Comedy Warm-Up Tasks: Part 2 of 5

So now it’s time to do nine more activities for the classroom, meant to be warm-ups for native speakers trying to develop comedy skills, in a theoretical class on the subject. Yes, teachers do that – construct activities almost for the sake of constructing them. It may pay off later.

So background here: I found a handout I made in the latter days of my time as a professor-like person at Sookmyung Women’s University. See https://thedailyroger.blogspot.com/2021/04/comedy-warm-up-tasks-part-1-of-5.html, a.k.a. Comedy Warm-Up Tasks: Part 1 of 5, for the first installment of this what-if sort of series. 

Never got used, but likely should get some use somewhere, somehow. This is especially true with students for whom the skill of producing humor and in being creative in general are important.

I’d say some of these activities for nonnative speakers might need on-the-spot explanation for some classes and could be germs for larger activities. Others may need the context of the bits to put together first, before the bits are put together.

So here we go:

Sales Pitch: Sell us something nobody would want to buy. You should sound convincing.

This would be a commercial or a pitchman sort of thing. This could be previewed with a list of things nobody can sell. Used gum wrappers, toilet rolls, etc. My guess is that were this activity done repeatedly, some students would go stale, and resort to the same answer repeatedly. In that case, the other students could scream “Hack!” if they think the answer is disappointingly derivative.

Imperfect Childhood: In what ways was your childhood imperfect?

This simple question is meant to dive deeper into one’s past and find stuff that works as humor or as an anecdote or for personal exploration. Many of the greatest stand-ups in the 20^th century were masters in exploiting childhood. Bill Cosby, for example, though he was exploitative to a fault.

Dumbest Thing: What is one of the dumbest things you have ever done?

Another question meant to produce whimsical or funny responses, and also good for getting people to remove interpersonal barriers. Be ready to have your own story for this. I have many, such as plugging a flip-phone into a wall after I had washed it by accident. Putting water with electricity – what could possibly go wrong? With any luck, you may have more dumbest-things-I-ever-did stories than the class combined.

The Ministry of…: Design a new government agency dedicated to some pointless endeavor.

Inspired by the Monty Python sketch, the Ministry of Silly Walks. I’ve seen Bureau of Lost Pencils in a Caldwell gag cartoon once. There was an indignant bureaucrat behind a counter. “When will you people ever learn?!? If you don’t chew on your pencils, how can we compare them to your dental x-rays?” That may capture how government bureaucrats devolve in the confines of their paper-intensive world. My guess is this activity could go into the details of such a ministry, such as its vision statement, its greatest achievement (something that underwhelms, of course), and other features of a British-style ministry or Beltway bureaucrat. Were this just a warm-up, then coming up with a few names for ministries is good enough, but if it grew into something gargantuan, then yes, this could be a whole hour.

Body-Image Program: Do a documentary on a problem you have with your body.

Probably a bad activity to prescribe to a student who may actually have body-image problems. It is one of four activities on the handout, so a student who is disabled, severely obese, or whatever could choose not to do this topic. Then again, by given the freedom to do it or not, them doing it might be amazing.

Environmental Oddity: Look around. Discuss something a bit unusual around you.

A good, short activity. I put this in there to sensitize possible comics to being aware of their environment and to notice differences. It could be something as small as a color difference, a weird positioning of an object, an object unexpected for that environment, or anything seeming different. Since much comedy is observational remarks about everything from cotton balls to candy bars, it is a good habit to notice things.

Reincarnated as…: “Nobody would believe me if I were reincarnated as …” Discuss.

Yep, that’s weird. Here the student has to think globally about himself in relation to jobs, animals, or whatever people are reincarnated as. I could see this question tripping up some students.

Unlikely Pairing: What if so-and-so met such-and-such? What would happen?

Students might do this one by thinking as if they should know the answer to both questions before speaking. That is a mistake. These answers should not be planned at all. Just jump into it, saying one random famous person’s name, then another, then work out the implications. This would be about exploring the premise. This could be an activity with three people: the first person says the so-and-so, the second person says the such-and-such, and the third person says what would happen. Rotate speakers.

Individually Chosen What-If: Do a “What-if” act-out based on your own idea.

So a person says “What if…” followed by the scenario. Then the person acts it out, meaning the person comes alive with characters and voices and body language. “What if pigeons replaced chickens in the meat section of the supermarket?” This could lead to a butcher cutting the pigeon, finding a note on the pigeon’s leg, opening the note, and reading it. “It says, ‘I was never fond of the city anyway.’ Signed, Mr. Pigeon,” where the butcher notes that this particular bird took his own life. Notice what didn’t matter in that scenario was quality but rather getting something out. For this activity and others, nonnative speakers might struggle at first, depending on the complexity of the suggestion or the length of the response.