Each day in the month of May, I’m sharing one stand up set I really like. Today’s is a 2018 Late Late Show appearance by Aparna Nancherla. Here’s a few reasons the comic in me appreciates this set:
• TURN OF PHRASE. A joke often gets its fuel by subverting expectations. Throughout the set, Aparna takes phrases we know and then twists them to get us to a separate landing: “cup of coffee” vs. “cup of terror,” “fear of missing out” vs. “fear of missing in,” “four horsemen of the apocalypse” vs. “four horsebros of the bropocalypse,” and “speed of light” vs. “speed of privilege.” And while arriving to a destination we didn’t think we were going to is horrifying on a plane, it is thrilling in a joke.
• COMPARISON. When a comic places two dissimilar items next to each other, there’s initially dissonance. But when she shows us where the similarities lie, there’s a release of tension and our brains delight. In this set, Aparna has a series of original comparisons in this set - bodies to bands and Michael Bay movies, seltzer water to people who read The Secret, walking to privilege - each of which gives us this enjoyment.
• THE SERIOUS SILLY. Taking something silly and placing it in a serious setting, or vice versa, gets us laughing because we don’t anticipate it. Babies are so silly. Protests are so serious. Babies at a protest? So funny. Aparna draws on this dichotomy to elicit a string of laughs in the first minute, and in the process, makes the clever point that a person fresh to the world would see injustices that we’ve normalized.
Hope you enjoyed it, full link in comments, and check out Aparna on Instagram and Twitter: @aparnapkin
Day 6: Stewart Lee
I’m sharing one stand up set I really like every day this month, and today’s comes from across the world. Here’s British comedian Stewart Lee at the Just For Laughs Comedy Festival in 2006, and my take on what makes it special:
• WORDSMITHERY. Fuzzy descriptions lead to fuzzy images in our brains, and it’s harder to laugh at what you can’t picture. But by using specific language, the picture can pop - and so can a joke. From his very opening, Stewart chooses his words carefully (“clandestine global evil”). We delight not just at his ideas, but also the conscious way he relays them into our brains.
• PAUSES. It’s notable that for someone with such dexterity with words, Stewart is able to also get big laughs from their absence. But silences can give an audience time to anticipate what comes next, and there’s glee in that anticipation. On his pope joke, for example, he punctuates one punchline with multiple pauses: “…it would not seem inappropriate (pause) to lick (pause) a sugar effigy of his face.” Each pause gets a laugh, as does the final line, turning a punchline that would otherwise just get one laugh into a three-pronged joke. His use of pauses here also foreshadows his later bit, where Stewart comments on how the audience laughed before the punchline, and that bit is the source of my final bullet point…
• BREAKING THE SCRIPTED WALL. On the one hand, we know a comedian’s material is scripted, but on the other hand, we still want it to feel like it’s being said for the first time. One way to heighten the sense that we’re hearing something new is by planting an error and then talking about it. Even though on some level we may know the commentary on the error is itself planned, it feels more present. Stewart crafts this into his set brilliantly, first by getting the audience to laugh early, and then by talking directly to them about it. We move away from jokes about a topic to jokes about a joke. We’re then given an original take on jokes themselves, and all of it feels fresh.
Hope you like it, and if you want more Stewart Lee, check out old episodes of his innovative show "Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle" on Amazon Prime.
Day 5: Moses Storm
I’m sharing stand up comedy sets that I like every day in May and breaking down what I think makes them solid. I’ve always been attracted to well constructed jokes, but what happens when you combine them with stellar acting? Well, you get one of the most watched stand up clips in the history of Conan. With over 2 million YouTube views, here’s Moses Storm’s 2017 debut appearance and some of the reasons I think it stands out:
• THEATRICALITY. Anyone watching Moses delve in and out of characters can tell he’s a great actor, but he plays to this strength by making some unique choices that lend the set a theatrical quality. Unlike most comics on the show, he doesn’t use a microphone so that he can freely gesture with both hands. He also makes use of multiple axes: pacing left and right, moving back and forth, and (most distinctly) turning himself 180 degrees and then whipping his head back into view. The result is an arresting performance.
• PERSONIFICATION. Sometimes a comic gets us laughing by taking an observation we’ve vaguely had in our periphery and bringing it dramatically to the fore. Giving voice to an inanimate object is a great way to bring us that new focus. Moses does this with an avocado. He also injects it with an abundance of personality so we can’t easily forget this newly personified fruit.
• REVERSALS. When Moses mentions the bucket of ice cream and the bananas, he constructs jokes that reveal the reverse of the way things are supposed to be. When you add to a bucket, it’s value is supposed to go up. When you get bananas, you’re supposed to pay. But Moses says the reverse is true. He flips what we expect, simultaneously highlighting how valueless the ice cream and bananas are and generating valuable laughter.
Hope you like it, and check out Moses on Instagram: @mosesstorm
Day 4: Ray Romano
As I’m doing each day this month, today I’m passing on a stand up set that I like. Starting off this weekend is a classic: From May 1995, this is Ray Romano’s first appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman. Fun fact: Letterman offered to produce a TV show with Ray right after he saw this set. (Hint: Everybody loved it.) Here’s what, as a comic, I like so much about it:
• THE HIDDEN PUNCHLINE. On two separate occasions — the cookie joke and the baby joke — Ray tells a joke where we’re given a great punchline and we think it’s over. But in each of these, the real punchline comes after. By making the crowd think the joke is finished with the first punchline, he gets their guard to go down and when he hits them with the second (and real) punchline, they erupt in laughter.
• THE VOICE. As a stand up comic, the only instrument you have on stage is your voice. So learning how to play it well really enhances the act. Ray has a unique voice already, but he leans into words (“LINGual”) so that he can boost its comedic impact. Apart from the material, the cadence itself gets us to laugh.
• FAMILY MATERIAL. This set turns 24 this year. But if Ray went up today, he could still deliver the same material and it wouldn’t feel outdated. Why? Because Ray’s able to mine a topic that will forever be relevant: family life. And instead of making blanket observations, he draws from his own experience so that he’s still able to discover new paths on otherwise treaded ground.
Hope you enjoyed, and you can also check out Ray’s comedy special on Netflix.