Nerves of Steel: Stand-Up Comedy
Techniques to Boost Creativity and Blast Writer's Block
How many masterpieces are trapped in your mind? The interruption of
creativity affects both comedian and writer alike. In order to blast through
writer's block, comedians use the technique of "riffing," a jazz
term meaning to create in the moment in front of a live audience. Riffing is
a writing process; comedians do it in their minds and writers do it on the
page. The technique contains two elements -- the psychological and the
performance. This seminar will discuss cognitive behavioral techniques, how
to apply them to riffing and how to overcome writer's block.
Key Psychological Techniques
- No attaching: Jerry Seinfeld says that when an audience does not
laugh at one of his jokes it simply means that they do not like the joke. It
does not signify that they do not like him. Seinfeld does not attach a label to
himself for the failure of the joke, and, more importantly, he does not attach
a negative label to the audience for not laughing at the joke. In the same
manner, you as the writer should not attach a label to yourself for receiving
criticism from an editor or a reviewer.
- Opinions vs. Judgments: Opinions are individual truths and judgments
are universal truths. Take your reader's critiques not as judgments on
yourself, but as their opinions. Judging other writers (or people, for that
matter) will have severe consequences on your writing. In your mind, if it is
OK for you to judge, then it will be OK for others to judge you. This is
where writer's block develops.
Need for Approval: The need to have someone comment you on your
performance can become a crutch in order to operate at your best. Top level
comedians perform for the enjoyment of the audience -- not for their own
approval. The written work is the most important part of the writing process,
not the writer. Stop needing the validation of your editors and critics to
achieve excellence.
Intensity of Reaction: A comedian must perform at an emotional level
of 6-10 in order to generate a 6-10 reaction from the audience. You cannot
write at a 1-5 emotional level and expect the reader to have a 6-10 reaction.
When Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin, a poignant portrayal of
slavery, she said that the words came right out of her pen. She had a 6-10
emotional reaction to slavery, and the world had a 6-10 reaction to her novel.
Three-Dimensional Thinking: When a writer thinks two dimensionally,
an objection creates an immovable road block in their confidence. Here you
will learn to have preferences instead of rules. Preferences enable the writer
to have space to solve the problem, which is three-dimensional thinking. Rules
block the flow of creativity.
Performance Techniques
- Timing and Pausing (Writing for Dialogue): At the end of a
punchline, a comedian pauses to allow the audience to laugh. Timing permits
the audience to react to the performance and absorb the speaker's unique point
of view. Pausing signifies confidence in the character's words. Additionally,
during the riffing process, the pause provides the crucial opportunity to
create at will. Without timing or pausing, the creative process is severely
limited.
- Riffing: In a famous lecture for young writers, Sinclair Lewis took
the podium and declared, "So you want to be a writer? What are you doing
here? You should be at home writing," and walked off the stage. His
message -- just keep writing!
Comedians and writers described as unoriginal or "hack" have
one thing in common -- they both cannot riff. The ability to riff, create in
the spur of the moment, is one of the major factors separating amateurs from
top performers. In writing, riffing is the ability to just continue creating
text without the fear of being judged or labeled. To riff, you must believe
that you have talent to share anytime and anywhere. In the writing process,
there are two types of riffing -- forward riffing and backward riffing. Neil
Simon writes in a forward riff. As he embarks on a new play, if he does not
have a title, he does not have the hook to the play. One the title is in
place, the story and ending will follow in the natural course of his writing.
Mickey Spillane, the great mystery writer, first would write the ending of his story
then proceed to write into it, which is the backward riff. This
allowed Spillane to be creative in the process of telling the story since he
knew where he would wind up, whereas for Neil Simon the ending was as much of
a surprise to him as it would be to the audience.
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