One day you say something funny, someone laughs, looks you in the eye and says, “You should do stand-up comedy. “ And for a moment, you agree: you picture yourself standing on stage, microphone in hand, stringing together hilarious jokes while people laugh out loud and beg you to give them a break to catch their breath.
Well, what if you did? But for real. How do you write a great joke? How do you make a room full of people laugh? What if no one laughs?! I signed up for the basic stand-up course at the School of Comedy Arts to find out. Comedy isn’t as easy as it looks, but writing and performing a monologue is a lot of fun.
A comedy monologue written and performed by you
Jaime Barlomé, teacher and comedian, teaching how to do a monologue. Photo: Karlos Tarajano
“It’s more like going through an audit than getting laid.” That’s what Jaime Bartolomé, teacher and comedian, told us, the stand-up comedy students, on the first day of class. Look, everyone there had been told that we were hilarious, that we had to share our humor with the world, but none of us had any idea where to start (and if we thought we did: ha!). What Jaime wanted to tell us was that comedy needs more time than wit, something I realized as soon as I started (trying) to write.
Together with Jaime and Edu Ruiz (the other teacher, also a comedian and just as wise and crazy as him), we set ourselves the challenge of preparing a 10-minute comedy monologue with our own material and performing it in front of a real audience. We had ten weeks ahead of us and lots of jokes to write.
First mission: find the topic for your monologue. We had to choose something universal but unique (easy, right?). The teachers and classmates helped us choose it, refine it, and “get the most out of it.” We discarded many preconceived ideas (if you already have a clear topic before starting the course, here’s your second ha!) and, after a couple of classes, each of us found a personal topic that was interesting to others and had the potential to make people laugh.
How to make people laugh: learning to write (good) jokes
Edu Ruiz, teacher and comedian, shocked by a joke (we don’t know if it’s good or bad). Photo: Karlos Tarajano
The first thing that surprised me was that we started writing right away. Jaime and Edu gave us tools to stimulate creativity (for example, they taught us how to brainstorm, that is, to say everything you think without judging yourself, like when you send a long audio message to your friend) and explore our topics, while explaining the science of laughter. Because, yes, in this course I learned that comedy is based on formulas, rules, and methods that you have to be taught if you want to make people laugh (for the right reasons) when you get on stage.
There was a lot of theory, but also a lot of practice: in class, the teachers encouraged us to try things out, to attempt jokes, to let everything that came to mind flow without filtering it. And boy, did it work: this led to both collective delirium and unexpectedly good jokes that emerged and ended up becoming part of a monologue. Although the writing was individual, part of the creation of the monologue was collective.
At home, we put into practice the “joke extraction methods” we saw in class, applying them to our topic. I discovered that the more I wrote, the more material I found and the more fun I had.
Testing text: performances with microphone and spotlight in class
Students in stand-up comedy class. Photo: Karlos Tarajano
On the fourth day of the course , we already had a microphone, a spotlight, and an audience. So suddenly we started “text testing”in front of our classmates, who acted as spectators: they were the first to hear our material… and react to it. Sometimes there was giggling, and other times there was silence, which ironically also made us laugh, even those who had tried out the joke. Suddenly, they would burst out laughing and you would feel like a professional (beware: they are addictive; this is the kind of validation that hooks you on comedy).
The text tests were quite intimidating, but they were very useful. In a safe space, surrounded by students who were just as scared as I was, I gradually overcame my stage fright and found my own style on stage. We had room not only to rehearse the text, but also to try out different acting styles, characters, voices, and even improvisation. Edu and Jaime corrected us and made suggestions, and we students gained experience, preparing for our debut.
Your first monologue in front of a real audience
Student rehearsing text. Photo: Karlos Tarajano
The days leading up to the performance were frantic: nerves, writing, rewriting, polishing jokes, last-minute ideas, memorization, practice, practice, and more practice… And then the day arrived. The teachers acted as masters of ceremonies and introduced us one by one. My turn came. After ten weeks of classes, I performed my first comedy monologue, with jokes I had written myself, in front of an audience of forty people. And there were laughs ( where there should have been), and even roars of laughter!
That first foray into stand-up comedy filled me with adrenaline, relief, pride, and satisfaction. The course ended a week later, with a farewell session where we shared our impressions, the teachers gave us feedback, we congratulated each other, and we laughed as we recalled the best moments of the night.
Of course, the course ends with guidelines and recommendations for continuing to write and perform after the course. Because you end up wanting more, and with your script always ready to respond to the next person you make laugh and who says to you, “you should do stand-up comedy.”
For more information about the basic stand-up comedy course, visit the Escuela de las Artes de la Comedia website.