7 Things I've Learned from Comedians About Content Creation

I bought a new candle from my office. And it smells so good. So, so good. And it's a weird thing to start on. But I do, here's what I typically do before I sit down and actually hit record. I will go use the restroom because the last thing that I need is my bladder saying, Hey, you better wrap it up, because it's going to be an emergency pretty soon. So always go the restroom. And then always

I don't often do like dedications of episodes. You know how when you open a book, it'll typically say this is dedicated to my loving wife, my loving husband, my parents, my children, all those things. I have to dedicate today's episode to my dad 100% to my dad, because it is his love of comedy that lives in my DNA. And thankfully, it is something that is it's been passed on to our sons as well. Like we love a good joke. We love a good comedy movie we love make doing pranks on each other. Like we just love it. We love to laugh. It's something that growing up, I always remember laughing a lot with my dad with my brothers. And we just really, really enjoyed it. So I thought I would share a few other ways that I told you earlier. I am not a student of comedy. Like I wouldn't introduce myself that way. But whenever I sat down and listed all of the things that I have done in my life, I'm like, Oh yeah, I am a student of comedy. I'm a byproduct of just being surrounded by comedy in so many different facets. So it starts from whenever I was a little kid, my dad was obsessed, obsessed with the tapes. I'm sure it started off on tapes of comedians. So we would listen to people like Jeff Foxworthy and that for some reason that's the one that really was solidified. I must have been in like the most prime absorption stage of my brain because Jeff Foxworthy and all of the you might be a redneck jokes really solidified in car rides to and from school with my dad. So they're either on tapes or CDs. I'm sure at one point we graduated whenever he finally got a vehicle that had a CD player like, this is what we did to and from school. I also grew up watching Saturday Night Live and loved Chris Farley and Adam Sandler and David Spade. It's funny because my oldest brother, like he was absolutely obsessed with Adam Sandler. And he's five years older than me. So he was more of the age like teenage early 20s. Have he got all the Adam Sandler jokes? I just laughed because my brother was laughing and I was like, Oh, well, he thinks it's funny. I actually think it's funny. That's really what happened. But then later on, I ended up inheriting and buying some of my own of Adam Sandler's comedy albums on CDs and I just loved them so much. And then in college, my husband and I actually went to see Robin Williams Live whenever I was seven months pregnant with our oldest son. Now, ladies, I do not recommend going to a comedy show, seeing comedians period when you are seven months pregnant because having to pee and watch Robin Williams kill it on stage while you're pregnant. And wearing a dress Mata ad. It was a terrible idea. Terrible idea. Thankfully, I'm here to tell the tale and nothing awful happened. But it was such an amazing experience to share that with my husband. And since then we've gone on to see we saw Jim Gaffigan. And we have seen we've been to a comedy club. We went to Las Vegas for our nine year anniversary, and we went to a comedy club while we were there. Like it's just it's everywhere. I've loved this so, so much. I've read all of Mindy Keeling's hilarious books. Oh my. If you have not read her memoirs, they are so good. I'm gonna link to them in the show notes. I'm gonna link to all these things in the show notes. So if you want some Saturday Night Live clips, some Jeff Foxworthy some Tina Fey that's another all her book. Bossy Pants literally had me crying. I'm going to link to all this in the show notes. So go to KrystalProffitt.com/episode347. For all the things that we're talking about today, if you want to know more about comedy, if you're like, I need some more light fun things in my life. I'm going to link to them in the show notes. Because I got I got