Boredom, the companion.

Most of the work that goes into creating a decent standup comedy set is actually quite boring. This art form may look appealing, but behind the scenes it’s plain unsexy. Let me highlight, your day job is probably more ‘happening’ than the process of creating a standup routine.

The writer’s block is real; I prefer to call it the writer’s constipation. Everyone has their way to get out of it, mine: simple, keep writing, keep churning out garbage, until you are satisfied. Logically, when you are constipated, you keep going to the toilet till you are satisfied, even if mildly – same approach here.

A one-line joke which will make an audience laugh, will be 10 seconds long – including the laughter. If it’s a very good joke, possibly 15 seconds. The golden rule in comedy is 4 laughs a minute, I do not know who made that rule but sounds like an intelligent thing to state.

A one-hour special you would watch on a streaming service would 60 minutes x 4 per minute = 240 laughs. Now calculate the amount of writing that goes into making someone laugh 240 times in one evening. OK, if you are performing for an hour – you can probably get away with 200 laughs, that is still a LOT!

Once the jokes are in place, night after night, week after week, month after month, year after year comedians tell the same jokes in the same way, line by line – if you are someone constantly looking for novelty, it can be exhausting, almost soul-crushing.

I write new jokes just because I get tired of my jokes. That also applies to new blogs.