Editing without Feedback

Editing means to correct, condense, or otherwise modify a text for publication.

Editing comedy is simple, but not easy. Simple, because if it gets a laugh it stays in. And if it doesn’t, it doesn’t.

Simple, right? But not easy.

Because before you get your jokes in front of someone else you should try to make your material as good as you can by eliminating the unfunny jokes and make the potentially funny ones as as close to finished as possible. In order to do that by yourself here are some methods and guidelines.

Blackboxwriting

Have you ever had the pleasure to edit someone elses jokes?

Simply being able to go: Funny, not funny, don’t get it, funny, not funny, not funny, this has potential, reword that, funny, very funny, and lastly here are some additional jokes, tags and potential avenues for you to explore.

It’s easy right? Your ego isn’t involved, everything is new and surprising and your take on things is fresh.

How would you like to be able to do exactly that with your own writing?

Would be nice, wouldn’t it?

Introducing: BlackboxWriting - Be as merciless with yourself as you are with your friends!

BlackboxWriting is fancy name for something very simple but effective. After you have written some jokes you put them away in a drawer and you don’t look at them until you have more or less forgotten about them. For me that normally takes about a week. And after that week I go through the old/new jokes with nearly fresh eyes.

Also it’s not my material I’m editing: It’s “old me” - material I’m editing. “Old me” isn’t me. He’s an idiot. I am so much smarter now. A whole week wiser! But old me? He’s someone who occasionally has some good ideas I can steal and make even better and then go ahead and be brilliant in front of a crowd!

So if you have the time and patience: Work on a topic until you and the topic are seemingly exhausted and then put it away. Work on something else you can get excited about. Because when you are already excited about something new, it will hurt even less when only ten percent of your old jokes are any good. Because who cares? You are already working on a new bit that will make you rich and famous. These old jokes are just a bonus!

If you really wanna be smart about the whole thing:

Never edit fresh jokes if you can.

Think about your newly written jokes as seeds. Looking at seeds it’s impossible to tell which one will bear the most fruit.

But if you just let time do its magic you will see which ones will shoot up.

Now just tend to the ones who sprout, give them water and sunshine, trim them appropriately and this garden will become your material.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves: You have written jokes and you forgot about them. Now what?

Read them and highlight the highlights with a highlighter. Or put an X next to your favorites. Just mark them in some way. Then, assuming you wrote them by hand, transcribe your highlights with your favorite word processor like Word or Scrivener.

Why should you do that? Thank you for asking! Because every time you engage with your material it has a chance to get better. And by transcribing your jokes into digital form you will naturally start editing them. You will rewrite the setups, think of additional jokes, put them in a new order, etc.

So go old school and give writing by hand a chance!

Read your jokes out loud

To get a better sense of your jokes read them out loud. Some words are easy to read but too hard to pronounce when they are in succession. Reading your jokes out loud also helps tremendously to spot problems with the rhythm of a joke. Trust me, with time you will develop an ear for these kind of things. But in order for an ear to work you have to read it out loud.

The Three C’s of Comedy

The Three C’s of Comedy is something I came across while reading Stand-Up Comedian Harrison Greenbaums blog.Source

They are Compression, Clarity and Contrast.

Naturally we could already apply these principles while writing the joke but I found it easier to jot down a joke and then keep being in the flow and only later go back and fix it.

Compression

Compression simply means to make your joke as short as possible and as long as necessary. The shorter the joke, the more laughs you can get in a minute. The longer the joke, the more chances the audience gets to see the punchline coming.

Additionally: Every superfluous word has the potential to distract from the joke. And a distracted audience isn’t a laughing audience.

One of the best ways to edit your material is to give each joke its own line in your word processor document.

Or even better: Give each the setup and the punchline its own line. That way your jokes don’t blend into each other and you can give each phrase the attention it deserves. It will make it easier to see if you really need all the words and make it that much faster to trim the fat away.

Clarity

Ask yourself: What is this joke about? Like really about?Content of a Joke Eliminate everything else. Make your joke as clear as possible and hide the punchline as much as necessary.

Make sure you are understood because if there is a possibility to be misunderstood it will be misunderstood and thus not elicit any laughter.

Contrast

Make the contrast between the original assumption and how you fulfill or disappoint it as big as possible. The bigger the contrast, the bigger the surprise and the harder the punchline will hit.