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I used to think every joke needed to land and crush and if it didn't I would get so upset. Then someone told me how in baseball if a batter gets a hit 1 every 4 times, he is a Major Leaguer and if he gets a hit 2 out of every 5 times, he is an All Star. I say that to comedians now all the time. Why do we need to crush every 30 seconds with a laugh? Unless I am recording something big, I now force myself to do something new every show. Whether its a new joke, a new tag or a different way to deliver a joke or start a set. Its the only way we can grow as comedians. As for a joke that doesn't land, I usually go to a "classic" joke that will crush immediately after and get me back in good graces with the audience. When I know I am trying a new joke, I sandwich it in between two jokes that I know should work. Its whats called a sh*t sandwich. If I know I am trying a new joke, thats what I will do. I will try it after something I know will do well and follow it with another joke that I think will do well. If a joke doesn't land and it's a crowd that came for me, I usually will acknowledge it and make a self depracating joke about it not landing. Last night, I had a joke that I sometimes close my set with and it didn't land, so I just said "well, that was supposed to land the plane, guys!" and that got a laugh to get me off the stage. #standup #formerlawyer #jokes #careerchange 
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Playoffs are poison for comedy. I recently did a show in a city where their team was in game 5 of a NBA Playoff series at the same time and within blocks of my show. So many people who had tickets to my show, didn't even show up. Stand Up Comedy can't compete with sports. When I schedule shows in Chicago, I am mindful of sports schedules. This goes back to when I used to book music shows with my company Shoeshine Boy Productions. We booked shows at multiple venues in Wrigleyville, where the Cubs play, so we always wanted to avoid certain nights for live music. When booking my Parkinsons charity every year, I always make sure to check the Bears' schedule so I know I am not competing with the Bears. Chicago takes it football seriously, even when the Bears are not great. Numbers for shows are down overall for all comedy clubs, especially in the Midwest where people want to enjoy the weather. Add to it NHL and NBA playoffs and the uncertainty of the economy, its hard to sell tickets for most comedians and comedy clubs. I am hopeful that will change soon. #comedy #standup #formerlawyer #formermusician  Yes! I wish I wrote Gary Gulman's state abbreviation joke or John Mulaney's "Whats New Pussycat joke" (Go watch them now if you have not seen either). Before I started comedy, I loved Jim Gaffigan's food and religion jokes too and wish I could write like that. I love storytelling comedians and when I started, that was 75% of my set. Given people's attention spans both online and in person, I have tried to write shorter jokes with quicker punchlines so my set is about 50% story telling now, depending on how much time I am doing. Lot of peers have amazing jokes I wish I wrote as well. You should check out comedians like Jim Flannigan, Geoffrey Asmus, Kristen Toomey, Dan Docimo and Dwayne Kennedy, to name a few. Also thank you to all the new friends and connections I have made. Hope you can make it to my shows in Champaign, Indianapolis, Nashville, Naples and Boca Raton Florida in the coming weeks! If you have friends in these cities and like my comedy, please send them to my shows. My website has all the details. (link in comments) #standup #comedy #formerlawyer #bestcomedians #joke #writing  Well it happened. I went to a big city and, despite normal promotions and personal emails, social media and money behind marketing, I had to cancel a show for not selling enough advance tickets. This has happened a couple times in my life, but its been a while. It sucks. After I found out, I just stood in the hot hotel shower for what may have been 30 minutes, then laid on the hotel bed afterwards, thinking about what went wrong. I went for a walk and responded to the folks who actually bought tickets or maybe planned to go and heard about the cancellation. It took me a few days to feel normal again. It was possible that we would have had enough people to have an intimate show (20) and the venue gave me the option of still having the show but I decided to cancel a few hours before. For the last few shows I have been using LinkedIn promotions with mixed results. I used to rely heavily on Facebook and Instagram but the effectiveness of ads and promotions there has weaned in recent years. I also have hired PR folks who basically got me the same opportunities I could have obtained on my own from my contacts in media. I am working on building a draw but for now, I am gonna limit the cities I headline to the places I know will be sold well or have a built in draw so I am not performing. I hope people like you reading this and others who enjoy my comedy will spread the word about my comedy tour and even just sharing a clip does wonders for the algorithms on social media. In the meantime, if you plan to go to a show and can afford to buy tickets in advance for the artists you like, buy the ticket. Don't wait to get tickets at the door. Its usually cheaper and it helps alleviate so much stress for the artists. Unless the artist is selling out theaters. (Then never mind. LOL) If you want to learn when I will be in your town, please sign up for my mailing list in the comments below. #standup #ups #downs #formerlawyer #livecomedy #support  I think both are somewhat easy but the funnier jokes and stories always come from truth. When I took classes at Second City, we were told that "truth in comedy" is always the best route. And its true. About 90% of my jokes are based in reality and situations that happened to me. While experiencing whatever it is that is happening to me, I often know when or how I can make this into part of my act. There is always some exaggeration or changes of some facts to help create the comedy but all of it is grounded in reality. For example, I tell the story about my argument before the Supreme Court of Illinois when I was first hired as a lawyer on stage, but I changed certain details to get to the end, but the crux of the story is true. Sometimes I observe things and create my own backstories for what is happening, which, while still grounded in truth, is ultimately fiction. That is what observational humor is. For me, I think its always easier to be grounded in truth and go from there. Hope to see you in Boston this weekend at the Comedy Studio. If you have friends in Boston, send em there too please! #comedy #boston #truthincomedy #formerlawyer  |
AuthorPaul Farahvar is a comedian hailing from Chicago, Ill. Archives
May 2025
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