What I Thought Comedy Was (Part 6) by Anthony CorvinoThe first bomb. Bombing hard is art form. The first timer, white male, age 24, that rants about his exploits with easy women and finds a way to alienate 99% of the crowd with a carefully crafted Casey Anthony joke…that kind of bomb is a thing of beauty. The first timer, white male, age 31, acquires an applause break by mentioning it’s his first time and follows it up with a sprinkling of ‘n’ words… that kind of bomb is poetry in motion. The first timer, white female, age 29, using her five minutes to explain why she has never found a ‘good’ man in Wilmington while desperately clinging onto the fact that she is both available and not 30…a very sad but still poignant bomb.

My theory on bombing is that it is equal parts not knowing your audience and not knowing yourself with a pinch of truth avoidance. I try to draw parallels between stand up, improv, and acting because that’s where most of my experience lies. An actor connects with their scene partner who is usually the only person of concern in the scene. An improviser connects with their fellow improviser. A stand up comic does not have the luxury of a single actor to focus their attention on, they have several audience members, other comics, waitstaff, bartenders, and the host. They can all share some role in the comic’s performance. As a stand up comic my job has increasingly become finding ways to make connections with all of these different scene partners. If I’m listening carefully enough to all these different actors, paying attention to how the crowd responds throughout the night, and focusing my attention on them rather than drawing inward to myself I figure I’ve got a chance at doing well so long as my material holds water (a completely separate issue).

What does this have to do bombing? Or the 1^st bomb? My first bomb I was not listening to the audience who rightfully so did not want to listen to me and decided that I was in fact not truthful. Who wants to listen to a 19 year old so self-absorbed and scared he cannot step outside himself to understand what everyone else is thinking or feeling? It’s taken me several years to find ways to connect to audiences that feel truthful. I would never consider myself a born stand up comic with ‘natural talent’. I do have fun though and I like to work hard writing new jokes and pushing myself to be vulnerable with audience. I had no concept of any of this after my first 1^st bomb, I was a relatively dumb kid. I still am in a lot of respects, but bombing is a great way to learn and re-learn lessons in comedy as long as I’m willing to listen.

Recently, I performed a set where one joke that I previously thought was a strong choice for a closer did not get the reaction I had hoped for. In a panic, I scrambled through it to end on a more appropriate joke and finish the set. The set as a whole was not a bomb, but for this one point in my act I remembered vividly not connecting with anyone in room wondering if they were listening, if I wasn’t listening, and realizing that any time spent thinking about this was taking me further away from the audience. It was a nice ‘joke bomb’ refresher course for me. Stay connected, commit to the bit, and for God sake keep the energy going to the next comic. They deserve a fighting chance.

 

Anthony Corvino is from New York originally and is now a stand up comic in Wilmington, NC and an improviser with the Nutt House Improv Troupe. You can check out his website here