People often ask me, “How do I make something funny?” Well, that’s a pretty vague question. It depends on what you mean by “something” and of course what you mean by “funny!” There are all kinds of way to make a sentence funny; you have the double-entendre formula, incongruity, the reverse, three-way build-up, etc., but sometimes the idea you are working on is not designed just to be a written joke, it needs more animation, it needs role-play, it needs what’s referred to in the comedy world as an “act-out.”
A lot of beginning comedians get confused as to what an act-out is. Simply stated an act out is where the performer puts the idea into action. It can just be as simple as mocking a phone call. Doing an impression, reenacting a conversation. You can pretend you’re another person or you can simply be yourself. Ever reenact a time when you said something stupid? So when you tell your friends that situation you add a little “idiocy” to your voice?” That’s an “act-out.” Ever try to do the “gay voice” or make fun of the way a teacher talks or try to do the John Madden voice? That’s an act-out.
Ultimately the act-out fits in the incongruity comedy formula because you are apply the value of one thing on another thing that usually doesn’t have those values. What do I mean by this? What if you did the voice of a golf announcer, (the whisper), but you were announcing football? That’s incongruity and it is also an act-out, because you are “acting out” the announcer.
An act-out is another word for “role play.” It is when a comedian states a situation, then plays the roles, (verbally or physically), of the characters introduced in the stated situation. The act-out can be one way the performer can take a mundane or unfunny situation and make it funny.
Let’s look at two situations and see how when they are acted out they become funny. The first situation will have what we will call a ‘half set-up’ and the second will have what we will call a ‘Full Set up’. You’ll see the difference.
Example 1: I was in the checkout line at the supermarket the other day and the customer service clerk said, “Did you find everything you were looking for?” I said, “No. You didn’t have any grapes.” She looked at me, then shrugged and said, “Huh...that sucks!”
On the surface this is not funny, but when done in an act out and played by the performer as each character, it gets a solid laugh every time. Because what the clerk says it totally unexpected. Formula works.
Example 2: My friend was telling me about his failed marriage to his first wife. He was like, “Yeah, I wasn’t very confident back then. I was in a bad place, I met her and we got along. So we got married.” I was like, “Well that’s a strong foundation.”
[ACT-OUT]:
PREACHER: Do you take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife?
GROOM: (Shrugging) Well, we get along...
Again, on the surface and in written form it’s not daringly funny. But, when acted out it gets a solid laugh simply because the response to the question “Do you take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife,” is clearly unexpected.
Try some of these yourself and you’ll find that the Act-out is king when it comes to comedy formula. Wanna see the king of the act-outs? Watch comedian Brian Regan on YouTube. He utilizes the act out for almost all his jokes.
Have fun and stay funny!
By: Jerry Corley
Founder of The Stand Up Comedy Clinic
