Clean or Dirty? – Working “Blue”
At the headliner (and occasionally middle) level, high-paying gigs such as corporate work, cruise line shows, and office parties usually require clean material (for obvious reasons). Some clubs still have specific guidelines regarding material; Bill Brady's Barrel of Laughs in the Chicago suburbs, one of the oldest clubs in the country, allows comedians to use only three swear words (s---, damn, and hell), a rule that has been in effect for twenty-seven years.
And, of course, television spots, outside of HBO, require effective, clean material. I once worked with a headliner who spent years working in New York with Jerry Seinfeld in the late 1970s and early 1980s. "Jerry," he asked Seinfeld after a show one night, "how come you never swear on stage?" "What I am supposed to do?" Seinfeld replied. "Edit the joke once I get on The Tonight Show?"
The Disadvantages of Working Clean
Working clean does limit your act, obviously, and there is certainly a drawback there. As I alluded to briefly, avoiding "offensive" content is a slippery slope nowadays, because so many people get offended so easily by a range of different topics. In the South people often don't flinch at the f-word but do not like people "taking the Lord's name in vain" as they say. Early in my career I had to change a joke that had the words "black guys" in the punchline; it was not remotely racist or even racial (it was a pure analogy), but audience members would moan at the joke regardless.
I, for one, believe that clean comedy is limiting. While I understand some people's aversion to dirty material - and even share it in some cases - I think that really good comedy, as an art, is at its best raw and unfiltered. If given the choice between a PG comedian and an R comedian, sight unseen, I would choose the R comedian every time. While there are numerous exceptions to this rule, famous and lesser-known, good comedians are honest and direct, and avoid taboos - both goals in conflict with the idea of working clean.
Writing Clean
I have found, and I have heard many other comedians say as well, that my writing naturally became cleaner as I grew in the business. In my case, this was partially due to beginning in New York City, where lowbrow 'shock humor' was prevalent at the small bars and open mikes I worked, and then moving
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