How to Develop a Perfect Comic Timing

Tap to Read ➤ Aastha Dogra

Comic timing is a gift which a person is born with. You can develop and polish this gift though, if you are planning to make a career as a comedian. How? Read this information to find out.

Many people in the entertainment industry are of the view that comic timing is something that is innate. It is something that is already there in a person and thus, cannot be developed with any technique or practice. To some extent, it can be said that it is true.

However, those of you who are aspiring to be comedians need not lose heart. Although, some elements of fun, offbeat thinking and quirkiness, is a prerequisite to perfect your comic timing, yet, with practice, with the right techniques and with the help of tips suggested here, you can certainly find the comedian hiding inside you.

Ways to Develop Great Comic Timing

Work on Yourself

Start finding fun and comedy in everyday life, the people who you meet and in the way that you or people around you react to various circumstances. This will certainly up your fun quotient. Next, take a comedy class.

Study the works of comic legends and learn how they build up the suspense during their performance or take pauses in between, to give the audience time to understand or react to their comic lines. Once you start watching the works of legends in this field, you will realize that they have their own unique techniques to deliver the lines.

Learn from these techniques as much as you can and see where you can imbibe them in your performance and style. Lastly, a very important prerequisite to acquire a perfect comic timing is to be comfortable in your skin.

In other words, drop all feelings of insecurity, shame, embarrassment or inadequacy that you might be harboring and become confident. If you cannot become a confident person, at least act like one!

Work on the Script

When writing a script for a comedy show, there are two things that you should always take into consideration. First is the average age of your audience and second is the interests, liking, profession, hobbies, etc., of your audience. Gather as much information as you can and then design your performance on the basis of this.

It is but obvious that what an eighteen year old finds funny, is not necessarily what a sixty year old will find humorous. So, the first thing to do when perfecting your comic timing, is to write your script and base your performance, keeping in mind your audience's profile.

Another important tip on making your comedy effective is to include only those jokes which are relevant to your script. Do not include a joke just because it is hilarious. See if it fits in the natural flow of your script and only if it does, make it a part of your performance.

Work on the Performance

Once the script for your performance is ready, an important rule to follow is to practice, practice and practice. Include the pauses at the right time, build the tempo and then do something totally unexpected. A surprise is always welcomed and appreciated in a comedy performance.

Also, any comedy performance will turn out to be more effective if you are able to build a rapport with the audience and one of the best ways to do this is to make jokes on oneself.

For example, if you are fat, you can make jokes on how being large is a boon for everyone! Or, if you are a woman, you can make jokes about how you manipulate men and get them to do what you want! One word of caution here though - do not go overboard with it!

While rehearsing, try to perform in various ways. See how does your story get affected if you emphasize on a few words or if you become overtly expressive while saying a punch line.

A good idea here would be to have a few people see your performance. Take a feedback from them and then choose the style which suits the best and which they find most hilarious. Besides these, some other comedy tips that you can use are - be expressive, explicit and brief, sound believable and always strive to try something new.

In order to give a good comedy performance, see to it that you do not hurt the sentiments of your audience. There could be people in your audience who detest vulgar humor.

There are a number of ways in which you can improve your comic timing. To be a successful comedian, you must have some kind of a knack to be funny. Of course, your innate ability can be polished, but if you are thinking of starting from the scratch, or you feel that you do not possess this gift at all, it would pay off to think twice about being a comedian.