Beginner's impression of standup comedy in NYT

by Brian McKim & Traci Skene on October 23rd, 2008

Harry Hurt III, writing for tne New York Times, takes the plunge and delivers a detailed account of his maiden voyage on the stage at NY’s legendary Comic Strip.

“A Columnist Walks Into a Bar …” is notable because it captures those terrifying, intoxicating moments just before the first time and the exhilarating aftermath.

Even so, I keep fixating on the perversely irresistible challenge of doing stand-up, which is neither as easy nor as unstructured as it often looks. It’s not only about timing, it’s about time itself. “Your goal is to get as many laughs as you can as fast as you can,” D. F. (Sweedler) tells me in our first training session. “It’s crucial not to overtalk. You don’t want to add any unnecessary details or extraneous incidents to your monologue because that just means that there will be more time between laughs.”

Sound advice from Hurt’s coach, veteran New Yorker, D.F. Sweedler. (We recall Sweedler from our early days doing standup in Philadelphia, as he was one of a dozen or so comedians who regularly made the trek southward from NYC to take advantage of various one-nighters and weekend dates in the Delaware Valley. As fledgeling comics, we learned from him and his cohort. Turns out Sweedler continues to educate young comics– he’s been conducting classes for the past 14 years and Hurt’s one of his most recent students.)

Read it all and, if you’re thinking about hitting that stage and making the funny in your hometown, print it out and read it just before your debut!

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