Learn Stand-up Comedy: The 20 Word Rule

Everyone who tries to learn stand-up comedy already knows that…

One of the biggest problems most new comedians face when they are trying to learn stand-up comedy is that they can’t seem to get to the punchlines quick enough in their act.

In other words, the set-ups to the jokes are too long. Way, way too long.

This is a real problem because in order to be recognized as comedian of any mention, you must be able to command at least 4 laughs per minute for each minute you stand before an audience.

And the secret is NOT to talk faster. As a matter of fact, you absolutely don’t want to be in a hurry at all when standing in front of a comedy audience.

Please note that I said a minimum of 4 laughs per minute—headlining comedians get 6-8 laughs per minute.

Now, get ready to learn stand-up comedy from a different perspective.

Provided that you have a recording of your stand-up comedy act (audio or video) and have it transcribed on your word processor (word for word)…

You can apply the 20 word rule to get the results you want. The 20 word rule is not a hard and fast rule—it is a very flexible editing guideline that you can use now to help shorten your set-ups or identify where to add punchlines.

Here’s the simple process:

1. Use your transcribed comedy act and review your recording of that act. Make a visible mark at every point that you got laughs on your transcript.

2. Now go back and count the number of words that lead up to each laugh. If there are more than 20 words, the chances are great that you need to do some serious editing to shorten the set-up or add a punchline.

This concept applies to comedians who are employing old school joke writing techniques as well as those using the more powerful topic driven stand-up strategies.

For those who seriously want to learn stand-up comedy, it should be noted that household name headlining comedians only use 10-15 words (average) before they get to a punchline.

Again, I want to mention that the key is NOT talking faster on stage. It’s about easily structuring what you really want to say, the way you speak naturally so that you can get the maximum laughs per minute possible every minute you are on stage.