writing for stand-up comedians?

[words]

Has anyone here ever written material for someone who does stand-up? I have absolutely no interest in being onstage myself, but I have some ideas that I would like to try selling to someone. How would I go about doing this? Just choose comedians I like and send them some jokes?

--Lisa

[jaymzb0nd]

I don't think any big comedians would read unsolicited jokes similar to movie producers don't read unsolicited scripts. Unfortunately in this case you'd probably have to know the comedian.

[Maryn]

I've never done this myself, but I know a guy on another site who does stand-up where he lives, apparently with some success. He has said he'd have no problem using material someone else wrote, if he could afford it.

Flying blind, if this was something I wanted to do, I'd start hitting the comedy clubs where I live, becoming a regular, forming opinions on which people doing stand-up are on my wavelength in terms of what they find funny, plus which ones show promise of going beyond the local club scene.

It's easy to meet them after the show--even in New York, where I last saw stand-up in a club setting--and you could offer them some freebies on index cards then and there. On each card, a way to contact you if they're interested in more.

Worst case scenario, you never hear from them again but they use your material. No loss, since you were willing to give it away anyway.

Maryn, funny but probably not able to write actual jokes

[PaulyWally]

A lot of comedians believe that it takes a number of years to get a true sense of what stand-up audiences find funny. I was actually just talking to a comic that I knew a few years ago. He said after 5 years he's finally starting to find his footing.

That's not to say that an inexperienced person can't write funny stuff. The art is in getting a specific type of demographic to laugh at it. And not only laugh at it, but truly appreciate it.

If you can form a "partnership" with a stand-up, that would be a great place to start. Find someone whose style you think you can relate to and see if you can start writing a few things for them. A lot of stand-up comics workshop their material at open mics before using them on a paying audience. They try it, they edit it, they try it again, and edit some more. For some jokes, this process can go on for quite some time. But in your case, that's what you should probably expect as a beginning stand-up writer.