Act 3 — Study the masters · Week 20 of 52
Eddie Murphy
What does pure confidence do to material?
Take up twice as much physical space as usual.
The five moves
Same rhythm, every week.
1 — Study
Delirious and Raw. Watch the stage command more than the jokes.
Watch on purpose. Specific comedians, specific reason.
2 — Deconstruct
Note posture, pauses, eye contact, how he takes the room's temperature.
Isolate one mechanism. Name it before you use it.
3 — Write
A bit that only works if you are theatrical and physical.
10–25 premises minimum. Quantity buys quality.
4 — Perform
Perform it with your whole body.
Somewhere live. The classroom is useful; the audience is the laboratory.
5 — Review
Watch it back. Are you performing or reciting?
Watch the tape. Log what the room did, not what you felt.
The Comedy Genome
Tag what made you laugh.
Tag every joke you studied this week. After a few months the pattern stops being an opinion and becomes your comedy DNA.
Your twin asks
Eleven questions, every week.
- What made you laugh this week?
- What did the audience laugh at?
- Where did you lose them?
- Which jokes feel most like you?
- What are you afraid to say?
- What's the funniest version of this?
- What would Pryor do with this?
- What would Carlin attack?
- What would Hedberg remove?
- What would Rock repeat?
- What would Bamford make uncomfortably specific?