AboutTom Expertise I can answer questions about The Capitol Steps, a political (mostly musical) satire group based in Washington, DC which performs in Washington, around the U.S., and four times a year on public radio. I can answer questions about who is performing which role in Capitol Steps sketches and songs on albumns and can help identify a routine (and which albumn or radio show includes it) based on partial lyrics. I can also provide tips and suggestions for those interested in writing and performing spoonerism-based comedy similar to the Steps` "Lirty Dies."
Experience I have been a Capitol Steps fan since about 1995. I own all the albumns and have listened to each dozens of times. I have particularly studied (and particularly admire) the "Lirty Dies" routines and I have written and performed material of this sort. Despite the fact that I live halfway across the U.S. from Washington, I've attended many live Capitol Steps performances, including several at their permanent locations in the DC area.
Question I used to be an awesome class clown at school but lately i seemed to have lost my touch. If it helps, I say funny stuff and rarely do. Examples:
Teacher: Who knows what effect litter has on animals?
(No answer)
Teacher: Ok, Matt (a student) is walking in the forest and he throws his empty Coke bottle away. A racoon comes along. What happens?
Me: Well, Coke just got one more customer.
(Laughing)
Example 2:
Teacher: At our house we're very prepared for emergiances. I mean when one comes, what do you do?
(Question your not suppose to answer)
Me: Scream and Run?
(Giggle, people trying not to laugh)
Teacher gives me that'your so immature' look.
Example 3:
A comic shows the great depression with 2 fired employees in suits.
Me: I have a question. They look wealthy, so how are they poor?
Teacher: BlahBlah(explaining)
Me: So they're hobos in tuxedos?
Teacher: Blah, Blah (continues explaining.) So now there families and him are poor.
Me: So they're all hobos?
Lately, Im having more trouble being funny. Can you help me?
Answer Brayden --
This question is a little out of my area, which has more to do with planned comedy than with opportunistic one-liners. However, I can identify with your situation in that I also am pretty fast with this sort of situational humor and it would be frustrating (even a bit scary) to begin to think that people were no longer finding me funny.
So, here's my guess: I'll bet that your sense of humor is just as good as it ever was. Your examples indicate that you are quick to see the absurd side of everyday statements and situations, and this is good humor.
So, why does it appear to you that you're having trouble being funny? I don't really know enough to say what's going on in your particular situation, but reasons that I can think of might include that you're expecting too much, trying too hard, or just wearing out your friends by overdoing it. That last one could easily happen if your sense of humor works so much faster than others' that you're producing more material than they really have time or energy to laugh at.
So, one idea I have might be for you to experiment with cutting your output to, say, 50% on a trial basis. If you figure you normally could do 30 funny comments in one day, see if you can cut back to taking only the 15 best opportunities each day and letting the other 15 pass by without commenting out loud. I think it would be interesting to try this, even just for a week.
This is just an idea; you'll need to decide if it seems applicable to your situation. (This exercise would also be good practice if you think you might ever want to perform comedy -- except that to get a good performance routine, you probably have to consider only using the best 5% of your ideas!)
