Modified On August 26, 2009
Steve Roye is a comedian and “The Professor of Funny for Money” (his description, not ours).
He is the developer of that most odious bit of pseudoscience called the PAR Score (PAR standing for Positive Audience Response). It was some sort of software that would calculate a comedian’s ratio of yapping to clapping and come up with a sturdy number that club owners could use to determine who comes back and who doesn’t.
We suspect that Roye also envisioned The Home Version– a means by which comics would evaluate their tapes and then wave their PAR Score in the face of recalcitrant club owners!
“Uh… this is Joel… the comic from Toledo… I sent my press kit to you two weeks ago, so you should have it… I just want to remind you that I have a PAR Score of 64. I think that’s good enough to headline your room… at least from what I’ve heard.”
(Our dramatization– Not to be construed as a representation of anything that any Steve Roye disciples have either actually done or have been urged to do.)
Roye also gave birth to The Killer Standup Comedy System and is “a globally recognized expert in the field of stand-up comedy material development and presentation strategies.”
Anyway, Roye recently dreamed up a reality series.
I have registered a new reality TV show concept focused on stand-up comedians with WGA (Writers Guild of America). And this concept actually has a significant measure of real credibility attached to it, as opposed to many of the reality TV offerings you may have seen on the boob tube.
While I can’t give all the specific details about the concept, I can tell you this…
Most every comedian who has been performing any amount of time has been involved in some sort of stand-up comedy competition. And the person who ultimately wins one of those comedy competitions is many times NOT the funniest comedian.
…Needless to say, I would recommend that this accessment(sic) be determined using my patent pending Comedy Evaluator Pro software.
But of course!
Someone ostensibly named “Chuck” has the temerity to actually question Roye’s reality TV concept. Roye has registered a concept with the WGA for a reality TV show that utilizes his software. The rigidity of the concept didn’t go over well with Chuck.
…I will not say your educational material is not great, as it very well may be. But let’s not try to upsell it to a point where it will be the new standard to judge comedians.
The only way to judge a comedian is to be there live and see how they perform and if they are funny or not to you the individual. Any other form of measurement is just false data and should be disregarded.
Poor Chuck (if he is indeed real). His comments are prefaced by this:
I knew it would only a matter of time before I would be visited by the representatives of ignorance.
So… ol’ Chuck is a “representative of ignorance.” Mr. Roye has certainly mastered The Seven Principles of Sales Success!
The full response to Chuck is worth a read for the exquisite combination of restraint and contempt! We suspect it would get a PAR of about 72… if the PAR software can pick up on eye-rolling, jaw-dropping and snickering!