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Well done to the authors! This is a really compelling analysis, fun to "read". It's a great use of the medium, pretty much the picture my imagination painted w

Well done to the authors! This is a really compelling analysis, fun to "read". It's a great use of the medium, pretty much the picture my imagination painted when (one of the whens) "multimedia books" were a thing of the future. On stand-up comedy... I've heard more about the "making of" in recent years too, as comedians invaded podcasting. It's very interesting, how a joke or set evolves in the telling. I guess certain jokes and bits don't make the cut, but moreso, they are refined for timing, cadence and the stuff this article points out (kreshendo?). A curious paralel is (perhaps) speech-making. There is someone on stage, live audience. They do the same talk/set over and over, to different crowds. Each time, the punches are fuunnier. The misdirections get more subtle. The impacts are better. The crowd cohesion grows. Orration is ancient, and I suspect that stand up comedians have a lot in common with orators of the past, before mass media existed. If you listen to (for example) a recorded malcolm X speech (I think he was exceptionally talented), you are probably listening to the 100th delivery of the speech. It didn't just pop out of his mouth with that much impact on day 1.

bla2 8y ago
(it's "crescendo", an Italian word I believe)
- sacado2 8y ago
  Yes, italian, and used a lot in classical music.
- ggambetta 8y ago
  Yep, it literally means "growing". Very similar to the Spanish "creciendo".
abhishekjha 8y ago
For good 5 minutes I was wondering whether I should swipe or will it need dragging up/left. Tapping onto the pages did the trick on mobile.
sacado2 8y ago
I'm a storyteller, and yes the techniques are more or less the same. By telling the same story over and over again, you gain insight of when people are going to laugh, when they are going to keep quiet (you can even feel the tension sometimes), and the story gets better and better with time, and is more and more fixed in its delivery. You can work as hard as you want beforehand, your work on a story is not done until you told it dozen of times to a real, live audience. Still impressed by standup comedians, as they have a way smaller error margin than us.
- dalbasal 8y ago
  This is kind of a dumb question, what's the comedy club equivalent for oral storytelling? Does this get billed as one man show theatre?
  - essayist 8y ago
    The Moth, maybe? https://themoth.org/about-moth-events https://themoth.org/about-moth-events
  - v64 8y ago
    My experience with oral storytelling has been through festivals dedicated to it. This[1] is a list of storytelling festivals around the US and some other countries. [1] http://www.sostoryfest.com/festivals.html http://www.sostoryfest.com/festivals.html
  - xattt 8y ago
    A local group does oral storytelling, and it is promoted as such. https://kingsplayhouse.com/event/the-four-tellers-the-last-laugh/ https://kingsplayhouse.com/event/the-four-tellers-the-last-l...
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
  - sacado2 8y ago
    I'm in France, so my answer might not apply to where you live, but we typically have yearly festivals, monthly open mics in theaters, plus the occasional one-shot in theaters (where a famous storyteller is invited for his new/famous set of stories). We are considered as actors/comedian and are paid accordingly (or not at all, for open mics, obviously).
CtrlAltT5wpm 8y ago
I've noticed the similarity between speech writing/delivery and comedy as well, and find it quite fascinating. The really compelling bit for me is watching a skilled comedian get a feel for the crowd. It's easier to spot with a comic you've seen more than once, but you can see this with others as well once you know to look - you'll see them go into a routine, and for some reason the jokes just aren't hitting with the expected force (the crowd seems into it from my perspective, but what do I know?). They'll then almost seamlessly pivot into another completely different bit, and NOW it almost audibly clicks, and the audience just swells and starts laughing with their whole being. It's difficult to describe, considering that much of it is a feeling in the air. An off-the-top example...a comic is doing political material, and it's not being totally received, so they'll segue into sex material, and it pops with this crowd, so they'll continue from there. Considering that even within the same town, an 8:00 crowd and an 11:00 crowd may differ wildly in their tastes, to the point where the 8 crowd wants politics, and the 11 crowd wants sex. Geography plays a factor, too. It's an incredibly complex skill to master, and generally takes several years of road work to get down. Some of the hardcore touring comics are on the road for 250 - 300 days a year, which is insane to me. It's easier to get a feel for these moments if you watch a lot of amateur comedy (not open mic beginners, though, as that's another beast), where the comedians are working on material or honing their chops - they're not as skilled as the headliners, usually, in mastering the pivot, so you see them successfully feel out the crowd dynamic, but not necessarily execute completely, so the struggle is much more obvious. It's incredibly difficult work. Weeks of writing and 20 pages of notes might lead to 3 minutes of actual, usable material (likely less), if you're lucky. All respect to these professionals.
ProAm 8y ago
"When you do things right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all" - fake sky demon

