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What Stand-Up Comedy Can Teach You About Storytelling
There are a ton of valuable lessons
Apr 15, 2025
When I'm not writing, I often try to relax and take my mind off work. Since movies and TV make up most of my life, my evenings are spent watching a lot of sports and stand-up comedy. Los Angeles is a great city for both.
But with all the LA teams playing so well and tickets getting expensive, I frequently find myself at the Improv or the store ready to laugh.
The more and more I watch stand-up, the more I think every writer should be turning out and doing the same. Not just because it's so relaxing to laugh, but also because it has a lot of lessons for writers. And as a workaholic, it's nice to get both at once.
Let's dive in.
Stand-Up Comedy is Basically Pitching for An Hour
One of the things I love about seeing stand-up is that it's basically just someone pitching to you live for an hour, or however long they have a set going.
Last year, I was in Minneapolis and saw Andy Woodhull there, which is one of my favorite comics. I was struck by how, when he gets into his set, it directly mirrors the pitches I give in Hollywood.
He starts by aiming stuff at the crowd that's local. He knows where they're from, so he connects with them on a personal level. It starts out about the state fair, and then he builds from there.
that sort of personal connection eases everyone in the room. Chances are, they're nervously excited for you, and you make them fall out of work mode or what's on their mind and take them on a journey.
If you watch the first ten minutes, you see Andy naturally transition into his set, like you have no idea you're suddenly in the middle of a comedy show.
It's such a smart way to pull an audience in and then deliver what they paid for.
Those are tactics you use when writing you're first ten pages as well. You want the audience to just come into the world because there's something in it they want to see.
But aside from the obvious idea of pitching the first few pages, there are lots of other things to take away.
Writing Lessons From Stand-Up Comedy
Stand-up is essentially storytelling stripped down to its core, designed for maximum immediate impact on a live audience.
And when you're working on screenplays or TV pilots, you should think the same way. How do I feed the audience what they desire?
Here are a few other lessons to take away.
- Mastering Plant and Payoff: This is the bedrock of most jokes (setup/punchline) but also fundamental to all storytelling. Stand-up teaches you how to:
- Create Expectation: Lay the groundwork, provide the necessary context, and lead the audience in a specific direction (the plant).
- Subvert or Fulfill Expectation: Deliver the twist, the surprise, the insight, or the punchline that resolves the tension created by the setup (the payoff). This applies to plot twists, character reveals, and themes in any story.
- Economy of Language: Comedians have limited time. Every word must count. They excel at:
- Conciseness: Getting straight to the point without unnecessary fluff.
- Precise Word Choice: Selecting words that evoke the strongest image or emotion efficiently. This is crucial for impactful writing and speaking.
- The Power of Observation and Relatability: Many great comedians find humor in everyday life, shared frustrations, or universal experiences. This translates to:
- Finding the Universal: Telling a personal story in a way that resonates with the audience's own experiences. Good storytellers make their specific narratives feel relatable.
- Noticing Details: Highlighting small, often overlooked details of human behavior or situations makes stories more vivid and engaging.
- Developing a Unique Voice: Every successful comedian has a distinct perspective, delivery style, and stage persona. This teaches storytellers the importance of:
- Authenticity: Finding and honing your unique way of seeing the world and expressing it.
- Consistency: Maintaining a consistent tone and perspective throughout the narrative.
- Timing, Pacing, and Rhythm: The delivery of a joke is as important as the content. Comedians understand:
- The Power of the Pause: Using silence to build tension or let a point sink in.
- Varying Pace: Speeding up for excitement or slowing down for emphasis.
- Rhythm: Structuring sentences and stories with a natural, engaging flow. This translates directly to sentence structure and paragraph flow in writing, or delivery cadence in speaking.
Summing It All Up
Like I said up top, comedy is one of my ways to relax, but it is also one of the great mediums for storytellers. We don't have to be funny in all our writing or our pitches, but there's something about the way we tell stories that has to land.
We're manufacturing our voices and our points of view and bringing others into those worlds to tell them the stories we value.
Let me know what you think in the comments.
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