Poly in Comedy

dmaustjr

New member
Hello friends,
I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this, but I don't see any better place so... I am a comedian and I am in a polyamorous relationship. Like many comedians I take my life experiences and turn them into humor for others to enjoy. Likewise I talk about subjects that are considered hot button or "taboo". As I'm sure many of you know comedians often make light of a serious subject to make people see how ridiculous the mainstream "popular" view is.

I am writing some material on my poly life and I would like to ask for some help from the poly community on what specific points should be addressed. If you had just 5-10 minutes a night to tell a captive audience of a few hundred people the most important things about the poly lifestyle and how ridiculous it is that it is so negatively viewed in our society, what would you tell them?

I'll start... for me the key points are that being poly is all about loving everyone and just as I don't have limits on how many of my children I can love, I don't limit myself in the adults I can love either. Second, how everyone has to deal with jealousy issues, but much of why most of us feel the way we do is simply because we were raised to feel and believe that if someone is with another person it means something negative about ourselves, which is not reality.

What I don't want to get into is compersion, except for maybe in passing to note that it exists. I believe it is an advanced topic that to dive too deep into would cause me to lose the audience. I also don't want to get caught up in the minutia of the different flavors of poly (polyfi, polygamy, etc etc.) for the same reason.

Any ideas about how to approach the subject from different perspectives, religious or otherwise would be especially welcomed.

Already, just in typing this up and thinking this over while rereading my notes a few times has helped.

Thank you,
Dennis Aust
 
Are you asking people to write your material for you? Are you offering compensation?
 
I think I was pretty clear about what I was asking for.

What is important to the poly community and it's members in the message to be delivered to outsiders.

I will write the material that will then make it funny.
 
Speaking as someone who's also done a bit of comedy I have to ask what open mic or showcase are you playing that gets "a few hundred" in the audience?
I found your clip (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzC9hlnYxHc). With all due respect you really do need to work on writing your own material. Just keep writing and bouncing ideas off your friends, it'll formulate.
 
Speaking as someone who's also done a bit of comedy I have to ask what open mic or showcase are you playing that gets "a few hundred" in the audience?
I found your clip (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzC9hlnYxHc). With all due respect you really do need to work on writing your own material. Just keep writing and bouncing ideas off your friends, it'll formulate.

Wow!! So far 2 out of 3 replies have been more criticism than help.

1st of all you grabbed a video from a showcase where almost my entire set was brand new material. Props to you for looking me up. I tried to look you up too, but apparently you are too good to post your real name. You won't find videos of my polished material. I don't publish those videos for anyone searching to find. I suppose you probably feel the same way as well which is why you didn't bother to pose a link to a video from one of your sets. Find a bootlegged video of even big named comics such as Patton Oswalt and the likes, trying out brand new material in front of an audience. It's not pretty. As someone who's done a "bit of comedy" I would expect you would already know that. As well, I would expect you to know that this IS working on writing my own material.

I perform primarily at 3 different clubs in AZ. One seats about 80, one about 100 and the other seats 550. At the one I do shows at that seats 100 I sometimes do two shows in a night. The smaller venues are usually range from very close to sold out to standing room only. The larger venue usually gets 200-350. While generally my talent level is that of an opener, I have featured a couple of times. So, no, I'm not yet headlining clubs across the US, but frankly, some of the "open-mics" in the Phoenix area get more support than most comedy shows throughout the rest of the US.

Frankly, I'm not sure why my talent and credibility are in question here. I merely asked for input from the poly community about the message people here would like to see delivered. Obviously, I didn't need to ask for the opinions of the community as I have clearly outlined what I thought was and wasn't key. If you're not interested in stating your opinion about those points or simply agreeing or disagreeing with my outlined points feel free to move on without comment.

I generally do not even bother to respond to these kinds of statements, but I feel that was over the top and needed to be addressed.

If you have any further non-productive, albeit respectfully due, comments you would like to share with me, TRBG, please feel free to send them to me via a private message. I will gladly entertain them there, but I would really prefer to keep this thread from getting bogged down with questions and concerns about me.

Thank you.
 
You're a guy. Write jokes about your dick. That usually works.

LOL, Thank you Cindie.

I do have some jokes about my dick and they go over huge at the shows. Okay, maybe not huge, but big. ;-)

I'm sure there will be one or two in my poly material as well.

Dennis
 
this guy told me recently that in Israel, where he lives, his friends saw his wife out with another man. they staged this intervention type thing where they broke the terrible news that his wife was cheating on him. He then had to explain to them that they have a poly relationship and it's fine. They eventually accepted this, or so he thought, until his best friend phoned him in tears saying that he knows he made that up on the spot to save face and that he is here when he is ready to talk.

