Harrison's Tumblr

Comedian as Tour Guide

I think jokes are a form of mind trip for the audience, which is why I sometimes think of myself as a tour guide, taking a group of strangers from point of interest to point of interest, stringing together a story that connects each unusual vista.  I feel that way even when I’m at the very beginning of the joke creation process - when I’m writing a joke about a fresh, new topic, I get the same feeling I have when I visit a new place for the first time.  That’s also the goal I have in mind when I write a joke - to take something everyone has seen or experienced and get the audience to see that thing from a new perspective, with a new set of eyes.

If you think of your act as a tour, you can see how important various facets are.  For example, you might consider the pacing of your tour.  If you take people too quickly from place to place, you might tire out your tour group, making it harder to get their attention during subsequent stops.  You also don’t get to really appreciate each stop if you don’t spend enough time at each one.  (Imagine being in a museum and only getting 3 seconds to look at each painting.)  Conversely, going too slowly might also be draining for your tour group and lead to certain people on your tour to go astray (at the very least, attention-wise).

You also have to consider where you take your tour group.  Every New York City tour hits the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, Central Park, etc.  It’s the quirky, idiosyncratic stops (“Hey guys, this is my favorite dumpling place in the city.  It’s a hidden gem and very few people even know it exists.”) that people most remember and cherish.  By finding those special places that only you know about and taking your group there, you set yourself apart for other tour guides.

Furthermore, because your tour is, in many ways, defined by the stops you make and the places you take your group to, you have to consider carefully what locations your tour includes.  When I write a joke, it helps to consider what I’m writing in tour guide terms: “Why am I taking the group here?  What are the interesting things I have to make sure I draw their attention to?  Why is this place special?  Why am I, in particular, the right person to be showing them this landmark?”  Visualizing my set as a verbal tour helps me construct a well-paced and memorable trip for the audience.