Three “Must-Have” Skills Every Comedian Needs
The "Holy Trinity" of Comedy? (Comedy Mindhacks #43)
I recently read Paula Munier’s concept about the “holy trinity” of good writing in her book Writing With Quiet Hands. There she draws particular attention to competence, confidence, and creativity. When I came across this, immediately, of course, I thought about stand-up comedy because the framework applies perfectly.
As those who follow my site know, I perform stand-up, study it relentlessly, podcast about it and joke writing, and teach everyone from high-schoolers to college students to working comedians. And I’ve watched more than my fair share of people bomb on stage (including myself). I’ve seen talented joke writers freeze. I’ve seen confident performers wilt because their material didn’t work. But why? Well, the pattern is quite often the same: in each instance, one or more of these three traits is missing.
As I said in my interview with Yahoo! Entertainment recently: Joke writing is scientific; it’s objective. Now, whether someone likes your joke, that’s subjective. But whether you’ve written an actual joke with proper structure, that’s measurable. A joke consists of a setup and a punch. Period. You lead the audience to assume one thing, then shatter those assumptions with something unexpected and funny. But it takes a lot of practice and know-how to get good at it; it takes competence.
Our brains are wired to think linearly, to follow stories in predictable ways. When you get an audience going one direction with you, then surprise them by revealing you were telling a different story all along, the likelihood they’ll laugh increases exponentially. Which brings me back to the point raised above: Many comedians who step up to a mic have funny premises or cute ideas but they lack competence with regard to joke writing and proper joke structure.
Last year, I performed in South Carolina during the election. But it was also the time when 43 monkeys escaped from a science lab. The media called them “fugitive monkeys.” So, I wrote about 8 jokes on that for my show that week and, in one of the jokes, I connected the monkeys to the election saying, “43 monkeys loose during election week?… The Democrats will let anyone vote.”
Just a few weeks ago, which was about a year later, I returned to South Carolina. The election was over, but college football season had started. I recalled the escaped monkey event and added a new joke: “It took the SC government 97 days to catch those monkeys! 97 days!!! The only thing slower than that is… a Georgia Bulldogs fan trying to do math.” The place erupted with an applause line. The monkey event had happened a year earlier but both jokes worked a year apart because the joke structure was solid and I had made close cultural observations. In short, competence was involved.
Then there’s confidence. People think confidence is a personality trait you either have or don’t. Wrong! With regard to comedy, real confidence comes from becoming a solid joke writer. When you know how to write jokes with proper structure (competence), by default you have a higher degree of confidence your material will work. You don’t have to fake it or overcompensate on stage.
And let me tell you, the audience recognizes a lack of confidence instantaneously. Whether it’s a shaky voice, excessive sweating, forgetting lines, stammering, repeating useless filler phrases, etc., they know. These tells broadcast to everyone, “I don’t believe in what I’m saying” before you even get to your first punchline. And if you don’t believe in it or yourself, why would they? Answer: they won’t!
Comedians with competence but no confidence freeze on stage. They panic. They go blank. They can write a joke but get too in their head when performing it. They might get hung up, for instance, on exact wording and, if something’s added or left out, they’re toast. So, the common advice “just be confident” or “own the stage” is actually pretty useless. You build confidence before you step on stage by mastering joke structure. The preparation happens at your desk, not in front of the microphone.
Then there’s creativity. In comedy creativity means, as I have alluded to already, being highly observant about culture and your surroundings. The best comedians are master observers. They understand what assumptions their specific audience is making in real time and ahead of time. They know how to adapt material based on context.
My monkey joke worked in South Carolina because I observed the cultural moment. First, the election was happening. Second, when I went back a year later and there was no election, I realized that the SC-Georgia football rivalry was alive and well because college football season had just started. I didn’t just have a funny premise about escaped monkeys. I had the observational skills to recognize which cultural tension would resonate with that specific audience.
It’s all about noticing things that are universally familiar but haven’t necessarily been consciously noted by your audience. You make the mundane interesting. You help people look at daily occurrences from a new angle. This skill develops through consistent practice. You have to stay observant or, like me, hyper-observant. When you do, there’s an endless amount of creativity to draw on. That well just never runs dry.
Many comedians think the path to success is a funny premise plus confidence. Add some connections, and you’re set. That approach is both short-sighted and short-lived. Why? Because without creativity, interest dries up (from you, from bookers, and from fans). Without confidence, people won’t want to listen to you. Without competence, nobody takes you seriously. You won’t be looked at as a professional.
The three skills create a killer feedback loop. When you know how to write good jokes, it’s easy to have confidence in them. You don’t have to fake it on stage. When the joke works and you get laughs, it keeps the creativity spark going. As long as you’re always observant, the cycle continues. Competence feeds confidence. Confidence frees you to be more creative. Creativity gives you more material to be competent about.
But…remove any one element, and the whole system breaks down. I’ve seen it happen over and over. The comedian who can write but panics on stage. The confident performer with weak material. The creative observer who never learned joke structure. They all bomb for different reasons, but the root cause is the same: they’re missing part of the trinity. Master all three, and you’re not just doing stand-up, you’re building a sustainable comedy career.