SlapStik Comedy Written By: Yasmin Makara
Sometimes it’s not the story that’s boring, it’s the way your friend tells it. A comedian’s set depends on so much more than the words they say. In fact, in comedy, timing is central. Even the funniest joke on paper can land with a thud if the delivery doesn’t do it justice. Comedy is as much about creating punchlines as it is about performing. An ideal performance takes the audience on a journey through your narrative, building up anticipation and then shocking your audience into laughter. Considering the importance of timing within comedy, comedians, through their efforts on stage, work to perfect the pacing and rhythm of their sets. So how do comedians perfect this delivery? What’s the secret? Which clocks must we watch to perfect this so-called timing?
One method of enhancing the humor of a joke through timing is to leave a pause before the punchline. By pausing right before the funniest part of the bit, comedians leave their audience in anticipation of what is to come. Considering this is a well-known structure of comedy, the audience is often aware that the punchline is nearing, and this primes them for it.
On the opposite end, many comedians also pause after the punchline. After a comedian delivers a joke, the audience will be uproarious with laughter, meaning that they won’t have time to consider new ideas and to process new jokes. Rather than barreling through and continuing their set, comedians often leave a pause to give the audience time to laugh and really enjoy the joke. Laughter binds an audience together and that pauses after the punchline gives the audience time to commiserate. Leaving time after the punchline is also helpful for those, whom I’m sure we are all familiar with, who may be slow to get the joke. By giving the audience time, the comedian allows everyone in the audience to truly process the punchline and its relationship to the set up, and everything else they’ve said. This also allows the audience time to truly enjoy and understand the set-up to the next joke, as they won’t be stuck still trying to figure out what the humor was in the last one.
Outside of these two specific moments in a set, comedians take mini pauses in various moments, either to enhance humor or just to breathe. With regards to the more randomly timed pauses, comedians can perfect this through practice. Just as you wouldn’t expect a medical student to perform a perfect surgery without practice, you can’t expect a comedian to nail down timing without having already tested it out. Often, for comedians, the best learning comes from failure—bombing on stage and using what you learned about what doesn’t work to find out what does. Regardless of whether or not the sets are successful, just going on stage and consistently delivering a given set is essential for any comedian’s growth and their perfection of timing. Comedy is certainly a learn-as-you-go experience. However, just because comedians are learning on-the-job doesn’t mean they have to learn alone.
Comedy is collaborative and derivative, meaning that many comedians can learn a thing or two about timing from discussions with other comedians, or just opening up YouTube and watching someone’s set. Like any craft, comedic timing can and should be studied. Comedians can also ask for advice from more senior comedians, working in a community setting. They can perform their sets among humorous friends, gaining expert perspectives and getting to perform in a non-judgmental stress-free zone. It often helps to practice your timing out in front of someone you know before going on stage in front of an audience full of strangers.
In short, comedy is about so much more than words on a page, or jokes memorized within your head. It is about embracing the moment and making a relationship with your audience through performance. Timing is a crucial element in this performance and, though sometimes hard to learn, it makes comedians as fantastic as they are and enhances comedy as an art form.
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