Another funny thing I have heard was that a guy was chilling with a regular date at his house, she was browsing his fridge and came across some leftover Shepherds pie which she asked if she could eat. Now the guy, being a guy perhaps, didn't think about this before telling her to go ahead. After, she commented on how delicious it was and asked if he had cooked it, to which he replied that no, his other partner had (obviously the poly part was all in the open from the get go) and she totally freaked out and acted as if she had been poisoned.
 
OP, if you are in "poly" relationships AND you have been successfully writing/performing your own material for however long, why don't you write jokes about YOUR experiences and perspectives, which is what stand -up comics DO, instead of worrying about what "message" the "poly community" wants to send to YOUR audiences. Just because a person doesn't want to out themselves in an anonymous message board such as this does not make that person less noble than you are just because you use a screen name that can be associated with your comedy "career".
 
OP, if you are in "poly" relationships AND you have been successfully writing/performing your own material for however long, why don't you write jokes about YOUR experiences and perspectives, which is what stand -up comics DO, instead of worrying about what "message" the "poly community" wants to send to YOUR audiences. Just because a person doesn't want to out themselves in an anonymous message board such as this does not make that person less noble than you are just because you use a screen name that can be associated with your comedy "career".

I didn't ask for other people's experiences. Although if someone wants to share a humorous story, I will certainly enjoy that, albeit I will NOT use it in my material because I do only use experiences that I have been direct witness to, which is rare, albeit I usually write about experiences that happen directly to me.

I only asked for key points of interest that other people felt are important. Yet still I get advice as to how I probably shouldn't have posted this by people who clearly either didn't read it, or don't understand. I don't know what you DO for a living or for hobbies (which is what this is for me because the money I make at it at this level doesn't pay for my food/beverage tab on those evenings) but I don't go to a surgeon and tell them how to cut or to someone who builds model air planes and tell them how they should build their model. But if a surgeon asked me if I wanted a scar to be in some place obvious or less obvious or if the model builder asked me what paint scheme I liked I would give my opinion.

I don't have any problem with someone remaining anonymous. I have a problem with them posting as if they know what they're talking about because they say they have a bit of experience, but clearly not enough to say anything that has any validity and doing that under the guise of anonymity.

So I will ask again, if you don't want to state what key things you feel are important to those outside of this forum to understand, just resist the urge to tell me how to do research for my material. Thank you.
 
Why do I have no trouble believing that you actually did a YouTube search for 'TRBG comedian'?

Yes, I posted anonymously. This is an anonymous board. The admins strongly encourage anonymity. I'm sorry you feel that advice delivered in this setting automatically qualifies as an attack.

Bottom line though, the best advice any experienced comic will give you on the artistic level is 'find your own voice.' If that advice offends you I'm not so sure that comedy is the best place for your delicate little soul.

I mean this with all sincerity: good luck with your career. You've got a few learning curves ahead of you but I have no reason to believe you can't work through them.

Last bit of advice: If you are serious about your career ask the club to take that clip down. It's the first thing people see when they search for you. If that isn't your best or even remotely representative of where you are now why would you want bookers to see it?
 
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Okay, looks like we were writing at the same time. But even if this is simply research I still think you need to find your own voice/tell your own story.
 
Time flies like an arrow...

Why do I have no trouble believing that you actually did a YouTube search for 'TRBG comedian'?

Yes, I posted anonymously. This is an anonymous board. The admins strongly encourage anonymity. I'm sorry you feel that advice delivered in this setting automatically qualifies as an attack.

Bottom line though, the best advice any experienced comic will give you on the artistic level is 'find your own voice.' If that advice offends you I'm not so sure that comedy is the best place for your delicate little soul.

I mean this with all sincerity: good luck with your career. You've got a few learning curves ahead of you but I have no reason to believe you can't work through them.

Last bit of advice: If you are serious about your career ask the club to take that clip down. It's the first thing people see when they search for you. If that isn't your best or even remotely representative of where you are now why would you want bookers to see it?


Do yourself a favor: don't quit your day job until Youtube starts paying more. You need money for all that fruit.
 
I'd never quit my day job for comedy. Way too many crazy people in comedy.


But would you quit comedy for fruit? Or substitute fruit for comedy? Or one of the above or all of the below and everything in between and outside the middle of the box? And all the king's horses and all the queen's men should make hay together with dueling banjos and then useless chairs rotary stairs porter square escalator with director narrator oh yeah sidewalk action figures stalk lost count softball parking lot police two-way street potholes park town live stop over the river it goes and back to where no one knows what one goes through unless they in fact lived there too.

The End.

#stupidaspietricks
 
Wake me up when Spetembre dens/
 
That sound is my brain going "spoink"... o_O
 
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