bla2 8y ago

(it's "crescendo", an Italian word I believe)

sacado2 8y ago
Yes, italian, and used a lot in classical music.
ggambetta 8y ago
Yep, it literally means "growing". Very similar to the Spanish "creciendo".

abhishekjha 8y ago

For good 5 minutes I was wondering whether I should swipe or will it need dragging up/left. Tapping onto the pages did the trick on mobile.

sacado2 8y ago

I'm a storyteller, and yes the techniques are more or less the same. By telling the same story over and over again, you gain insight of when people are going to laugh, when they are going to keep quiet (you can even feel the tension sometimes), and the story gets better and better with time, and is more and more fixed in its delivery. You can work as hard as you want beforehand, your work on a story is not done until you told it dozen of times to a real, live audience. Still impressed by standup comedians, as they have a way smaller error margin than us.

dalbasal 8y ago
This is kind of a dumb question, what's the comedy club equivalent for oral storytelling? Does this get billed as one man show theatre?
- essayist 8y ago
  The Moth, maybe? https://themoth.org/about-moth-events https://themoth.org/about-moth-events
- v64 8y ago
  My experience with oral storytelling has been through festivals dedicated to it. This[1] is a list of storytelling festivals around the US and some other countries. [1] http://www.sostoryfest.com/festivals.html http://www.sostoryfest.com/festivals.html
- xattt 8y ago
  A local group does oral storytelling, and it is promoted as such. https://kingsplayhouse.com/event/the-four-tellers-the-last-laugh/ https://kingsplayhouse.com/event/the-four-tellers-the-last-l...
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- sacado2 8y ago
  I'm in France, so my answer might not apply to where you live, but we typically have yearly festivals, monthly open mics in theaters, plus the occasional one-shot in theaters (where a famous storyteller is invited for his new/famous set of stories). We are considered as actors/comedian and are paid accordingly (or not at all, for open mics, obviously).

CtrlAltT5wpm 8y ago

I've noticed the similarity between speech writing/delivery and comedy as well, and find it quite fascinating. The really compelling bit for me is watching a skilled comedian get a feel for the crowd. It's easier to spot with a comic you've seen more than once, but you can see this with others as well once you know to look - you'll see them go into a routine, and for some reason the jokes just aren't hitting with the expected force (the crowd seems into it from my perspective, but what do I know?). They'll then almost seamlessly pivot into another completely different bit, and NOW it almost audibly clicks, and the audience just swells and starts laughing with their whole being. It's difficult to describe, considering that much of it is a feeling in the air. An off-the-top example...a comic is doing political material, and it's not being totally received, so they'll segue into sex material, and it pops with this crowd, so they'll continue from there. Considering that even within the same town, an 8:00 crowd and an 11:00 crowd may differ wildly in their tastes, to the point where the 8 crowd wants politics, and the 11 crowd wants sex. Geography plays a factor, too. It's an incredibly complex skill to master, and generally takes several years of road work to get down. Some of the hardcore touring comics are on the road for 250 - 300 days a year, which is insane to me. It's easier to get a feel for these moments if you watch a lot of amateur comedy (not open mic beginners, though, as that's another beast), where the comedians are working on material or honing their chops - they're not as skilled as the headliners, usually, in mastering the pivot, so you see them successfully feel out the crowd dynamic, but not necessarily execute completely, so the struggle is much more obvious. It's incredibly difficult work. Weeks of writing and 20 pages of notes might lead to 3 minutes of actual, usable material (likely less), if you're lucky. All respect to these professionals.

ProAm 8y ago

"When you do things right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all" - fake sky demon