Improving your show is a constant process. No matter how great your show is, you need to continually develop new material, perform the new show, polish the new show, return to developing new material, and then repeat the process all over again and again. You will eventually create a smooth system for continually improving your show that fits your personal techniques.
You need to perform in front of an audience before you begin to improve your show. You need use the audiences’ responses to guide your decision-making process when making a change to your routine. Your intuition and experiences can help, but your goal is to get the audience to laugh along with you.
You will find that you need to tweak the system to fit your needs and style. The following is a simple system for improving and polishing your show:
• Review the recording of the show
• Rank your jokes
• Make your revisions
• Practice and perform the revised version
Keep in mind that these are just suggestions and can be altered to fit your personal style. Through this process you also want to remember that this is not to finalize your show, because your show will never be finalized if you intend to be a great comedian. Every show has room for improvement.
Review the Recording of the Show
Using an audio recording used to be the best option, but now there are so many options for recording video that you should record your show on video whenever possible. Sometimes you may even find that the club already has a camera installed that will record the show for you. Take some time to ask the manager prior to your show.
Start at the beginning and review the recordings of your shows. Watch or listen to the whole show all the way through once before you make notes or start to strategize changes. This will give you an idea of the overall feel for your performance. After you go through the whole show, you will need to go back through it bit by bit. Use the pause button so that you have an adequate amount of time to evaluate each section.
It is highly recommended that you always record your show in one format or another. It is impossible to remember everything that happened during your show unless you have a perfect memory. By reviewing your show, you will be able to improve its quality.