Posted by Ian on 2009-10-31
in Anecdote
As a generalisation I think in-jokes when you are performing at corporate events are a mistake. The organiser will occasionally ask if you can make some sort of reference to an individual or to something that happened during the course of the year. The problem is that it can backfire. The most common reason I have found is an assumption by the person giving the information that everybody knows about it: when in fact very few do.
“So and so has failed his driving test for the tenth time – so any reference to that is a guaranteed laugh.” Wanting to please the booker you put together a well-constructed joke to highlight this: only to be met with a couple of laughs from just one table. Afterwards people come up to you and ask what on earth that was all about. When told about the driving test failures, they say that’s the first time they’ve heard about it.
Apart from the risk of back-firing, having to segue in new material into your act can often throw out timing. Most routines – whether comedic or magical – have a rhythm and timing to them: each line or joke is placed in a certain place for maximum impact. If they have to be altered in order to inject a new gag this has the potential of upsetting the apple cart.
It’s for this reason that if you are going to tell in-jokes, better to do than upfront before you start your act proper; so it doesn’t interfere with the rest of your routines. Although, of course, there is then the danger that those jokes don’t work (see above); and you have already lost the audience almost as soon as you have started.
Sometimes, however, happy circumstances do come together. At a recent event I was asking for some names of people who might be good to involve on stage. The organiser was telling me about one man and then said: “you know he’s probably one of the world experts on Rolex watches.” He went onto explain that Sotheby’s would use his advice in the sale of watches and that he had a superb personal collection of Rolexes.
For once I didn’t have to alter my routine or work on a new line. It so happens that I do a trick which involves supposedly smashing a gentleman’s watch. He was earmarked to be that victim. As he returned to his seat after the eventual recovery of his (undamaged!) watch, I nailed him with my usual payoff line: “you do know there’s only one ‘l’ in Rolex.”
“So and so has failed his driving test for the tenth time – so any reference to that is a guaranteed laugh.” Wanting to please the booker you put together a well-constructed joke to highlight this: only to be met with a couple of laughs from just one table. Afterwards people come up to you and ask what on earth that was all about. When told about the driving test failures, they say that’s the first time they’ve heard about it.
Apart from the risk of back-firing, having to segue in new material into your act can often throw out timing. Most routines – whether comedic or magical – have a rhythm and timing to them: each line or joke is placed in a certain place for maximum impact. If they have to be altered in order to inject a new gag this has the potential of upsetting the apple cart.
It’s for this reason that if you are going to tell in-jokes, better to do than upfront before you start your act proper; so it doesn’t interfere with the rest of your routines. Although, of course, there is then the danger that those jokes don’t work (see above); and you have already lost the audience almost as soon as you have started.
Sometimes, however, happy circumstances do come together. At a recent event I was asking for some names of people who might be good to involve on stage. The organiser was telling me about one man and then said: “you know he’s probably one of the world experts on Rolex watches.” He went onto explain that Sotheby’s would use his advice in the sale of watches and that he had a superb personal collection of Rolexes.
For once I didn’t have to alter my routine or work on a new line. It so happens that I do a trick which involves supposedly smashing a gentleman’s watch. He was earmarked to be that victim. As he returned to his seat after the eventual recovery of his (undamaged!) watch, I nailed him with my usual payoff line: “you do know there’s only one ‘l’ in Rolex.”
