How to Tell a Joke (page 3 of 3)

Advice From the Late Night Crowd

The most important thing is to keep it short. It's like knowing when to leave the table in Vegas. Get your laugh or, if you're lucky, laughs, and then get off the stage. If you don't trust yourself, hire a friend to tackle you after four minutes.
-- Conan O'Brien

My favorite storytellers, Bill Cosby and Jay Leno, always draw a vivid picture while they work. Good details, language command, good acting. They use voices -- and they have their own voice. The bad storyteller says to an audience after bombing, "You had to be there." The good storyteller makes you think you were there.
-- Arsenio Hall

Never say "but seriously" after a joke. It doesn't work. Just move on to the next joke or the next part of your speech.
-- Jay Leno

"Crickets" is what we call it at "The Tonight Show" when someone tells a joke and there's dead silence in the room and all you can hear are crickets chirping. Jay Leno reads and writes some 1,500 jokes a day to get 20 for that night's monologue, and on any given night there are one or two that might not get a laugh. He's the best there is and if he occasionally gets crickets, so will you. It's okay, you'll live. Just understand that no one bats a thousand.
-- Jon Macks, "Tonight Show" writer From How to Be Funny by Jon Macks (Simon & Schuster)

From Reader's Digest - September 2003

 

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• Reader's Digest 2008 Tell Us a Joke Contest
• Got a great joke? We want to hear it!
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• Quotes from Stand-Up's Biggest Stars
• Slightly serious sayings from stand-up's biggest stars.
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• Finding Your Inner Comedian
• A few tips on making people laugh.
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• Laugh Yourself Skinny
• The suprising benefit of comedy.
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• The Best Sitcoms Ever
• The top sitcoms: more than just a laugh.
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