WHAT STAND UP TAUGHT ME ABOUT ADVERTISING

For the last 6 months, I've been obsessed with stand up. Like, "can you please shut up about it," obsessed. I took a class in January, did a show, got some laughs, and have been trying to not suck at it ever since. 

To get better, I've been hitting 6-9 open mics a week and more often than not, I bomb (the audience doesn't laugh). But despite the brutal nature of sucking in front of an audience, I love it.

I knew there would be some crossover between advertising and stand up, but I was surprised to see how much. Here are some of things I've learned so far: 

1) THERE IS A SCIENCE TO WHAT MAKES THINGS FUNNY

Ads that work often follow a structure similar to a well-crafted joke. There's a premise (an insight that establishes what you want to talk about), setup (creates audience expectation), punchline (unexpected turn), and tags (additional punchlines based on the premise). 

Take the Terry Tate Office Linebacker ad from Reebok. If it's not in your Top 10, you either haven't seen it yet, or you've been tackled in an office and find the ad triggering.

The premise is, "What if we used a linebacker to keep people in line at the office." The setup is when the guy walks out of the breakroom and says, "Hey, buddy." The punchline is the unexpected moment where a linebacker wrecks him. The tags are all the tackles and dialogue after that.

Like a perfect joke, the ad nails a concise premise, setting up a hilarious sequence of events that captivates the audience within just 8 seconds.

2) YOU NEVER KNOW UNTIL AN AUDIENCE SEES IT

Whoever your favorite comedian is, they spend at least a year (and often a lot longer) refining their material in front of live audiences, almost every night, over and over, to fill an hour-long special.

Putting advertising out in the world without testing it is kinda nuts. I don't mean a focus group or animatic, necessarily. I mean, putting it in front of the people you know who are the target consumer and seeing what they think. 

If it's a campaign for Moms, we show it to our moms. If it's lawyers, I show it to my sister-in-law. Whatever it is, you know people and you'll get an honest reaction from them.

Also, pulling the trigger on a script without storyboarding it out, timing it, and writing alt lines to play with in the edit, is even nutser.

3) THE BEST JOKES ARE INSIGHTFUL

This point has already been made a bunch so I'll keep it brief. The best jokes possess a unique perspective that triggers an "AHA" moment, resonating with the audience because it rings true in an unexpected way. Basically, be original and have a point of view.

4) WRITE LIKE YOU TALK

The biggest problem we run into is that we overwrite things. That's death in stand up. If it feels rehearsed, automatic bomb. If it doesn't sound like how you'd say it while joking around with friends at a bar, then it won't hit with an audience.

We crave authenticity in advertising, yet we never seem to get it. Writing like you talk, particularly in manifestos, websites, and long copy, is a great way to get there. Sound like a person, not a business.

5) GET IT DOWN. TRIM THE FAT.

A process many people use in stand up is to rant on something and then cut away all the pieces you don't need. If you have trouble with manifestos (like me), use google voice to text it, then trim and trim and trim. Cut, add, tweak. Boom.

6) WE HAVE IT EASIER THAN STANDUPS, BUT WE'RE STILL SIGNIFICANTLY WORSE

All a stand up comedian has is himself, a microphone, and an hour to fill. We have video, design, copy, activations, and every other communication medium available, as well as massive teams, and only a minute to fill. So upping our game is absolutely doable.

Moral of the story is, if you want to be funny in advertising, think like a stand up comedian.

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