Comedians are stereotyped as dark and insecure, and part of the reasoning is that we live daily with the specter of bombing - of telling jokes with no laughter, no response, and no interest. Bombing is painful, as evidenced by the words comedians use to describe the experience. Comics don't "struggle" or "have a bad set"; they "bomb," "die," "eat it," or worse. But bombing is part of comedy, particularly as a beginner. If you choose to do comedy, you WILL bomb. Repeatedly. No matter how good your material, no matter how solid your presence, or how quick your wit, your day will come. Granted, for established comedians, the definition of "bombing" may be different; but the pain stays the same. And since it is such a part of comedy, I felt it necessary to analyze how to avoid it, how to get through it, and how to learn from it.
Avoiding Bombing
One of the most important things to do as a comic is to open strong. The standard rule is to open with your second-best joke, and close with your best joke. While this is not a hard-and-fast rule, it remains solid advice. Road comics often open with a "local" joke about the club and its surrounding area, but regardless of where you are, you want to start strong. If you start with one or two strong minutes, the audience will begin to believe that you are funny; their attention will increase, their sense of humor will sharpen, and you will have a stronger set. When you open with a joke that gets a weak response, the audience starts thinking, "I hope this guy doesn't have twenty-five minutes of jokes like that." Then they start thinking about something else, and before you know it, they're talking to their wife about the trip next weekend, and you're up a creek without a paddle.
Not only do you want to start with strong jokes, but with short, tight jokes. At the end of your set, the audience will have the patience and the trust to sit through a thirty-second setup. But not at the beginning. You want your opening jokes to be short, funny, one-liners (or close) that will grab their attention and their trust immediately.
