Comedy Material Overlap

For a stand up comedy show, you want to have a comedian you work with compliment you or have a styler that matches yours. For example, if you are a clean comedian, you don't want a comedian who swears and discussed issues that are considered X-rated or filthy. But sometimes you match with a comedian you are working with too much.

When I pick someone to open for me, I like to have a completely different viewpoint to compliment me, I talk about being a straight single middle eastern man who was a former lawyer. When I work with people who are middle eastern and single, there is often an overlap and I have to change my set if I am the headliner. One time the comedian opening for me talking about being single in his 40s for most of his set, well, that's a big part of my comedy. I prefer to find married or women of the LGTBQ community to open for me, when possible.

Recently, I opened for a comedian who was running late to the show but he asked me to be clean, which is never an issue for me, because I already am (other than swearing a little when I can). Because he was late, he did not have a chance to watch my set. After my set, the first two premises he discussed were identical to mine. The jokes were completely different but he addressed the same two specific topics that I just spoke of without acknowledging that I just spoke about that.

Because the jokes were different and from different perspectives, it didn't matter that we had identical premises and topics. Like the audience in that moment, I was sitting there for a split second thinking this would be a repeated broken record. Thankfully it wasn't but it did remind me of why it's so important to watch the set before you (when you can). And while I always try to find comedians who are funnier than me and compliment me so the audience had a full show, it's also import that its not a complete match. Just a slight overlap in a Venn diagram is ideal. #comedy #standup #matching #formerlawyer