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Well, first to be funny. That's the most important thing. LOL. Also to be a good writer, actor and having a good work ethic helps. So many things that are important qualities in other jobs are important in comedy. One you don't hear a lot about is the ability to listen. I have said this before but being a good comedian requires listening. Listening to what the crowd is saying or not saying (with their laughter), listening to what is working (and not working) to shift and work with what the crowd is liking, or what you think is liking. Recently I did a show at a club I have worked at over a dozen times. It feels like home there now but the crowd that night was "being weird". When I talked to the other comedians, we all agreed they were a little slower but when I listened to my set that I recorded, I realized they were just slower and I was not giving them time to laugh. In this situation, the crowd was older. Much older. For later weekend crowds, crowds are slower, just because they are a little intoxicated. This was no different, except they were older and slower. I didn't listen. #standup #careerchange #formerlawyer 
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I still don't know. LOL. It honestly is something that is hard to figure out sometimes, while other times, it just clicks right away. I have had things I spend days and months and years working on to make "funny" when other times, I accidentally say something in the moment on stage as a "riff" with an audience member that ends up being funnier that anything I have ever "written". For me, the best way to figure it out is repetition, trial and error and talking to other comedians. Most recently, I had thought of something related to how people get upset when younger people don't know a band or an actor from before their time. I wondered how far that went back and started talking about it on stage last week and working it out on stage with an act out of a civil war veteran getting mad that his wife didn't know Stonewall Jackson. Now, a week and five attempts later, I have something that sometimes pops with a huge laugh and other times does not work as well but always seems to do okay. So I have to work out the wording, listen to it and tweak it to see what is the "funny". Trial and error. Other times, I know or think something is so so funny but it doesn't work on stage so I have to figure out why the premise that I think is funny is not working on stage. Trial and error and error and error. But I work all this out on stage during the week and try it out before the weekend, when it counts. This weekend you can see the final produce on this "Stonewall Jackson" joke at Sidesplitters in Tampa on Saturday or Sunday at Mccurdys Comedy Club in Sarasota. Get your tickets #laughs #standupcomedy #newjokes #formerlawyer  So many memorable from my first weekend headlining a club, getting passed at the Laugh Factory and Zanies to be a regular, opening for my favorite comedian or performing at the Vic Theater in Chicago. One memory that stands out however is when I was handing out after a show with one of my favorite comedians who sells out theaters nationwide. I was friends with his opener who invited me to the hotel patio to hang out on the patio with them. There was a group of 10 people just outside on a patio, drinking and smoking cigars. This was when restrictions for Covid and just opened up so people were just happy to be socializing again. There was a tense and awkward moment where a fight almost broke out because a drunk passerby thought my friend Alan* stole his bottle of alcohol, which he would not do because he doesn't drink. It was a ridiculous accusation on so many levels but the drunk was furious and wanted to start a fight. Cooler heads prevailed and when the tension left the patio, it was dead calm and silent for a few seconds as the drunk left the area, and then I yelled to everyone "Just give him back the bottle, Alan!" The patio went nuts. My friend Alan was bent over crying and laughing. So were strangers that were hanging around. But most importantly for me was that I made one of my idols die laughing as well; a comedian that sells out theaters, ranked of one of the greatest of all times and someone who made me die laughing for years. He was hunched over laughing and then said 'This kids got jokes." Easily one of the best moments of my life #standup #moments #throwback #comedy  |
AuthorPaul Farahvar is a comedian hailing from Chicago, Ill. Archives
May 2025
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