And if people have nice things to say, that’s great! If I post a joke that gets lots of LOL’s in the replies, I appreciate the hell out of that person taking that extra five seconds out of their scrolling to let me know… even though I‘m kinda skeptical about how much they actually laughed out loud.
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Learning to Look at Your Own Performance Objectively
One piece of advice for comedians, or any performer in general, is to try and record every one of your performances. You never know when or how that footage will come in handy. You might need to submit a recent clip to try and get booked somewhere, there might be a little gem in there that would make for a great promo clip, or you might need the timestamp to establish an alibi. You never know! It’s always better to be able to delete the footage if you don’t need it than to need the footage and not have it.
The toughest part about having to review said footage is getting used to seeing and hearing a recording of yourself. Your own self image never stands a chance against the cold, objective truth of raw video. Has my voice always been that grating? Has my posture always been that bad? I know the camera is supposed to add ten pounds, but holy hell…
The best way to get over your own self-consciousness about watching a recording of yourself is to, well, get the hell over it. No one ever conquered their fear of heights by staying on the ground. I know it’s gonna be hard, but every time you cringe while watching yourself doing comedy can be a teachable moment. The tricky part is learning how to categorize them into things you can control, things you can’t control, and things you could use to your advantage. Who knows, if your natural awkwardness is getting laughs, you may want to consider leaning into it.
Now, here’s more bad news: If you really want to get a greater perspective on what you’re doing wrong, you’re gonna have to go over that video footage at least three times. The first time, you should only play the audio. Listen closely and take notes on not just what you’re saying, but how you’re saying it. Now, step away for a bit and clear your mind. Then come back and play the video again, this time on mute. Now you’re gonna take notes on your body language. The third time, watch the clip with sound and picture to see how your words and body language work together.
Once you’re done, don’t sit there and dwell on what you observed. Go outside, touch some grass, pet a dog, have some ice cream, do whatever you need to do to get your mind off the whole thing for a bit. Then you can come back and apply what you’ve learned.
Another trick that can be useful is to hire someone else to transcribe the video of your performance, and have them transcribe everything. Every um, er, stammer, lip smack, everything. Seeing all of the little verbal tics in your jokes in written form like that can really put what you’re doing into another perspective.
Good luck, I don't ever want to see another carrot.
Dan Fritschie is a writer, comedian, and frequent over-thinker. He can be found on Twitter (https://twitter.com/FritschieComic), and he thanks you for your time.