Do you have a great opener?

by Brian McKim & Traci Skene on November 14th, 2010

Do you have a great opener?

Not an opening act… but a great opening line.

It seems to loom large when you first start out.

“I need a great opening line. A joke that will establish what I am, what I am capable of… what is my essence!”

And, let’s face it– opening lines are important– especially early on. But, after a while, some of us lose sight of just how important an opening line might be.

The Halves of the Staff were discussing the very subject of opening lines over a recently-opened bottle of George Dickel Cascade Hollow Red Label.  We concluded that the Male Half hadn’t been using/depending upon an opener for some time now… or only intermittently, when the situation called for it (a short set, a TV set maybe), and that the Female Half had been using an opening line that was only usable for a longer club set.  So… she was at a loss as to what to how to forcefully open when doing a shorty.  Two different dilemmas, but both centering upon the all-important opening line.

Which got us to thinking about the importance of, and the utility, of the opening line.

As did the particular situation we find ourselves in lately.  We’re prepping for a gig where we’ll be called upon to do a 30-minute set that’s clean, a 30- minute set that’s R-rated and, possibly, another five-minute clean set… and no material may be repeated over the three sets.  (It’s a cruise.)

As such, our attention has been focused on maximizing the impact of our acts in each of those three scenarios… so our brains have been split.  We began to view the three situations as wholly contained, individual sets.  And that each of those sets should have a strong opening.  Which got us to thinking about the nature of the opening line and how we regard it.

After you’ve graduated from the open mikes,  you find yourself with a dense 20 minutes.  And, because you can hold our own for 20 or 30, that opening doesn’t seem so vitally important.  So, quite naturally, the attention you pay to the opening, the priority you place on that first 30 seconds or so, is diminished.

After a little while,  you’re headlining shows, you’re paying an inordinate amount of attention to the closing material.  And it is very likely you haven’t paid nearly as much attention to that opening as you should have.

But now, in this particular pickle, the Male Half has written two openings.  So far, so good.  The Female Half is pretty sure she’s come up with something that’s appropriate for the R-rated set.  But, she’s still up in the air as to how to open the clean show.

Having said all that, what exactly is your opener? Have you put any extraordinary thought into it? Have you changed it regularly? Have you found it advantageous to keep it just the way it is for a long time?

After all, it is a great comfort to have the opening taken care of. Think back to your open mike days. That moment– the second when the echo of your intro fades and the applause (should there be any) dies down and you are faced with the prospect of making something out of nothing– is the moment that you fixate on in the months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, seconds prior. And rightfully so.

And, years down the line, you may be forced to re-examine the importance of that moment… for a variety of reasons. And we are reminded of exactly why it’s important– to you and to them, out there, in the crowd.

Have you kept your opening the way it is for a long time, but with an eye toward changing it should the exact, right, beautiful, shining, pulsating replacement come along?   Have you given up finding that corker?  That devastating, in-your-face introduction that sets a tone and maybe carries you through the first five or ten minutes?

Or have you found a way around it?  Is it just not that important in the grand scheme of things?  We’re torn.

If you want a great illustration of  a gutsy opening, check out Jon Dore’s opening for his Conan set. It’s a meta-approach to the opening, but it’s wildly funny and satisfying.

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