When I tell people what I'm working on, I am often asked who my favorite comedians are and who I try to model myself after. Although one might expect the answer to be the same, the second group is actually a proper subset of the former. There are plenty of comedians I find funny that I could never be like. Mitch Hedberg comes to mind. His persona is a withdrawn, shy character, probably aided by his immense drug use and paranoia (am I making that up? I don't think so). He apparently did some shows with his eyes closed because of his stage fright. Another one is Demetri Martin, who gives a very unemotional, one-liner delivery. These comedians are both very funny, but their comedy is different then mine. Funny, but different.
After watching some of Comedy Central's stand up marathon this weekend, I think I've found the comedians whose style and delivery I am most similar to. Although I wish I could say I'm as funny as them, I am not, but I see the similarity in who I want to be comically and who they are.
The first is Nick Swardson. Let me present for discussion this joke, one of my favorite of his (the first part is fine, I'm referring to the milk part):
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| Nick Swardson - Strongest Boy in the World | ||||
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He's not really making a witty observation that no one has thought of (like this one from Demetri Martin: “The easiest time to add insult to injury is when you’re signing somebody’s cast.”) What Nick does is take a regular situation and just add a tiny bit of ridiculousness to make it funny. Of course he is stronger than his grandmother. That's not funny in and of itself (doesn't that phrase look ridiculous written out? Anyway...), but it has the potential for funny which Nick finds. I like that the situation he creates, while not true, is decently believable. I've listened to a fair number of comedians who try to make real situations funny but just lose the believability (My girlfriend told me to be more assertive. So I punched her in the face. Along those lines. Clearly not true. And not funny. But, I bet that would get a laugh in a lot of places.) Also important in this joke is the characters he creates. Real characters, but slightly exaggerated.
The second I would like to emulate is Brian Regan. He has a similar style, but it is certainly different. I present for discussion this joke (the first part about the books):
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| Brian Regan - Baby Books | ||||
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First, it's great how people are already laughing before the joke actually happens. Reading a book is not really a joke, strictly. But it's funny because of the slight amount of exaggeration he adds. His reading of the synopsis, also not a joke. Well, at least the first part, when you can certainly believe he is just recounting what is written. He is also echoing sentiments that I think everyone at one point has had. Who writes these books?! I know I've pondered that. He just has a more hilarious take on it that I do.
And what's great about both of these jokes, and these comedians in general? It's all clean material. No swearing, no illicit material. No stupid relationship humor, no ridiculous yelling or shouting (cough Dane Cook cough). It's just funny because it's applicable to everyone and everyone can laugh at it. There is not a hint of inappropriateness.
So, there you go. That's who I want to be like. And so I shall try...
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