All language subtitles for Masterclass Steve Martin Teaches Comedy - 4. Finding your comedic voice

When I went to college,

I had a what I would call an existential

crisis or existential revelation

that I would never amount to anything if

I didn't have my own voice.

Which meant that my act which so-called

which was maybe 15 minutes at best 20

minutes

would have to be expuned of all

previous material. All material not only

that had been done before but that

sounded like it had been done before.

But then I had a real crisis. I didn't

know how to write comedy material at

all. Not one idea.

And I thought, well,

I laugh in life. I laugh in life a lot.

My friends thought I'll just sort of

observe what it was that that made me

laugh

and maybe I'll find something there. And

so that's how I started. that was kind

of successful

but really I was in college at the time

studying philosophy so my mind was very

abstract thinking and trying to examine

everything

and I thought let's let's try to examine

comedy let's break it down to

nothing and let's build it up from

scratch and see what it can

When I uh started in Orange County,

California, there there were no tutors.

There was nowhere to go. And in a sense,

that was a very good thing because I

developed my own style. I I had no banjo

teachers. I developed my own style. It's

it's like a what I call a workaround.

You're just you're not going by the

book. And even if you think you are,

you're not. You're straying. Uh and

those little strays make you uh unique

and different from everybody else. I I

kind of think that your ideas are down

here, your mind is up here, and your

mind is keeping those ideas from

surfacing. And it's just that little bit

of unlocking. It's finding your

individuality.

uh the thing that makes you unique or

that you can fake that makes you unique

because you're smart and clever and um

figuring out a way to let that come out.

I think if if uh you have a cultural

perspective and it feels good to you,

use it because even if you're esoteric,

uh if you perfect it, it's going it's

going to be appealing to a lot of people

who aren't in that cultural group. They

get it, you know. Uh, a lot of times

there'll be a joke

that I'll watch like say in a movie and

I'll say,

"I don't get it, but I get it. I don't

need the all the information. I get the

idea somehow." And you're filling in the

blanks on on those lines. So, whatever

makes you perfect as a performer, do it.

And don't say, "Well, I've got to

include everybody. I, you know, I want

to do this, I want to do that. Boy, if

you perfect one thing and you get it

right, there's going to be a lot of

people uh uh a lot of people interested

in that. when I was uh when I was doing

movies and you know they have these um

demographic ratings for your movie when

they test it and you know like uh you'll

say men like to you know 82% women like

this African-Americans this this this go

around and the guy who conducted those

ser surveys I would talk to him about it

and he said you have to understand all

movies are cult movies

meaning nothing is across the board.

It's always a segment of society that's

going to it. You know, Star Wars, young

people. Uh so it it is a segment. So it

doesn't matter if you're appealing to a

segment, even if it's a small slice,

because that slice is huge.

Maybe it's a good idea if you're a

stand-up comedian to say, "What am I

right now?

Do I have something I could call myself?

And uh if not, you know, it means you're

still forming. And if you can find

something,

uh maybe it's a good idea to kind of

head everything in that direction. You

know, when you're thinking up new bits

or new ideas, say, does this have that

quality that I'm after? you know, the

the comedians I was thinking because I'm

doing this, I've obviously been thinking

a lot about comedy and I I go back from

the the comedians I've enjoyed and

um they

kind of almost inadvertently get a label

in my mind like I think of Chris Rock I

go power that's what I think of Richard

Prior I think dangerous

I Think of Louis Cat, I go

intellect,

Amy Schumer, brutally honest. Oh, I

think of George Carlin and I go angry.

He's angry and you like him for it. Now,

I don't think that these comedians

started out with those images in their

head. I think they they evolved that

way. But it's interesting to look

backwards at them and see

they have a characteristic

um

that came through obviously from their

own personality and their own experience

but it was slowly slowly shaped into

something.

You know a manifesto in general is your

statement your premise.

If you uh for example, my manifesto was

I'm going to try to be funny

without doing jokes. I'm going to try to

be really funny like I was funny when I

was when like the laughter I would laugh

when I was 15 and was absurd and you

couldn't stop laughing and your sides

achd. I go that's comedy. So that was my

manifesto. How do I get there?

And the when I analyzed the that type of

comedy when I was laughing is I didn't

know why I was laughing. So I wanted to

get people laughing and when they got

home they say I don't know why I was

laughing. It's like if you take a

artistic

movement like futurism in the early

teens of the 20th century

and they had a manifesto and it's all

about the machine and this and that and

it was a it was a good you know the

coming uh influence of the machine and

society but

they had a good manifesto but the result

was they created some really good

paintings and even if you took the

manifesto away and didn't anything about

the manifesto. The paintings were still

good. But a manifesto can be like, I'm

going to attack the uh political uh

establishment. That's my manifesto. And

I'm going to attack them this way. I'm

going to attack them by pointing out how

blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.

Or I'm going to my manifesto is I'm

going to talk about how horrible dating

is. You know, that's a pretty common

one, but rich, you know.

When you decide on a joke, let's say, or

a bit, you're defining your taste. And

your taste is what they're coming to

see.

They are waiting for you to be the

authority. They're not picking and

choosing. Once you get it all together,

your whole package

is what they want to see. What do you

think? What does that comedian think?

And they're interested in it because

it's going either going to be similar to

what they think or completely different

to what they think. Uh so your if you

think of your choices as your taste when

you're writing a joke, when you stop

writing that joke and when you finished

it, that's your taste. you figured out,

no, I'm not going to do another sentence

after. My taste is going to be tur

or in this case, my taste is to just

keep going on and on and on and beating

it to death until it gets funnier and

funnier. I don't mean that you're being

tasteful. You're just having a

particular taste and that's all wrapped

up in the way you look, way you dress,

the way you talk, the speed you talk. Uh

are are you abrupt? Uh do you keep

going? you know, um, are you incisive?

U, that's just part as you're creating

yourself, you're you're creating a

taste.

Hi, Crimestoppers.

Let's repeat the Crimestoppers oath. I

promise not to bully my friends.

I promise not to leave my keys in the

car.

I promise not to depreciate non- taxable

items brought forth from the previous

tax year.

Okay, good. Now, let's repeat the

nonconformist oath. I promise to be

different.

I promise.

I promise to be unique.

I promise to be

I promise not to repeat things other

people say.

Good. Okay.