Barry Kirkey Comedy Lesson #4: Delivery

Hey man -

So, Barry’s back after a week off (in fact, I took a week off…not Barry). This week’s installment to the how to get a girlfriend blog is all about DELIVERY…and I can attest that this sticking point is huge for guys.

Barry, take it away!

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You might know the funniest jokes in your own head, but if you time it poorly, or if you say it with the wrong emotion or inflection, it will get no laughs. We usually refer to people who get no laughs as hose-bags. Want to avoid being a hose-bag? Here’s how:

Use proper timing. Know when to pause and give your audience time to absorb the joke (and when I say audience, I don’t mean you’re standing on a stage in front of 200 people, it could be just one person, or even [lame gasp] a date!). Just because you already know why something is funny, it doesn’t mean they will. Stop at the right times, let people think about your words. This is important! Don’t rush through your story and/or joke!

What do I mean by that? You want an example? Ugh, lazy readers – ok fine. Maybe you have a funny story about a one-night stand with a 45 year old woman with a yeast infection, and she asks you to go down on her – consider that.

Now you might tell this in many different ways, it can be a horror story, it can be a story that makes you look like a loser – or it can be one of the funniest sexual experience stories someone has ever heard, and cause a torrent of laughter!

When you’re describing what it was like, throw in the minor details (i.e., the picture of her teenage kids on the night stand) just to make it real, but slow way down when you get to the more important parts of the story. Stop after each sentence, wait for a visual or audio reaction, and then continue.

Got it? OK, let’s build on this. Instead of stopping and leaving empty air, try prompting your audience with little “pushes.” By this, I mean, ask them if they know what you’re referring to by saying:

“And it smelled like rancid vomit – have you ever smelled anything so bad that you couldn’t even breathe through your mouth?”

[Pause and wait for a response from your audience]

“That’s what it was like. Try to imagine that but you couldn’t figure out how to get away from it, no matter what you try to do.”

Doing this will actually create a legitimate interaction and make them feel like you care about the time they’re spending in listening to your jibber jabber.

Now this isn’t really a “joke” in a classic sense. It’s a story, and as the saying goes: “we all have stories.” If you don’t have any stories, why are you hose-bags sitting at home reading this on the internet? Get the hell outside and do something worth talking about!

The truth is, we do all have stories, and you can turn those into something funny instead of having to come up with real jokes – who the hell wants to do that? Even if it’s an embarrassing story – talk about how embarrassing it was, talk about it as if it were an exciting event. This will actually show your audience that you’re confident. And when you combine confidence and genuine humor you get real laughs.

I have a good friend named Steve Nash, some of you might have heard of him. Steve is actually someone who can talk easily about life situations (embarrassing or not!) in a funny way! You can learn a lot for him if he ever decides to let you grace him with your presence – but that depends on how much of a hose-bag you are.

Let’s summarize. Embarrassing stories are gold mines. Showing people these stories don’t bother you will work to your advantage, and allow you to exploit the humor in them.

Are we clear? Probably not, depending on the volume of hose-bags who don’t get what I’m saying. But don’t worry hose-bags, next week my co-writer and I (Stefan Anton) are going to write about using your voice and your facial expressions as joke tools… Or maybe I won’t. Or will I?

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Thanks Barry…as always. Again, Barry’s site is:

www.revolution31.com/blog/

You should definitely check it out!

Should have the next installment on Monday, and will give it a bit more time here as the feature on the blog. So, stay tuned!

Sn.