Learn stand-up comedy: the 20 word rule

Everyone who tries to learn stand-up already knows …

One of the biggest problems most new comedians face when trying to learn stand-up comedy is that they can’t seem to get to the punchline fast enough on their act.

In other words, the preparations for the jokes are too long. Too much time.

This is a real problem because to be recognized as a comedian of any mention, you must be able to order at least 4 laughs per minute for every minute that you are in front of an audience.

And the secret is NOT to speak faster. In fact, you absolutely don’t want to be in a rush when in front of a comedy audience.

Note that I said a minimum of 4 laughs per minute, headline comedians get 6 to 8 laughs per minute.

Now, get ready to learn stand-up comedy from a different perspective.

As long as you have a recording of your live comedy act (audio or video) and transcribe it into your word processor (word for word) …

You can apply the 20 word rule to get the results you want. The 20 word rule is not a hard and fast rule; is a very flexible editing guide that you can use now to help shorten your settings or identify where to add key points.

This is the simple process:

1. Use your transcribed comedy act and review your recording of that act. Leave a visible mark at each point where you laughed in your transcript.

2. Now go back and count the number of words that lead to each laugh. If there are more than 20 words, chances are good that you need to do some serious editing to shorten the settings or add a caption.

This concept applies to comedians who are employing old-school joke writing techniques, as well as those who use more powerful topic-driven stand-up strategies.

For those who really want to learn stand-up comedy, it should be noted that the comedians who top the household names only use 10-15 words (average) before reaching an auction.

Again, I want to mention that the key is NOT to speak faster on stage. It’s about easily structuring what you really want to say, the way you speak naturally so that you can get the most laughs per minute possible every minute you’re on stage.

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