Philosoraptor

Best things: practice your ad-libs so when you need them, you have them at the tip of your tongue.

Know and understand your subject. If you don't, it becomes a feeding frenzy for hecklers.

Don't quit hour day job until you can make as much performing as you do at that job.

Get an agent that can get you other gigs as well. One Indianapolis comic was the official voice of Kroger's for years. That alone paid off his house.

If top billed, avoid the comedy condo. Demand hotel/motel room. No roomies of others on the bill, and no house cleaning.

Look for open mike nights. Use a real camera plugged into the sound system, not a cell phone. The better the quality, the better the views on YouTube.

Take a course in public speaking. It will help her understand the mechanics of speaking for an audience.

Rehearse her routine. Several times! If you get on stage and ramble, people know it. Same with YouTube.

Keep jokes short. Set up, then punchline. That doesn't mean long stories can't be done, but people won't hang around for five or ten minutes to hear one punchline.

Use visual comedy as well. Unless you're doing radio physical emphasis adds to a gag.

Hope that helps.

A message from my niece!

Pass on to her, "You're welcome."

There's other rules of thumb, but each comic has to learn what works best for him or her.

how's this for a stand-up comedy joke- I was in a cinema, and there was this group of girls, talking really loudly. I told them "sorry, I can't hear", and one girl said " I should hope so, it's a private conversation!"

In public, a good stand alone joke, on stage? I'd change, sorry to and irritated excuse me, but. In the punchline have the girl add to her friend "the nerve of that {Insulting name} !" Make sure you pause before the addition. It allows an initial laugh after the punchline and the end zinger builds from that.

On stage, individual jokes don't Always work as well. What I learned to do is tie together a bunch of related jokes in a short story. This joke works well as in intro story for a lecture on manners or on the middle to end part of a story about going to the movies. Its best to take an actual experience that actually happened and build on it. Make it a personal experience.

The reason you do this is because you're taking the audiance on a journey from the beginning of your set to the end.

Most comics started out as class clowns. They let the teacher be their straight man. Teach will be describing the D-Day landing at Normandy. The clown comments, "So it was like going to the beach in New Jersey, but with less gunfire." Ba dum bump. Tissshhhh.

Notice when we go our one upmanship memes in the comments, each meme builds on the previous one. You snicker at the first, giggle at the second, laugh at the third, and it keeps building. That's how stand-up works. I don't get many that will try to one up me because I usually start out with a spit take joke. A joke so funny and unexpected that, if you're drinking coffee, you spit it on your monitor when you read it. Only the bravest and the best attempt it. I seem to turn it into a competition, and, in a way, it is. The great thing is that person and I end up hitting on all cylinders and have one of those threads that are funnier than the featured meme. This becomes the basis of a good routine. A good exercise for your niece would be to stretch her comedy muscles in a one up meme thread. She can start out with anyone. She can start out with me if she wants. A good rule of thumb, though, is for her not to play the girl card. In some forums on the net, when a woman plays that card, the guys are like "no girls allowed". Actually, that is the nice phrase. Usually it's send nudes to prove it. Then they spend the rest of their time denigrating her I'd she does. It's a reality of the net, and this is something of a safe place here, but she will get better material if her meme off partner is unaware of age or gender. She's treated as an equal. After a while, she'll get used to it.

That joke I told you will be part of a string of jokes, all somehow related. My niece has brilliant jokes, but she has trouble introducing herself on video. Also, her jokes are amazing but she has a shortage of related jokes which can link together in a string of jokes. Please send out related jokes and possible introductions! Reward: UPVOTEZZZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is the hard part of writing comedy: not knowing a person's delivery style, or, for that matter, the person, the target audience, and, importantly, the person's age. Am I writing for a 14 year old girl or a 24 year old girl. Big difference. Is the audience a church group or a nightclub crowd. That makes a big difference. Notice how I bracketed the insult part of the addition to the joke you gave? Church crowd, the insult could go anywhere from dweeb to dumb broad. The nightclub circuit would start at broad and go to any other form of obscene insult. Bitch would be the most common, but considering today's lack of manners, the insult could be a slang name for a body part, especially parts Germaine to her gender. I could spell it out further, but I don't want this to get outright obscene.

An intro into jokes? Remembering me saying talk about what you know? Add onto that, find topics that an audience can relate with.

"We've all gone to the movies, right? A walk in theater, not one of those drive ins where half the county's population was conceived, but a REAL theater.". At this point, be prepared for the heckler to yell out that they've never been to a theater. While there is some reparte that could go here, I'll hold off on that. Just start over, with a twist. " Everyone THAT HAS A LIFE has been to the movies, right?" Make sure when you yell that one part out, you glare directly AT the heckler.

