You work your way up to your hour and hopefully, there are enough people around the world who want to watch this show. You do this until you get your tight five minutes, and then 10 minutes. If not, you try another angle, another line, another word, or another premise altogether. If you’re getting the laughs, or the feedback you’re aiming for, you keep the jokes. At these open mic nights, you see how the audience responds. You then craft these into a set and take it to an open mic night to test it out. You think of a premise, you have an experience that affects you in a certain way or you read something that inspires you, and you write these thoughts down, with some set-ups and hopefully, some punchlines. Arguably the most crucial piece of the entire puzzle, this person is the writer, director and performer of the work, and a lot of the success of the performance rests on their shoulders.

Three of these are obvious, and one, less so.įirst, the comedian. When it comes to stand-up comedy, there are four elements that play a major role. While I’m a work-in-progress, just like my comedy, there are some bridges I’ve crossed and experiences I’ve had that may help to understand what happened in the Jocelyn Chia incident. In my 12 years of stand-up comedy, I’ve been fortunate to do a late-night open mic spot at The Comedy Store in Los Angeles, and also host the National Day Parade for 25,000 at The Float at Marina Bay in Singapore last year.Īlong the way, I’ve learnt some things about this art form that I truly love. How did a comedy routine, performed in Greenwich Village of New York City, prompt an apology from the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Singapore, and cause a protest outside the United States Embassy in Kuala Lumpur? Jocelyn Chia - a US-based comedian who made jokes about Singapore’s relationship with Malaysia and the 2014 disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 - is getting backlash for her punchlines. SINGAPORE: Getting to the punchline, without crossing the proverbial line, is almost like a circus trick that comedians all over the world are constantly trying to master.

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