Image via Amazon Video

Amazon’s new, Golden Globe–winning TV show, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, tells the story of Miriam “Midge” Maisel, a 1950s housewife who tries her hand at stand-up comedy after her world turns upside-down. Having performed stand-up myself, I found that watching the show was an absolute delight. I was able to use this show as a guide and pick out important tips for those still getting their sea legs in performing stand-up comedy.

Make Connections!

When Midge starts out, she manages to make friends with two people in the world of comedy who want to help her career skyrocket— Lenny Bruce, a fictional iteration of famed New York City comic, and Susie Myerson, an employee at the nightclub where Midge stormed onstage and discovered her talent. Lenny gives her advice on the industry, and even bails her out of jail after she’s arrested for the profanity in her act. Susie, who sees potential in Midge appoints herself as Midge’s manager and agent. The two are invaluable assets to Midge while she is still learning the ropes. Stand-Up can be rough sometimes! Finding other comedy-driven people to be on your side is a great comfort and source of encouragement.

2. Write Your Own Jokes

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Midge’s ex-husband, Joel, was very quickly revealed to be a joke-thief, after Midge hears Bob Newhart deliver a set on TV that Joel had led her to believe he came up with. In 1958, when many TV programs were broadcast live and never aired again, this sort of thing was easy to get away with. These days, a stolen set is easy to spot; we have the internet and can watch any comedian’s set as many times as we like. So do yourself a favor and don’t steal jokes. You’re not the only one with access to WiFi and a functioning memory.

3. Keep a Notebook

When sitting down to write jokes, that blank Word document can be intimidating. Midge keeps a notebook of funny thoughts and potential jokes that pop into her head throughout the day. Nearly every comedian I’ve ever met, myself included, practices this. If you’re thinking of writing a set, this will definitely help. Make sure you take detailed notes, though. When I first started writing my funny thoughts down, I only wrote down a few words or phrases, but didn’t include the context of them. It took me weeks to remember why I had “Alfred Ziti Pie” written in my notebook (it was a joke about sorority names).

4. Test Your Material Before Taking It to the Stage

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Unsure of what will be funny and what won’t, Midge begins testing out material at parties, telling jokes to friends. Before I take any joke on stage, I’ll weave it into a conversation with my friends. It’s a great way to get genuine feedback. Most of the time, your friends want to be encouraging and won’t critique your jokes if you ask them to — so just tell the joke! Don’t let them know that you have plans for the jokes outside the conversation. If you get some laughs, take it onstage! If not, figure out how to make it work or just focus on strengthening what did get a laugh.

5. Pull from Experience

Midge didn’t even realize she was doing stand-up the first time she did; she simply picked up a microphone and started airing her grievances — but she was hilarious. Personal experience is great inspiration for stand-up. In fact, most of my jokes are just anecdotes from my own life. Getting onstage and telling those stories gets a big kick out of the audience, because they can see the authenticity of the story, and relate to it themselves. My friends tell me that knowing that everything I’m saying onstage is true somehow makes it funnier. I tell people all the time; I’m actually not that funny, dumb stuff just happens to me a lot.

6. Live Your Truth!

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Midge’s parents didn’t approve of her going out late to the comedy club, and Joel certainly didn’t like her succeeding where he had failed, but so what! And when Midge hired a comedy writer to help hone her material, she ended up with a bunch of hacky jokes she wasn’t proud to put her name on! If you want to do stand-up, accept the fact that not everyone is going to like you or your jokes, and that’s okay! If you want to go on stage and tell jokes, then go on stage and tell jokes! And tell the jokes you want to tell, because even if no one in the audience laughs at you, you’ve at least made yourself laugh.

7. See What Works

When Midge and Susie team up as comedian and manager, they sit down together to figure out what type of comedian she is. This is especially important to figure out when you’re starting out. Identifying what type of comic you are will make your jokes and delivery stronger. So, do you tell one-liners, or stream-of-consciousness jokes? Personal or political? Once you figure out your on-stage persona, the jokes will just fly right out of you.

8. Figure Out Your Type

In one episode, Midge and Susie spend a night comedy club hopping, watching different sets. Attending lots of comedy shows will give you a really good idea of what the general mood of the comedy world is. It will show you which jokes are being done and how comedians interact with the audience. Having worked at a comedy club, I saw a lot of comedy shows. Being exposed to different sets was very educational. It taught me to be able to pick out what kind of jokes work. For example, save a deadpan delivery for larger audiences — it gets awkward if there’s only like six people in the audience and you’re up there speaking in a monotone voice. And in case you were wondering: No, doing ten minutes of cartoon character impressions is not the same as a stand-up set.

9. Don’t Be Afraid to Bomb

Every comedian you’ve ever seen has had a night where the audience decided they would rather stare at them blankly than laugh. It happened to Midge, it’s happened to me, it’ll happen to you — more than once. And that’s okay! Don’t let it discourage you from pursuing comedy. You can either turn it into a learning experience, or just accept that it wasn’t your night and resolve to do better next time. Either way, don’t take it personally and don’t let it stop you!

10. Have a great closing line

Ideally, your closer should be your strongest joke. You want to end on a high note. Once you’ve got the audience roaring with your closer, you need one last line to exit the stage. Remind the audience who just made them laugh for the past ten minutes, and show your gratitude for their laughter. In the season-one finale, Midge closes her set with, “I’m Mrs. Maisel. Thank you, and good night!” I like to close mine with, “I’ve been Abby Schories, and you’ve been amazing! Thank you!”

As I was watching The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, there were so many moments where, as a comedian, I recognized my own habits and experiences. One of the most on-the-nose moments of the show was when Midge told Susie that she was reticent to pursue stand-up comedy. She said she needed it guaranteed that it would work out for her. The process of becoming a comedian can be frustrating and exhausting. But at the end of the day, getting a laugh from a crowd is worth it. The truth is, there is no guaranteeing doing stand-up will work out for anyone. But it definitely won’t work out if you don’t go out and do it! And now, thanks to Mrs. Maisel, you can figure out which direction to go in!

Video via Prime Video

Paley Matters is a publication of The Paley Center for Media.