As a speaker, I am thankful to have comedians in my midst like Kathy Klotz-Guest. Kathy and I belong to several private Facebook groups for public speakers and authors, where we exchange tips and share stories regarding these respective industries.
She was one of many friends who left me encouraging comments on my brief Facebook posts about performing comedy for the first time. We ended up messaging one another, and she kindly offered to watch the recording of my first performance to give me feedback via Zoom.
Kathy struck a chord with some things I’ve been thinking about for improving my set. She mentioned the Rule of Three, it’s not a hard and fast rule for comedy writing, but she encouraged me to consider it to improve my set. I use this thinking in designing and delivering presentations to give the audience three key takeaways. It never occurred to me to consider this for a four-minute open mic set. Great advice!
The other advice was to keep playing with my Canadian theme. My current set is mainly about being a Canadian and living in the South. She said she liked my performance's honest, humble, friendly tone.
Kathy also gave me a great idea about switching the placement of a couple of bits within the set. This was also helpful because the flow has been on my mind; if I’m stumbling on it, I know the audience will too.
And speaking of my mind, for some reason, I’m having a little trouble remembering the order of my jokes. I think it’s a combination of my mindset because I’m selected near the end of the night every time (hello childhood schoolyard sports memories), fatigue because it’s always late when I finally perform (I’m usually in bed most nights by 9), and not enough rehearsing (this is a solvable problem, Dave). I proved this last night at the East Room when I was the last one selected for my third attempt at standup comedy, and I kind of bombed. I’ll save this story for my next edition.
Thanks a million to Kathy for her time and her insights! It’s nice to have friends who encourage you to push forward. If you’re subscribed to this Substack, I know you’re one of those friends. You’re awesome.