HOW TO BECOME A COMIC MAVEN

 One thing you all should have in mind is that the ability to make people laugh is a talent just like singing and dancing. And just like singing and dancing, being funny can be propagated and perfected. Some people are funny in story writing, some are funny in speech, others in action, and you can find someone who’s funny in all three (like me). One should know how to identify and use this ability to get what he/she wants because, just like a woman’s beauty is her weapon, an individual’s sense of humour is his/her bazooka.

The three stages of being a comic maven are:

1.       Knowing if you have the talent

2.     Identifying what form of Beingfunnititis you have

3.     Identifying what form of comedy you’re good at

4.     Perfecting that form of comedy

Ø ACKNOWLEDGING THE TALENT

Being funny is also like a disease, a non-communicable disease that is sometimes hereditary (let’s call it Beingfunnititis). If you have been infected with this disease:

·        You are able to make someone laugh without even trying

·        You are able to identify boring people quickly

·        People expect you to say something funny always

Once all these 3 symptoms are observed, you now know that you have the talent.

Ø IDENTIFYING WHAT FORM OF BEINGFUNNITITIS YOU HAVE

Now, this disease can be temporary or permanent. According to my experience with people, there are 4 forms of this disease:

1.       Permanent Beingfunnititis

2.     Temporary Beingfunnititis

3.     Pseudo Beingfunnititis and

4.     Off-and-On Beingfunnititis

1.       Permanent Beingfunnititis: Under this form, the ability to be funny is permanent and is modified on a static ground. The virus begins to infect further and makes the patient funnier.

2.     Temporary Beingfunnititis: As the name implies, the patient becomes funny for a period of time, and then becomes boring permanently; or, the patient is boring then becomes funny.

3.     Pseudo Beingfunnititis: A patient under this condition seems funny to some people but can be identified as boring by people with the same disease.

4.     Off-and-On Beingfunnititis: This is an occurrence of the temporary Beingfunnititis over and over again. The person may be funny this week, next week he may become boring, the week after he’s funny and so the circle continues.

Ø IDENTIFYING WHAT FORM OF COMEDY YOU’RE GOOD AT

This is a crucial part of the journey to perfection- what to perfect. Without knowing exactly what you’re good at, you’re taking yourself back to the first stage of the transition. There are multifarious forms of comedy involving various methods of giving out humour. Your job is just to identify which one gets you the most laughs and then move on to the final stage. Here are some of the common forms of comedy:

1.       Anecdote:

2.     Burlesque

3.     Stand-up

4.     Blue

5.     Morbid

6.     Ironic

7.     Epigrammatic

8.     Juvenile/Sophomore

9.     Hyperbolic

10.   Satirical

11.     Slapstick

12.  Dry

You could also try out some of the forms in order to get the one you’re best at. Once you’ve selected and eventually go on to perfect it, you’ll see that you’ll be able to pick up other forms and perfect them. You all know the chat acronym LMAO (Laughing My Ass Out, in case some of you dimwits have no idea what it means). Well, someone who’s perfected their form of comedy can be able to literally make someone laugh their ass out. It has happened, TRUE STORY. Now we move on to the next and final stage of the transition to becoming a comic maven.

Ø PERFECTING THAT FORM  OF COMEDY

This stage involves steps that would take a while to carry out. Known to me, there are three modes of reaching out to an audience:

·        By speech (stand-up comedians e.g. Jeff Ross, Jeff Dunham and Chris Rock). Comedy by speech is divided into visual (on stage, in front of an audience) and audio (recorded speech) comic acts.

·        By writing

·        By action (Performing Artists e.g. Arnold Artkinson)

A shy person (I thought this was just a myth, but believe me, I’ve seen shy comedy material people) could go for comedy by writing or comedy by speech (audio) if they’re too afraid to go on stage;

One thing to make sure of is to know that a lot of people think you’re funny, that way, you’ll be sure that you’ve gained the laughs of different types of personalities.

Talent shows are the best places to extend your coverage and popularity. Make sure you try your best to get into a lot of talent shows. The only thing that should be in your mind when doing this is getting more people to know you and not winning. The more people know you, the more popular you’ll get; and that’s exactly what we’re looking for. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to win!

I almost forgot this important part of the journey- MAKE SURE YOU WRITE DOWN EVERY JOKE YOU MAKE UP IMMEDIATELY YOU THINK OF THEM. It’s best you have a mobile phone with a memo/notepad. AND ALWAYS PASSWORD YOUR JOKES TO PREVENT JOKE THIEVES FROM GAINING ACCESS TO THEM. Yes you read it well, there are joke thieves existing in our world. They’ve been in existence since the 7^th century. Joke thieves are people infected with the other forms of Beingfunnititis except permanent Beingfunnititis (i.e. Temporary, Pseudo and Off-and-On Beingfunnititis). These people will stop at nothing to steal your jokes in an attempt to make their Beingfunnititis permanent or last longer.

Lastly, I want to give this last advice: Never feel bad when you get silence for a joke you just told. Instead, let it be an encouragement to you.

Thanks for reading my blog and still expect more from me.

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