Comedy is something everybody needs in their life, especially during such a dark time, so I decided it’d be a good time to talk about how comedians do fucking solid things they do. But let’s be honest, I’m not exactly comedy gold, am I? But those who can’t do comedy interview comedy, so I decided to get in touch with comedian and musician Steven Morgan for some quality advice.
However confident you are, you can’t be a comedic genius without material, so I asked Steve how he came up with material himself.
“Life itself is a source of material, but the most important thing is finding a way to remember the good stuff,” Morgan said. “If I sat down with a piece of paper and was told to come up with something funny, then all I’d give you back would be an empty page.”
It’s been said by many content creators that the best way to fail to produce good content is to try to force content. Inspiration is important, and if you’re a regular viewer of comedy like me, you’ll have noticed that many of the best do tend to focus their jokes around their lives or experiences, which solidifieMorgan’s method.
Steve says that the best thing to do is to “be ready when that moment of inspiration hits you” by using a “notebook or taking notes on your phone.”
This is a pretty common, proven method of keeping your creativity flowing, so you should be doing that regardless of whether or not you’re trying for those mad comedy goals, really. Businesspeople and authors alike use the notebook method, and comedy has just as much need for creativity.
Obviously, just because you have a few ideas, it doesn’t mean they’ll necessarily work, otherwise I’d be a billionaire by now. When asked how he tests his material, Morgan replied “I like to take [the ideas] to an open mic and try it out in front of an audience.” Although the material doesn’t have to be perfect at this point, he says, “it’s important to get a feel to an audience response for the material.”
The good thing about this method is that you’d get a real, working example of how the jokes would play out in an audience, because obviously there is an audience at an open mic, but there’s also no real pressure. It isn’t your own gig. If it went badly, they probably wouldn’t remember. It’s a win-win! Fuck yes!
Steve then told me that this content would be used to “flesh out other parts of the material, cutting away the unnecessary parts and adding flourishes in any parts which are important for the joke, but are not interesting enough in their current form.” He even stated that sometimes “the tangents can end up being so good that the rest of the joke gets discarded.”
This all highlights that you never really know how you’ll end up using your ideas from that initial notebook advice, but that’s what makes it so important. The more you have, the more will make it through. Also, he told me that you can’t afford to get too attached to material, or you won’t be left with what’s legitimately the best performance.
Steve also advised that “the true test of whether or not it’s a memorable bit is whether or not you need to memorise it or if it’s just so good that you can recall it regardless.”
I know what you’re thinking. ‘That’s great, but what about the actual performance itself? What does it feel like to do stand-up, Callum, you fucking idiot?’ But Steve had that covered too, and agreed to talk about how his very first comedy performance felt.
It was “terrifying. I had stage experience in the past having been in bands, and always thought of myself as a confident performer, so the amount of nerves I had (and still have) when performing standup came as quite a surprise,” Steve told me. “It’s so different from music, in that you don’t have a setlist you’ve rehearsed.”
It’s easy to get fixated on a script in any situation, and the lack of structure is sometimes the most difficult thing for newcomers to standup comedy to process, especially if they’ve come from more structured media like acting or music.
“I had written a script so rigorous that it was more of a theatrical performance than a standup gig,” he confessed. “Someone could have burst through the entrance doors covered [in] wasps, throwing eggs at the audience and I’d have still carried on as if nothing was happening, clinging on to the source material like a comfort blanket.”
He said that although the material wasn’t bad, he felt it didn’t really fit his personality, and so he hasn’t used any material from that first gig again, further highlighting that sometimes you need to try the material for real to see whether it’ll work out.
Any regular Callum Fucks reader will know that interviewees all get to shout out an organisation they care about. Steve told me that he really cares about Café De Plak in Nijmegen where he currently runs a LEGENDARY comedy night called LYFAO. Not only are they a great venue in general, with great talent, but they’re also helping with COVID-19 relief by supplying foodbanks through their kitchen to help people in need! It’s a win-win! A place that’s fun AND fair.
He also says that The Trussel Trust (UK) and Voedselbank (Netherlands) are some great organisations to check out!
Wanna see more from Steven Morgan?! No worries! You can find him on :
• Instagram – https://instagram.com/ma0sm
• Facebook – https://facebook.com/stevenmorganhero
• Twitter – https://twitter.com/flavaadit
You can also find his comedy night LYFAO at :
https://facebook.com/LYFAOComedy
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