you. I got a ton of stuff that you can go check out. But I mentioned earlier, so on my favorite podcast are hosted by comedians or people who are actually students of comedy, including Office Ladies, you know, I love Office, Ladies. It's still my favorite podcast. And then Smartless, which is another hilarious oh my gosh, they have some of the best guest on their show. They're so funny. So funny, ever, like I am usually running when I'm listening to podcast or working around the house, like doing something where I'm multitasking. And I will find myself laughing like laughing out loud. And then I'm like, wait, I just, I just I'm cracking up, like, I'm talking to someone and I have to look around and make sure no one else sees me as like, what is this crazy lady doing? Of course, I'll usually have my earplugs in so I could always pretend like I'm on a phone call. But I'm like, laugh out loud. So funny. Then the other one is Armchair Expert. I love DAX and Monica on there. I I've realized I love the show, not just because of DAX but because of Monica. Monica and I are the same age. And so the things that she says Are her experience whenever like from her childhood, she'll have these pop culture references. And I'm like, Oh my gosh, yes, yes, that was my childhood too. So it's just so fun to listen to all these podcast. And then I love that now our oldest son is 13. He's about to be 13 as of me recording this, but his new thing that we're doing together is we're rewatching the office or he's never watched it. I'm watching it with him. And it's just so much fun. It's our Mother Son bonding time when he gets home from school and the other two aren't home yet. We watch the office together. So yes, it's a lot like I told you whenever I look at my backstory, and that's just, that's just a few things, y'all I have more comedy stuff that we could dig into. But I have been watching comedians, or, you know, just shows about comedy, I've read books, I've just done audio, books, podcasts, all the things. But it's just so amazing to see these people deliver content, and how they do it. And what that's like and watch them do it in a memorable, obviously hilarious, and it's typically a relatable thing that they're talking about. It's either something that you've experienced, or you know, someone who has experienced that. And so I want to bring all this backstory of all my knowledge and share with you seven things that I have really learned about comedians that we can apply to our content. And I'm using the term very generally when it comes to content, because this could be podcasts, it could be YouTube, it could be your emails that you write to your list, it could be what you post on Instagram, like whatever, whatever you consider content. I am really looking at the broader picture of how you go about the creation process, and what that looks like. So I want you to think about or I'm sharing with you the things that I think about whenever it comes to comedians that aren't just on The surface level because obviously they're funny. And I don't want you to feel this pressure, like oh, well Krystal's telling us I have to be funny all the time. That's not what I'm saying. It's not all I'm saying at all. I don't think that if Funny isn't your style, if you're like, I want to be serious, I talk about a serious topic, and there's no humor in it at all. That is okay. Because what I'm talking about, and sharing here with you today has really nothing to do with being hilarious all the time. I don't think I'm hilarious all the time. But it's more about how they deliver their content. So the character qualities that I most want to adopt from comedians, and where I really study them, we're just gonna dive right in. So again, all these are gonna be listed in the show notes, KrystalProffitt.com/episode347. So if you're like I'm writing, or I'm writing, I was gonna say I'm writing my car, that's not the right term, I'm driving my car, or I'm running, or I'm doing the dishes, folding laundry, whatever you're doing right now, if you don't worry, I wrote them all down for you. So you can just go to the show notes, and check them

