Veteran comedian Tom Dreesen breaks down the mechanics of stand-up: jokes need a surprise and a victim. He learned timing from Mort Sahl and describes it like dropping a rock in a pond, waiting for the ripples to settle before the next line. Reading jokes is unprofessional, but bullet points work.
When you're writing a joke, there are two rules that you want to think about. Comedy, number one, comedy is 9/10 surprise. The audience laughs because they didn't think you were going to say that or do that. So the setup line has to hide the punchline.
That's a very good point.
I didn't realize. The other rule is there are no victimless jokes. Who's the victim in the joke? Many years ago, Mort Sahl, I met him. I was a new comedian. I'd been in the business 4 months. I snuck backstage at a club called Mr. Kelly's and I knocked on his dressing room door and I was nervous and I thought his manager was going to open and run me out. And Mort Sahl opened the door. He said, yeah. I said, Mort, Mr. Sahl, I'm a new comedian. I just wonder if you'd give me some advice. Come on in. He talked to me for 2 hours before his next show. And I never forgot that. That's why I've always helped other comedians. But he said to me something interesting. He said, do you write your own material, Tom? I said, yes. He said, remember, they're wrong. I said, who? He said, they. I said, who are you writing about? They're wrong. Government? They're wrong. Airlines? They're wrong. Your mother-in-law? She's wrong. You're wrong. Somebody's wrong in this joke.
And that's very interesting.
Well, you know, the difference between comedy and film and the stand-up comedian or the humorist. Now, Dennis Prager at a podium with a lectern in front of a podium can tell a funny story and get a nice laugh. But if Dennis Prager walks away from that podium and goes center stage and grabs a hand mic, you better be real funny.
I make audiences laugh, and I know what you're saying to be true if I were put in a comedy club. It would not be the same thing. In the middle of a serious speech, it's easier to make people laugh.
At Frank Sinatra's funeral, at a very serious moment, I spoke and I made the room erupt with laughter because they needed that laugh at that time. But it's just all of that again is— I can teach you a lot of things about stand-up comedy, and I do do that for young comedians. I give motivation speeches to comedians called The Joy of Stand-up Comedy and How to Get There. And so to motivate them, because most comedians are insecure, neurotic love starved wrecks, you know. But the one thing I can't teach you is timing. I can teach you a lot. It's hard to describe timing. If I could describe timing to you, I'd say, say there's a pond of water and you've got a rock and you throw that rock as high in the air as you can. And then the rock goes up as far as it can and then it slowly comes down and hits the pond. Now that's laughter. If laughter, when laughter is rising, you never move on your next line. You step on your own lap. You— sometimes I wait for the rock, it's a little ways down, and sometimes it's halfway down. Sometimes I wait before I move on the next line until it hits the pond, and some nights I let it ripple all the way across the pond. I can't tell you how I'm going to do that before I go on stage because I don't know how the audience is going to react to me. So my brain sets to their— I set a timing off of their laughter. And it— and again, I can teach you everything but timing. And if I did a 20-minute routine tonight at the Laugh Factory And I did that same exact routine in front of 20,000 people opening for Frank Sinatra, it would take on a totally different dynamic because of the size of the crowd and the logistics of the room. It's just—
Is there ever a danger, I always think about this when I watch a stand-up comedy, is there ever a danger you'll forget what the next joke is?
Yeah, but Maury Amsterdam taught me a trick years ago. He said, if you're out, and this happened, I did 61 appearances on The Tonight Show, so some nights you'd be out there.
How many?
61 appearances on The Tonight Show. Wow. Yeah, and so you'd be out there some nights, and Maury Hampson taught me a trick. And he told me that's, he helped John Kennedy get elected, and he told me he had a letter from President Kennedy saying just that. He said, if you're ever going up on your lines, you're on stage, he said, don't stop and try to force where was I, just keep talking and your brain will catch up. He said he taught John.
And that works?
It works. Sometimes if I was out there and I was going somewhere and I didn't, I lost my train of thought, I would just keep talking, but anyhow, this is a wonderful room and you know, they should have, By the way, marijuana, it'll come back to you. He said that John Kennedy, if you remember the debates between Nixon and Kennedy, when they'd ask John Kennedy a question and he didn't have it right, he'd say, "That's a very good question, Mr. Chairman, and let me say this about that." Just in those words, his brain caught up to the question, you know.
And that happens with you?
Occasionally, you know, occasionally. Sometimes—
Are you allowed to bring up little tiny notes? Just to remind yourself of stuff you want to say.
Very unprofessional. Some comedians do it when you're trying out new material, but not when you're in a major venue. I see. You can't do that. I mean, you can.
See, a speaker can. Nobody cares if a speaker speaks from notes.
That's right, yeah.
I never like when speakers give a written speech. I mean, you might as well just hand it out.
Yes.
But I tell young speakers, of course you should make notes.
Yes.
Because there are points— I've given thousands of speeches. I could give a 5-hour speech without notes, but I always bring a few notes. People don't know it. It's usually written on the back of a business card.
Sure.
But it's a huge help to me. But you can't do that. That's my point.
Well, I mean, you can put bullet points. I do a 90-minute show called An Evening of Laughter and Memories of Sinatra. Sometimes I call it The Man Who Made Sinatra Laugh. and in a teleprompter, it looks like a monitor, I'll have bullet points so I have continuity. I mean, I won't have the joke written out. First of all—
No, no, of course not. That's what I meant. Bullet points.
If you read a joke, it doesn't work.
No, correct.
If you're going to do a roast and you're going to read the joke, it's not going to be that funny. You've got to memorize the joke.
Right, right.
But bullet points will keep you in continuity. Every sentence has a beginning, a middle, and an ending. Every joke has a beginning, a middle, and an ending. And every 90-minute show has.
So you traveled for 14 years with Frank Sinatra, city to city.
45 to 50 cities.
Where you would be the warm-up act, as they call it. Now, did you hang around in every instance to hear him, or you were done and you could leave?
There was nothing— I could leave, but I would always— and I toured with Sammy Davis Jr. for 3 years too, and I did the same thing. I've sat in the wings and watched these great performers, the stage presence and how they approach certain things. It was, it was going to school. And I had done 40-something Tonight Shows when I met Frank Sinatra. I'd been around, but he was a master.
The book is Still Standing, Tom Dreesen, D-R-E-E-S-E-N.
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