Now segue into the theater jokes.

I almost hate going to the movies. People are so rude! Take the chatterboxes, for example. Your trying to get into the film and some oaf is behind you talking a mile a minute, drowning out the Dolby Surroundsound system that the bowling alley complains about being too loud. You know the type. Yatchata Yatchata Yatchata (use hand here to show mouth movement of offender) I got mad one time, turned around and said, 'Excuse me. But I can't hear a thing!' The girl looks at me and says. I hope not! This is a private conversation!' Then she called me a nosy bitch.

Then another time...

And here she can go into other theater jokes. If she still has time, she can segue into discussing movies and actors. Give it about a five minute time limit. A perfect YouTube segment. Practice practice practice.

Importantly, though, is have her take a public speaking course. She has to feel somewhat comfortable talking in front of people because she needs to get a good idea of timing. Getting a venue is never a problem. We'll discuss later.

My niece is 14 years old. She will be performing to teenagers/young people on YouTube. Thanks for the brilliant, amazing, epic advice! My niece is so much funnier now! I will upvote all you memes to thank you for this! And I'll upvote your comments (if I can!) If you need any help and advice yourself, I'll be glad to help! More jokes will be appreciated!

Knowing her age and audience really helps. Being a 60 year old man, I have trouble understanding what goes trough a 14 year old girls mind. I had the same problem as a 14 year old boy, too, so that's nothing new. Fortunately, I have help. There granddaughters close by. 10, 12, and 15, that I can consult with. The 12 year old just had the life changing event every girl goes though. She was so looking forward to her starting them because it meant she'd get chocolate. Being a guy, I know it's a major milestone in a girls life, although it can seem like a millstone at times. One co-worker I had calculated, too late, that her monthly friend would pay its visit on the day before her wedding. Something many brides don't think about? Surprise!!! She was mature enough to speak freely about it in front of me, so I didn't venture an opinion. I never did find the conclusion, but I suppose, now into her 60s, it's no longer a problem.

But knowing this also helps me with a direction she can venture. Talk about the changes that have happened over her lifetime. "Girls, remember when we thought boys were yucky? Guys, you thought the same thing. Now we girls can hardly wait for the boys to call us. They don't though. It's not because they can't talk, though. It's because they're too busy tripping over their tongues thinking about us. Who can talk with their taste buds in their instep?"

Find the humor in growing up. It's there. Laugh off the embarrassing moments. Put a humorous spin on it. I mentioned my twelve year old daughter just having her big day. By now, you niece may be comfortable enough to talk about the subject more openly.

Puberty is tough! No matter how much it's discussed in health class or with our folks, we aren't prepared for the real thing. Remember when we were like 3or4 and wanted to stop wetting the bed. Most of use succeeded. Now, along come puberty, and we've got a different bed wetting problem. Boys that don't keep a box of tissues beside their bed may well know what I mean. Girls? It's even messier, especially since we're not sure when it will happen those first few months. And the stains are harder to get out of the sheets.

Remember that first one? It was a red letter day for us girls. But as important as it is, it's not something we openly celebrate.

(Cont) you don't see Hallmark put out cards saying congratulations on your first period. You really are a big girl now. You've gone from a hobby horse to a cotton saddle!

It's not like a wedding, a birthday, or an anniversary. No cake. Not even a piece of cherry pie! At best, you get chocolate. Which is a good thing. Some girls get chocolate every month. If they have younger sisters, those girls look forward to it just for the chocolate. Girls, is it really worth a Hershey bar?

And boys? Girls, If you ever want to ditch the guys, just start talking about your period. That's why there's no celebrations. Guys are uncomfortable with something we'll put up with the next thirty or forty years. Even if they congratulate you, they're tongue tied. Congrats! I heard you deserved chocolate?

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That's an idea for a routine, anyway. She might be a bit nervous about talking that much about intimate subjects, so find her comfort level. Then push that comfort level just a bit further.

Other things about these wonder years that kids can relate to. High school sports, dances (my older granddaughter just attended her first dance) and other things. Wearing make up, first jobs (usually babysitting - a treasure trove of material right there) and when she gets older studying for her first license.

There will mature material, like I mentioned in the bit above, but I have to assume how adult her own conversations with her friends. And speaking of friends, They can help. If she has space in the basement, She can set up a small stage. A couple spotlights, a small 10" above The floor, stage. Folding chairs and TV trays, some pizza and sodas and her friends as an audience. Set up a camera to record the routine, and do a 20 minute set: 4 sets of 5 minutes. Edit and upload one segment a week. It allows her to do a new routine a month.

The key here. Is to have a smart adult woman, like her mom of aunt, work with her to decide what material to use in her set.