Tips for Performing Improvised Stand-Up Comedy

Someone called Michele wrote a wonderful guide to performing Set List-style comedy. I wish all of our performers could see this article. It’s brimming with advice that sounds obvious, but I can tell you must be counter-intuitive to finding yourself in the strange position of trying to make a room full of people laugh with no material. She covers taking your time, trusting that the show runner wants you to do well, not giving up or attacking the premise of the show you asked to be on, and also gets into some deeper strategies of exploring topics from A-to-C or having a premise to give your improvised set a framework.

I’m pretty sure that there’s another, much more popular article out there somewhere that tells people to just link every topic to a boring story about a vacation you went on as a child. I strongly recommend that you read this one instead.

Thank you, Michele!

Set List at the Pack is a completely improvised stand-up show that happens every Thursday night at 10:30, at the Pack Theater in Los Angeles, CA.