Expert: Matt McDonald - 8/27/2004

Question
I know in the old school of comedy, true comedians don't use props.I on the other hand do. I play guitar where funny glasses and hats to help create the characters I'm doing.Even when I'm having a killer set some comedians I sense do not like the fact I use props.When I'm book as the feature alot of times the headliner is the one complaining.I think mayb it's because of the different styles that just clash.
When I read about the success of Carrot Top and others who use props, it seems to justify their use.I feel like I'm selling out a bit, however I  have had great success in the use of props.
Your thoughts please

Answer
Harley,

Well, you've asked a purely subjective question, so my answer will have to be purely subjective as well.  I pride myself on honesty, so I'm going to be brutally honest here: I loathe prop comedy.

I think doing parody songs is OK to some extent, especially if it's not the entirity of your act, but once you put on a funny hat and glasses, you've just lost me, both as an audience member and a comic.

I've tried before to come up with an objective reason why - to explain how my view of comedy simply doesn't include props and wigs and Groucho glasses. Put as succinctly as I can, I believe stand-up comedy is mostly about words. Look at guys like Groucho, Cosby, Carlin, Hicks, etc and you'll see that their acts are almost completely wrapped up in the concept of using words to describe their own world view. Anything else is a crude bastardization of the form, in my opinion.

That's my take and the vast majority of comics I've hung around with share it. When you say that you sense some problems from other comics, I'd say you're dead on. I think that probably comes from the fact that many comics, and this would include myself, consider prop comedy an easy way out. I mean, think about it: you put on a funny hat and people laugh. So who should get credit for being funny: you or the person who made the hat? Again, it bastardizes the form, because now you're not solely responsible for the laughs you get. Comedy should be about your ability to see the world in an abstracted way AND your ability to make that abstracted form real to an audience.

Personally, I worked my ass off to write good material, and I would hone it and hone it and hone it. It always chapped me when somebody would come on stage and do something easy to get a laugh, because it cheapened the effort I had made to get the most out of simple words. That goes for props, low-end dick jokes (there are, contrary to popular belief, very well-written, solid dick jokes. Listen to Bill Hicks if you doubt it) and the typical "West Vriginia sister-cousin" type stuff.

To me, it would be like if you were a novelist, but you put pictures in your books simply because you weren't a good enough writer to explain stuff through words. It just seems like cheating, an easy way out.

Another thing that makes me wary of prop comics is that this is a common refuge of rookies and failing open micers. The number of people I've seen bring in ridiculous props for their first time on stage is staggering. This makes me believe that prop comedy is one of the "lowest common denominators" when it comes to style. This is borne out by the number of people I see at Heywood Banks shows who are completely and utterly, well, dumb - his crowds are people who, if they weren't at his shows, would get their chuckles from eight hours of "Hit in the Crotch With A Rake!"  If that's the type of crwod you're going to get as a prop comic, I don't want any part of it.

Granted, Heywood and Carrot Top are rolling in dough but I never judged that as a standard of success because a lot of bad ideas and products have made their inventors a ton of money. Carrot Top and Heywood don't have the widespread respect of their peers and will never be recognized by the society of comics as high-end practitioners. That, to me, is the measure of their success, not how much money they have. Plus, don't you think Carrot Top is getting tired of that hair cut? Don't you think that just once Heywood would like to go on stage in his street clothes? Prop comedy and "character" comics are a real noose because once you establish your style and look, that's pretty much it. You're locked into that forever.  

To me, and this is just my opinion, if you want to do a character-driven "monologue" style act, and you can't do it without props, etc, then you're probably just not very good at it (or you're simply not really committing to it). I'm not knocking you here, but you asked my opinion and that's it. Look at a guy like Cosby - no props in sight, but you can't deny the fact that he creates characters simply via his words, voice and mannerism. Bob Newhart's entire act consists of little two-person plays that he does himself, and he does it all via voice, words and mannerism - no funny hats, no costumes, etc. Just the words.

So perhaps this is really two questions: what do I think of prop comedy (answered above) and, more objectivly, do I think a "character" driven act requires the use of props. And the answer would be "no".

The fact that
a) you yourself say "I feel like I'm selling out a bit"
and
b) you're seeking outside advice re: use of props
should tell you something about YOUR own feelings on the matter. I suspect that you don't enjoy the prop work as much as the non-prop stuff. However, you probably get a better reception from the prop stuff, so you're looking to justify continued use of it. Unfortunately, you've found the wrong bitter comic to ask, because I'd tell you to dump the props post haste and work on a pure stand-up act, even if it means you have to bust yourself back down to open mic status to do it.

And keep this in mind too: in my experience, if the headliner doesn't like you, s/he will do their best to ensure that your showcase spot never turns into anything bigger.

Hope none of this offends you,

Matt

PS Just so you don't think I'm a total elitist jerk, the first half dozen or so jokes that I wrote, way back when I was 16 and years before I got on stage for the first time, were prop jokes.