Struggling with what comedy club you want to join? Here’s my newbie guide to finding your funny bone.
1). First of all, if you’re like me and you don’t really know what you want to do with comedy, you just know you want to be involved in it, shop around for the different options that are available.
Do you REALLY want to do stand up? Or would you rather do comedy sketches with other people? Or maybe you want to write a comedy, like a skit or a satire.
You need to narrow down your options to fit your interest, unless you genuinely have no idea what you’d be good at, then you can experiment and try all of them!
There are pros and cons to this approach, however.
If you’ve acted and done comedy before, and somewhat know what you’re doing this can turn out pretty well.
It’s also good to get to know people in other types of organizations. For example a lot of the people in Full Ammo Improv at PSU also do stand up for 2nd Floor Stand up.
So maybe if you’re really comfortable doing improv, you’d be okay at stand up.
The cons can be pretty harsh though.
Some people just aren’t funny by themselves.
Yeah, maybe you have really great lines during a sketch, but that doesn’t mean you’re hilarious on your own.
Making mistakes and embarrassing yourself (especially in a comedic setting) is part of the learning process and figuring out where you belong. But if you really don’t feel comfortable with something don’t risk it.
It’s great to experiment, just be cautious.
2).Research, Socialize, Watch, and repeat!
Research: It’s always a good idea to know as much about an organization as possible.
My number one deal breaker when I was looking at the different options was commitment.
How often does the club meet? Say they meet twice a week, how long are the meetings, and do you have to go to both?
Do you need to go to both the meeting AND the rehearsal? Is there a social commitment (a.k.a. do to have to go to parties with them?)
If you feel like you won’t be able to go to all of the meetings or they’re too late at night, there’s no point in joining the club.
Socialize: If it’s an improv or stand up club, see if they have open workshops or open mic night before deciding on joining. If it’s a writing club, read past articles to figure out their writing style. Make sure you sign up for their e-mails, and ABSOLUTELY GO TO THEIR INFORMATION SESSION!
Some information sessions aren’t very important, and even if you don’t learn anything you didn’t know already, you’ll get a feel for how the members act around each other. Trust me on this, if you don’t like the way the members act around you (even though they don’t know you) the first time you meet them, you’re probably not going to have fun working with them in the future.
Watch: Go to their shows! Of course going to their meetings helps, but you need to see them in action.
Take notes and try to picture yourself on stage with them, or writing and editing their writing.
Would you feel comfortable having the president of the club edit your newspaper article? Do you think you’d be okay doing a one on one skit with the guy with the crazy hair? Could you do an entire 5 minutes of stand up comedy?
If you say “no” to any of these questions you might want to really think about whether or not you want to join the club.
Overall, which ever club makes you feel most at home is the one to join.
Some people are just better at writing about funny things, while others like to get up on stage and say it out loud.
Don’t feel like you’re not funny just because you can’t stand behind a mic by yourself, you just have a different way of expressing humor.
So get out there and make people laugh!