How to Be a Highly Paid Stand-Up Comedian
By leadership author and keynote speaker Ross Shafer
This week, I’m going to teach you how you can become a highly paid stand up comedian…or a highly paid anything, for that matter…and this week I’m going to give you a bulletproof way to become one of the highest paid people in your profession…this is NOT an infomercial….and you don’t have to buy any books -or products -or seminars from me or from anybody.
You just have to accept that there is a “science” – an owners manual for succeeding in every career. It’s easy to see the steps if you’re going to medical school or you want to be a Long Haul Truck driver. But EVERY career – even yours – has a science to it. I’ll take me for example, since this is my show. I owe everything I’ve accomplished to learning how to become a headlining stand up comedian – first, I was 30 when I started and had a family…so I didn’t want to be a starving artist. I wanted to be one of the highest paid TV comics. The ones who got on The Tonight Show or Dave Letterman’s show. So it wasn’t about telling jokes in smoky nightclubs. I wanted to study the profession. And, with the help of Comedy Coach Jim Richardson, I started videotaping the comedians I saw on TV to see if I could notice a pattern.
They all had different styles but all of them had a structure in common…a science. The TV headliners got a 6-minute time slot and within that time, they could produce six laughs a minute – and each laugh sustained for 3 seconds or more. So, I edited all of my jokes down to fit that formula. If I didn’t get a series of 3 second laughs, I’d cut the mediocre laughs out of my act. The pattern worked! Before long, I won an International comedy competition and got on TV and I moved up pretty quickly in the comedy club ranks from Emcee – to Middle Act – to Headliner. Soon, I was getting asked to host TV shows, so again, I studied what TV hosts did to be successful – and wound up hosting (5) network shows. I’ve used the “science method” for every venture I’ve tackled since – and I would urge you to do it as well. What is “the science” of your job. What routine or discipline do the top people in your industry follow?
The highest paid people have Discovered the science and are disciplined enough to execute it, every day. They edit their time to only what works and don’t waste time on mediocre ideas. The best news for you is that don’t have to wait to be promoted…promote yourself by doing what the best people in your field are doing…and when it works for you…leave a comment down below so that other people will be inspired.
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