Number one, timing. Timing is every thing. Timing is everything. When you're a comedian, when you're a podcaster, when you're a YouTuber, so if you only have, let's say, 30 minutes to create a great podcast episode, or 20 minutes to interview someone, or just five minutes to make an impression in a YouTube video, you've got to have your timing down. And this comes with

Number two, a quick wit. Now, I told you earlier, you didn't have to be funny. So if you're like Krystal, you already said we need to be funny and now you're talking about being witty. This is actually something I really want to point out because it's not so much about having a quick wit as it is about your natural abilities. Okay, so a quick wit is something I wish to aspire I have a cousin who was hilarious.

Number three. I love how comedians use the simplest, most mundane experiences of our lives, and they make them meaningful, and they're funny and relatable. Because the best comedians can bring out the most mundane experiences in everyday life and make them freaking hilarious, freaking hilarious. I actually brought three examples to the table because and like I said, I could come up with hundreds of examples of this, but these were the three that sprang to mind when I was planning today's episode. And these are all from Netflix specials. Okay, so I'm gonna link to all of these, like, if you have a Netflix account, you need to go watch these if you have not seen them. The first one is Dana Carvey. Yes, from Wayne's World, that same Dana Carvey, he has a Netflix special where he's talking about his experience taking his teenage sons to Rome. And them like not having it being completely over it. I think he had envisioned in his mind that this was going to be like a once in a lifetime opportunity for them. And they were going to be so amazed in in all like seeing the Colosseum and all these things. And their sons are so over it, I will not give away. The catchphrase that his sons used over and over again are his imitation of them over and over again. But it is a staple in our family. My sister in law use it a lot repeatedly because she is also a fan of comedy and I love it when we have these inside jokes that are from comedy specials that we've watched together. But that's what I'm saying like he is he was stuck in Rome with his teenage sons and he was supposed to be enjoying this family vacation and all they could do was complain and moan about how they were just over it and they couldn't take it but It was so funny because it was relatable. It was relatable. It was hilarious. It was just the irony of it was supposed to be it was kind of like a Chevy Chase like vacation of the National Lampoon's experience. And it is really brought it home for me because it was so simple. It was an effortless story, because we've experienced that on some level at ourselves or with our own kids. The second one was, I've never experienced this because I am a woman. But I found it. So funny. So So Adam Sandler, he's another one, you gotta go watch his Netflix special. He's talking about a grown man, peeing in the shower, which also has a hilarious song that goes along with it. I'm not going to spoil it for those of you that want to watch his special but who would have thought talking about someone? Peeing in the shower would be so hilarious, but it's this, like I said, this simple experience that you're just like, What? What are you even talking about? And then the last one is Eliza shell Zinger. Oh, my gosh, oh, she's so funny. She's, and again, I think I find her so funny. Because she's very close to my age. I think she's a few years older than me. But the things that she talks about, it's just so hilarious. So she talks about, like, the ups and downs of her dating life, that leave you thinking like, is this real? Is this a real story? Or did she totally make this up? Is this a bit that she's playing, and you really never know. But I it's just, her stories kill me every single time. They're so so funny. So bringing it back to using simple experiences from your life, and make them have meaning and be funny, be relatable, be whatever it is that your audience needs you to be to make that connection. But even earlier, we could go back to the very top of this episode, today, I shared with you about a new candle that I got from my office, because it's a really simple thing in my life. But I was like, maybe somebody can relate to that having a good smelling office, having a candle that just, you know, kind of gets them in the zone. And it, you know, helps them be more focused, or whatever it is when they're creating their content. So those simple stories, use them, use them and use them often. Alright, that's number

Number four, use a great story in many different ways. So once you have a story, or in a comedian sense, you have part of your bits, right? You know, the skills, that I mean, it's there, it's in your memory, it is embedded in who you are, if you use it repeatedly, because you know, it's good. It's good. It's good. It's good. It's why you will hear me when I go on to other people's podcast. And they asked me, you know, will tell us about yourself, or how did you start your podcast? How did you start this, I typically will share the same story. I'm like, Well, I was in corporate then I was a stay at home mom who didn't really know what I was doing. And then I wasn't totally fulfilled doing that. So I started writing. And then I started blogging, unsuccessfully. And then like, this works every time because people can relate to that. One. It's just totally it's a true story. It is my truth. But to it's also someone that whether they've experienced them, whether they've experienced that themselves, or they know someone who was a stay at home mom, or their best friend is stay at home mom, or even their mom was a stay at home mom, they have some sort of relational experience to what I went through. But I use that story on podcast episodes. I use it in live streams. I've used it in emails, I've used it on content I've created on Instagram. So if you listen to one person or a comedian or multiple podcast, there's a chance that you're going to hear them retell the same story in some kind of capacity across multiple stages. So there is power and having really great stories that you can use in multiple

