Becoming a Stand-Up Comedian: Adjusting to Your Audience

Most comedians, myself included, like to sit in the back of the room before a show and watch the audience file in. We like to see the people will be working for that night, and to get an idea of the crowd as a whole: is it young? Old? Are there single women coming through - or is it couples only tonight? It simply feels more comfortable to go on stage when you have had a chance to survey your audience.

That said, many comedians debate whether to tailor your set to your audience. Some comics claim that you should "do your act", unchanged, for every audience. They believe that you are who you are, as a person and a comic, and you cannot go down the slippery slope of altering your act and even your personality for the crowd every time you perform standup.

Other comedians will change their act, by adding or removing jokes, or inserting simple asides between jokes that may be geared toward that night's audience. As a young comic, this may be a moot issue - if you have eight minutes of material and are doing an eight-minute set, there is little option to change anyhow. But to argument over whether to adjust to your audience is an interesting one, and a decision you will face as you climb the comedy ladder.

The Argument Against Changing

The argument against changing your act is usually based on two reasons. First, as a comedian, you are an artist. You created an act, which is funny, imaginative and original. (Hopefully.) You should not add or change a joke for a comedy crowd any more than a painter should change the color of his painting based on the prospective buyer.

Secondly, and more pragmatically, there is the "slippery slope" argument. "What are you going to do, change your act 300 times a year, and spend 45 minutes before every show changing your set list?" asked one headliner with whom I discussed this topic. "It's crazy."

The Danger of Stereotyping