Welcome to the first lesson of this course the actual lesson we're going to get into it. And what I want to say to begin is that this is about developing comedy. This is developing stand up comedy. This is about developing your stand up comedy. And what this is about specifically is developing your sense of humor and your confidence and sharing that sense of humor onstage. That's really what comedy is actually, someone's once said that there is no such thing as good comedy.

There's only good comedians, and really, there's no such thing as good comedians, there's only such a thing as good comedy taste, there's only in such a thing as a good sense of humor. So before this course even begins, you've got homework to do. And maybe you've already done it, you maybe you've already done a lot of it, you could have done it your whole life, you might say. So what I want you to do is develop a good sense of humor that's going to help you that's going to help train your brain is going to help give you that slight edge. It's going to help make you into a good comedian. And ultimately, if funnier person.

And that's the point of this course. So what I want you to do is to do your own research. Now you've done it your whole life. You've laughed at things before. Of course you have. It's part of the reason why sometimes people feel that comedy is difficult to do is that audiences think that they know more than the comedian does, because they know what's funny, ultimately, funny is what they laugh at.

Now, you can't argue someone into laughing at something they don't like. That's the difference between comedy and drama. You could see a dramatic movie and not like it, go out have a discussion about it afterwards and say, You know what, it wasn't my cup of tea exactly, but I can see why it was a good movie. And maybe I'll give it a second chance in the future. But the comedy Freddy got fingered, which is a terrible film. And maybe you disagree with me, but in my opinion, and the opinion of a lot of other people is a bad movie, no one is going to argue into laughing at just not the way that laughing works, not the way that a sense of humor works.

So your first bit of homework is to do a lot of research and to keep track of these things. So one of the first things I want you to do is go on to YouTube. It's free for everybody just look up stand up comedy. I'll have some links in this lesson and would encourage you to watch them. But what I want you to do is focus on just laughing and then recording what you're laughing at. So you could do this today, I would encourage you to do it every day, at least for the next week, maybe for the next month.

Now, at the end of this course, you're going to be doing a five minute stand up comedy bit or four minutes or three minutes or seven minutes, depending on what your local open mic allows you to do. But you're going to be doing a few minutes. And I would encourage you from this point until that point, to take note of the things you find funny, maybe they're handled will burst videos, maybe their cat videos, maybe it's just funny, goofy things on YouTube that you know, make you laugh. Maybe it's Baby Shark which is popular in the year that this video was made. And if you don't want to blow your brains out because it's bothering you so much. Don't go Google that Baby Shark video.

It's completely ridiculous. I have no children. And I don't want to because I don't want to play the Baby Shark video. Anyway. What I want you to do is go look up stand up comedy go up or look up old SNL sketches. If you have Netflix go to stand up comedy and start watching different specials.

I would encourage you to start with some of the classics and some of the greats. Go look up Chris Rock, bigger and blacker. Go look up Chris Rock, bring the pain. Go look up. Dave Chappelle the bird revelation. Look up.

Dave Chappelle killing them softly. Look up Patton. Oswald look up. Louie ck. I know, he's sort of tossed out and kind of persona non grata in 2019 when this video is being made, but Louie ck is live at the beacon is a classically good stand up comedy special. So, go watch those things.

Watch some classic comedy specials. Also, watch, watch Jerry Seinfeld back in the 90s. Watch Tim Allen in this first comedy special on HBO. Look at the roots of where comedy came from. Look at the things that you find funny and if you don't find them funny, that's fine to note down what you don't find funny and maybe try to figure out why you don't think find it funny. developing good taste is going to help you be funnier at parties, it's going to be helpful for you writing material for even revising material.

Now whether or not you end up continuing doing stand up comedy after this series of videos in this course, you do want to continue having a good sense of humor. And I would encourage you to keep track of these things. Just keep your ideas Now note down what you like and don't like. Now, one of the coolest things to do is have a good uninformed opinion of something socially. So if you're at a cocktail party, for example, and some some new Netflix comedy special comes up, maybe it's Amy Schumer's the leather special or something like that. It was rather controversial when it came out.

You can have some opinions on it. Yeah, it's not my cup of tea. I don't like it. I didn't laugh at it very much. But then again, I'm not its target audience. And then that was the same thing.

I didn't really care about it too much myself, but I could see why other people liked it. But I can talk about these things and I do know what I like, as soon as patent as well. It's gonna drop another special I'm probably gonna lose my mind. That guy is so funny. I can't wait to see it. Hannibal buress is next special also, he's been around here in Chicago working new material, it's going to be fantastic.

So develop your own sense of humor, do the research, read some books, read the very short introduction to comedy. That is a fantastic book, a very short introduction to humor, I should say. And I'll link that in this as well. So that's a book that you can get look at the Wikipedia article for humor for stand up comedy. Go do some research and figure out what you are naturally attracted to and why you're naturally attracted to it because what you're going to find is that when you sit down and start writing, your exact sense of humor is going to come up and it's going to reflect some of the influences that you've had some people tell me that I sound a little bit like Bill Burr on stage, I think it's because I'm angry and white, but potentially, it's because I also really like Bill Burr and I listened to him a lot.

People have told me that I sound a little bit like Louie ck sometimes it's probably probably because I really like Louie ck and I like some of them. things and how he describes them. Those types of things, those movements, those motions, it's almost like how you can hear the musical influences of one band in another band, those things are going to come out through you. So what I would encourage you to do is try to absorb as much as possible. The list I've already given is pretty good, but I'm sure you have some of your same that you like. If you've liked them in the past, go back and revisit them, open them up, take a look, write down even write down the jokes that you like, I would encourage you to do this a lot Hunter S. Thompson, who's a famous writer, hopefully you're aware of used to take AP Scott Fitzgerald books and copy down word for word, the passages he liked the most in order to kind of absorb the music of the words, I would encourage you to do the same thing Jerry Seinfeld, as we'll see in a clip I'm going to link later in this course, talks a lot about how writing comedy is a lot more like writing music than it is anything else.

So the influences you want to have. You want to be you want to be conscious of and you want to know what your taste is. Because it's going to come out later and developing that good taste is the first step in really developing good comedy. So this is where it's fun. This is where it becomes really fun to go check out all the things you've always loved and liked to laugh at, you know, all the way from old Disney movies to the most recently dropped youtube comedy clips from some of the edgiest comedians out there. So I would encourage you to do that.

And good luck on this course because all of this is going to come out later when you get into the meat of writing.