Okay, oh my gosh, y'all, we're rounding the corner here. We're more than halfway through at this point, because we are on to number five. And that is testing ideas in front of multiple audiences. Now if you don't know this about stand up comedians, they will typically go and do open mic nights. Now it could be totally different since the pandemic and lots of bars shut down and they reopen hopefully a lot of them every open so that comedians would have a place to practice. But the idea I mean I just feel that comedians are some of the original inventors of repurposing content because Jerry Seinfeld, okay, he's a great example, he would write out and maybe he still does this to today, I don't know. But he would write a joke a day on a legal pad and use it. So maybe he would just tell one of his co writers, or he would tell someone on his cast, or he would tell a friend or family member, but he was writing a joke every single day. And then he tested on someone. So you have to see if the idea that you have in your head will get the reaction, you think, or you hope it will, or it's going to bomb. Now, this is what's cool about repurposing content across multiple platforms. Because I know if I talk about something on this podcast, and it takes off, I immediately am like, that needs to be a YouTube video, or I need to talk about that more on a live stream, or that needs to become a seven part carousel on an Instagram. There are so many different ways that you can repurpose it, but testing your ideas. It's the same thing. Whenever a YouTube video starts getting more views. I look at it and I say, have I created another video about that? Or what other videos can I use and spin off to create more content like this? So testing ideas in front of multiple audiences is number five. And I think it's a really, really important one. Last two, are you

Number six, bringing home the story. Maybe I should have made this number seven. And that would have been like my little quick wit thing, right? Like Bring it on home. But, you know, a good punch line will get me every time like you get a standing ovation of me in my bedroom. Like watching a Netflix special. It's over. And that last punch line is given. And they're like thank you and they walk offstage. And I'm still standing up and clapping because I'm like, Yes, that was so good. That was so hilarious. But the person that I think of most that does this so well, is Jim Gaffigan. Y'all, I just love Jim Gaffigan. He in the way that he talks about his children, because his five kids, they live in a New York Walkup. I don't know if they are all still home because I know his older kids maybe get into that, like going to college age. I don't know if they're all still living in this New York apartment. But the it's just it's so amazing. It's he does such a good job at bringing the story home, hitting that punch line. And when we saw him, it was last year here in the Houston area. He will start like his show. And he drops easter egg like right at the beginning. If you don't know what that is, if you've ever heard this term, where people were like, oh, that's an Easter egg. I first learned it from my kids watching YouTube videos. And they're like, oh, that's an Easter egg for later. And I'm like, what does that mean? And they're like, Well, you know, if you watch these Disney movies, you'll see that there's like a slight nod to this other Disney movie. And they're all like intertwined. Somehow. I'm like, okay, whatever. I didn't know what that was. But that's what an Easter egg is. But Jim just does listen to me. I'm talking about Jim, like, We're best friends or something. Jim Gaffigan will drop an Easter egg at the very beginning of his show. And you're like, What is he even talking about? Like, has he lost his mind? I have no idea what that sentence that he just said relates to anything. But inevitably, he brings it home at the end, every single time. Every single time. It is amazing. It's like it's what I will salivate over. Whenever it comes to comedy. I'm just like, all my like, yes, you get a standing ovation for me if you can bring it on home and have every thing make sense. So it's kind of like, you know, if I were to use and it's funny, because now I'm thinking about I'm like, oh, I should have thought about a way to tie in the candle story from the beginning and tie it in now. I mean, we're talking about it again, apparently, because I'm obsessed with this candle that. But it's like if I were to say something about that, and bring it into the story right now, as we're getting closer to the end, and then just having like a boom, like blow your mind experience right at the end. That's what I'm talking about bringing it home. So if you're creating your content and your podcast episodes, and you're like I really want this part two be the big takeaway. Consider adding that towards the end of your content. So you can have that standing ovation moment so you can have that like oh, that was so So good. And those are the times, you know, sometimes I'll say, let me repeat that. And I'll say it again, I will have that in my notes like bolded, or italicized or all caps, because it's really important. And I usually bring that down to the end of my content when I'm delivering it. So bring it on home, bring your story home, land the plane, but you want to make sure that you finish your really awesome story with something that people are going to

