comic without omitting the imagination part.

In most cases the reality just isn’t that interesting. The father who did use the whip would be in jail within a week. The cousin who jumped into the drained pool would be in the hospital vegetating with a serious head injury. The writer would be in therapy saying, "My family makes me so sad."

And all his sources of jokes would be either in prison or the morgue.

When that extra punch is based on reality and stretched through imagination, the source of jokes and humor has no bounds or limits.

The Limits Of Imagination

Imagination has no real limits. If it did, man would have never learned to fly. Moreover, Richard Pryor wouldn’t have stretched such painful topics into so many important premises for humor that had never been touched before his time.

Don’t ask yourself limiting questions. Don’t ask yourself any one question about your life or background. The correct question you need to ask is, “Can I stretch my background until it becomes funny?” I do several jokes about an abusive father. My father never hit me. He just had a "look" that convinced me that he was capable. And no amount of fun was worth risking the belt. Even though that belt only existed in my imagination.

You can still live the dullest life ever and still be an effective comedian. That doesn’t mean your set is dull. What it means is your ability to make other people laugh is mostly based on your ability to see what is funny in life and outside of your life, exaggerate it, and effectively communicate it to other people.

Remember even if your life is a complete replay of a classic comedy movie, you’re not qualified to get on stage and be paid to make people laugh until you understand why.

This does not mean you need to be abused to do abuse jokes. Contrary to popular believe, you do not need to be any race to get away with a racial joke. But you damn well better understand why the joke is funny and if you’re qualified to make the observation.

Should I Be A Comedian?

If you’re only reason for being a comic is some quiz you took at the front of a popular comedy book, no. Well, not really. You don’t have enough information to answer the question.

If you tend to whine and blow things out of proportion, maybe. If you can make the dullest circumstances interesting through exaggeration, probably. If you can tell jokes and understand where humor lies in subjects you have no connection to, definitely.

So Why Are There Bad Comics

Bad comics are tone deaf. Good comics are tone sensitive but reality deaf.

They know they’re funny but they’re deaf to a lack of opportunities for entertainers. Hence, they continue to pursue a life as a comic in a dying field. After all, they’re funny and the dry spell won’t last forever. Eventually things change, they always do.

Nobody can really talk somebody into or out of the entertainment field. My experience shows me, most future comics, believe so strongly they have an important message to convey they will convey it.

If they give up comedy, they will go into radio. They then attempt to make people laugh through the airwaves. Their message doesn’t disappear, only their means of delivering it changes. If they give up radio, they will try print. If they give up print, they’ll hold up a sign on LaCienga and Sunset that reads will tell jokes for food.

The common thread is they still have a message and the will convey it. Most comics never shut off. This is where you get the phrase, “he’s always on.” And then, they eventually move onto the Comedy Store open mic.

Summary Of This Pamphlet

There is no one common thread amongst all comics, other than the ability to recognize what is funny and convey it to other people. They usually convey that message even when their audience is an unwilling recipient of their point-of-view. It’s true there’s humor in suffering, but that doesn’t mean only those who suffer can write a joke. Jokes and humor tend to come when you can stretch that suffering to another level.

My dad didn’t just hit me, he hired a mobster to plan the hit.

Consequently, there is no multiple-choice test that will identify who can and can’t be a comic. These types of tests only identify those more likely to be good at comedy.

The key question is why does is this abused child more likely to have enough imagination to construct a joke out of their situation.

If you’re funny, you recognize humor in your surroundings. You understand why other people will agree and disagree with you. And you know how to convey why it’s funny to other people, and hopefully get a laugh while you’re doing it.

The best comics know how to create humor where it doesn’t exist. That’s why the best comics can make a cancer patient laugh at their own disease.

You’re funny if you know what makes something funny and your effective at communicating them with your audience. You’re not funny because the comedy poll said you were.