I’d rather be funny than dead

When I tell people I did stand-up comedy last summer, they say about themselves, “I could never do that!”  That’s what I thought when I signed up for David LaBarca’s beginners class at the 92nd Street Y.

Research shows that people fear speaking before a crowd more than they fear death. I’d rather be funny than dead.

My intention was to learn enough to consider doing stand-up, not to actually do it.  So when David announced that the last class would be a five-minute routine at the Broadway Comedy Club, I told him, “I’m not doing that!”   

I’d changed my mind by the third class. Maybe it was the idea that if I could do stand-up, I could do anything.  So I wrote a routine based on “The Wizard of Oz,” which you can see by clicking on the Stand-Up Comedy tab on my website, www.valeriekaufman.com. Surprisingly, you will hear people laughing.

David says, “I’m shy,” but when you get him talking about comedy, he doesn’t stop. He says stand-up is an antidote to shyness because once you’ve signed up and the emcee introduces you as the next comedian, you have to get on stage.    

“Almost everyone in his life has been funny once in a while,” says David. “They just weren’t doing it consciously.” To make it conscious, David suggests this technique: “To write a joke, pick a topic, then identify a feeling or thought on the topic.  The first part of the writing process is a statement or question. The joke comes as you search for a reply or answer.”

The technique must work for him because the suggestions he puts on students’ homework are hilarious!  Here’s one of David’s jokes from his act: “My girlfriend said she wants to videotape us making love, so that way we won’t have to do it again.”

And here’s how I came up with a joke using David’s advice. My first idea for a topic was marriage and my statement was, “More than half of marriages in America fail.”  Then the thought popped into my head, “What if people got divorced first?  If it worked out, they could get married.”