And then the last thing number seven, knowing how to make an entrance, and end on a high note. So I guess we are coming back full circle, because today, y'all I just talked about the candle story like seven times now. But that was my insurance for today. And I didn't, that's not in my outline. I didn't write that down to say, Oh, let me make a note that I really need to talk about my candle. I talked about that today, because I want to be relatable. I want to kind of have an icebreaker at the very beginning that helps us settle into the content settle end of the podcast, you know, maybe you're still lacing up your shoes whenever we first started. And you're like, What the heck is she talking about a candle? What is what is this or you're driving and you're just getting out of your neighborhood and you're like, Okay, we're buckle up like this is gonna be, it's gonna be one of those episodes, while you're driving down the road, make a strong entrance, don't just turn on the mic and say, Okay, I have four things share with you today, number one, but maybe you need to do that in other types of content. But I'm going to highly encourage you to have a hook at the beginning, have something where you're not just Hi, I'm Krystal. And today, this is a podcast number one. And we're just going to jump in, make somewhat of an entrance, make an effort to break the ice with your audience so that they stay more engaged. And they're not like, Gosh, I really wish this was just a blog post. And I didn't have to listen to her ramble on. And maybe some of your content needs to be a blog post instead of a podcast episode. I'm okay with that. I know, there's some things that I could care less about talking about. But people ask me about it. I'm like, Well, I guess I'll make that a YouTube video. But I will make it really short because I don't really like to talk about it. But making an entrance and ending on a high note. So what I like to do to end on a high, low, high, high, low note high note is to do a recap. It's to share something that I think would be very helpful for those of you that maybe I know you're struggling with this identity of trying to figure out your content. And that's what today's episode is all about, like, what is your content going to be moving forward moving into the next quarter of 2022? What do things look like? Are you going to be doing some reflection? I'm making a lot of inferences and assumptions about what you need right now, if you're listening to this in real time when it airs. And I'm trying to help you understand that you can take these parts of your life like who would have thought I'd be sitting here, educating you on my own comedy experience and the reasons why I'm a student of comedy, but I bring it all up because I think it's important. I think it's awesome that you can take experiences in your own life and use those in your content. It's how I'm able to stand out and I get the question all the time. When I'm on podcast episodes, I'm on live streams I get questions from people is how do I stand out? Well, you do it by sharing your own stories, sharing your own experiences. I don't know that there's other podcast and content strategist out there that are talking about listening Jeff Foxworthy in their dad's plumbing truck on the way to the donut shop before school. I just don't know that. That's the thing. I don't know that that's happening. So bring in like, bring in your own experience. Bring in your own life, to help people understand you better, and therefore make your content better. Oh, I love today's episode. This was so much fun. I hope that you enjoyed it as much as I did. You didn't click it off about like two seconds in and you're like I care less about comedy. I hope that even if you're not a student of comedy, you stick around until the end, because this was the highlight of my week. It was so much

Go to the show notes. KrystalProffitt.com/episode347 to check out everything we talked about here today. But that's all I have for you. Y'all. That was it. Do you want a quick recap? Okay, let's see. Let's see. Let's go back to the beginning. Number one, timing, number two quick wit or whatever. other characteristic you want to work on or practice on, it's got to happen. Number three, use those simple life experiences and make them have meaning. So, so important. Number four, use a great story

And again, go to the shownotes KrystalProffitt.com/episode347. But real fast, I was gonna say about the high note since we're here, right, we're at the end of this piece of content. I love the phrase keep it up, we all have to start somewhere. That is a high note for me. That is something that hits me at my core every time I say it, even though at this point, I have literally said that phrase 1000s of times, it still is something that is a high note for me.