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The Art of Stand-Up Comedy

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Anybody can be considered funny. I mean, even the class clown in your fifth-grade class was only ten. Telling jokes in a class among your peers isn’t the same as being able to tell jokes in a stadium of nearly 1,000 people. There’s a significant difference when considering why just telling jokes, isn’t the same as being a standup comedian. Choosing a career as a standup comedian is an art. And most standup comedians are offended and belittled by the idea of people considering their art as easy or something that anybody can do. Most professional standup comedians train, practice, and sometimes get denied for shows before becoming popular. It takes skill.

Understand this: when comedians go on stage, in most cases they have material they’ve written up and practiced for a show. In a lot of cases though, things in the audience, unpredictable things, can throw off that script, causing the comedian to have to improvise on stage. Sometimes, a standup comedian may experience that they must modify their original script to get a different reaction from their audience. A writer for example has the time and tools (e.g. writing prompts) available to perfect his/her art. For a standup comedian the game is unpredictable. Anything can happen on that stage. The standup comedian must be prepared. 

The biggest point though, is that just being on stage, telling jokes to a crowd, is an art. It is an act of courage where a comedian shares his/her raw talent and takes a chance on being entertaining to an audience. A comedian is a performer, with a duty to bring about uncontrollable laughter and a good time. 

Famous comedian Kevin Hart said “Standup comedy is me; it’s my entity; it’s my brand. I own it.”

He and most comedians realize that this is bigger than just telling jokes and creating a few laughs. It’s an art of acting and creating a moment. And a comedic moment can truly last a lifetime. So, many of the famous standup comedians we know like Tim Allen, Dave Chapelle, Richard Pryor, and Eddie Murphy all have their own branding of funny. That, and their jokes, are what we remember for generations. 

“Regardless of what I do, whether I write a book, or I act, or I host, I’ll always do standup comedy because those moments, that’s what I crave,” said famous comedian Howie Mandel. “If I do something funny and I hear a crowd laugh, in that moment we are sharing the exact same experience and the exact same feeling.” 

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Infamous Laughs in Hollywood

Who has a laugh to remember and in what sitcom or movie? There are just some actors and actresses who should be nominees for the best laugh. Here are a few to remember, with laughs to remember:

Fran Drescher: Hollywood’s nanny, Fran Drescher, is definitely known for her raspy and dramatic laughter. She’s got a voice that could be recognized in a crowd of thousands, and her laugh, in a crowd of millions. Her style is as loud as her voice, and her laugh will forever be memorable. 

Wait till the end to get a taste of Fran’s “UNIQUE” laugh!

Rosie O’Donnell: There is no coincidence that Rosie O’Donnell landed her own talk show in the height of her career. She’s funny, and her unique laugh is even funnier. She stages her jokes in a way that once she tells them, the audience is not only focused on the punchline, but on her relentless outburst of laughter and the sheer character in just that one hardy laugh that has made her America’s gentle sweetheart, with an edge of hilarity that can go unmeasured. 

Samuel L. Jackson: Once you get pass all the F bombs dropped by Samuel L.  Jackson, you’ll know that his laugh is just as edgy. He laughs mischievously, and unapologetic-ally, just like the characters he portrays in his Hollywood box office films. As Hollywood’s crazy man, his laugh sets a platform for that acting personality and to know him is to know his laugh. 

The unapologetic laugh of Samuel L. Jackson

Joe Pesci: The bad guy, the strong Italian accent with a mix of humor is how to describe actor’s Joe Pesci’s infamous laugh. Ever since he was a Goodfella, Pesci blessed Hollywood with his mischievous yet cunning laugh that could at any scene leave you laughing or in complete suspense. 

Lines are to be remembered for the sake of script. We watch movies on the big screen and very seldomly do we match that actor with an actual human being. A laugh is a trademarked piece of someone’s characters. Therefore, as we remember characters and how they make us feel during our favorite shows and movies, we don’t really think of them as the girl next door or the cashier at the grocery store. However, they are people with special traits, as simple as the personalities behind their laugh.

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The Healing Power of Laughter

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It is scientifically proven that laughter is good for the human body. A good laugh can release tension in the body and reduce stress. Sometimes, during times of depression the average person tends to have hesitation with laughter. Laughter is obviously associated with happiness and isn’t always easy to do when depressed. Laughter, though, can be the very answer to strengthening the body during depression and illness. 

However, clinical studies have proven that laughter has both short-term and long-term effects.  Laughter can stimulate your organs. After taking in oxygen-rich air, laughter can stimulate a person’s heart, lungs, and muscles. It can also increase the amount of endorphins that are released by the human brain. 

When stressed, laughter can stimulate circulation and help with relaxing the muscles. To laugh is to experience a relaxing moment that directly impacts the chemicals in the human body to alter moods. As hard as it is to laugh during stress, sometimes it’s the best thing to do to reduce tension. 

Psychology Today reported in an article back in 1996 that “Researchers at West Chester University in Pennsylvania found that students who used humor as a coping mechanism were more likely to be in a positive mood.”

We’ve known this for these many decades and we still forget to laugh?! Enjoy the lighter moments everyday and go ahead and have a laugh, it is on the house!

That same article also stated that “Stress-out folks with a strong sense of humor become less depressed and anxious than those whose sense of humor is less well developed, according to a study by psychologists Herbert Lefcourt, of the University of Waterloo, and Rob Martin, Ph.D. from the University of Western Ontario”.

When you think negatively, it creates physical chemical reactions that impact your body. This increase stresses.  However, positive thoughts release neuropeptides that help combat stress levels and even maybe more serious illnesses down the road.  Laughing helps relieve pain in the body by causing the human body to produce its own medicine…naturally. Imagine how laughing can instantly increase your own satisfaction and improve your mood? Many people who battle depression needs to realize that laughter can decrease depression and that improves everything that happens in your body.