Comedians and still photographers have something in common

Dorie Griggs performs at the Punchline as part of her graduation from Jeff Justice's comedy class.

Mike Sacks discovered in his research for a book on comedy a common link of many comedy writers is OCD. Sacks is on editorial staff of Vanity Fair and the author of And Here’s the Kicker: Conversations with 21 Humor Writers About Their Craft.  

Sacks admits that he is OCD and believes it is true for 70% of comedy writers.

While not all my photographer friends are OCD and I haven’t done any research on it, I have noticed many of my photographer friends have OCD tendencies.

You need to be persistent to find the right words, just as the photographer must continue to look for the right moment to communicate.

Poets will spend years on poems looking for the right word for their poem. The difference between word choices is profound.

Advertising slogans can flourish or die with the difference in a word choice.

While “it” and “something” can both be anything, “just do it” is everything “Just do something” is not. See, copy does matter. --@leeclowsbeard Twitter

It’s the story

A well-developed character is core to good comedy and not necessarily the joke. Jokes are the sauce of comedy and not the steak. They often teach comedy writers to take out the jokes and if it is not funny, go back and rewrite it. Once the story is funny adding a joke just adds to the humor.

Photographers will work situations and find they have lots of photos of a subject. When they go through and edit the photos they need to boil down to those moments that tell a story effectively.

Analyzing why something is funny is a like trying to discover why people fall in love. It is not impossible to understand, but it does take a lot of experience and certain amount of talent to understand it.

Timing

Writing good comedy is a lot like writing music. The words must fit a rhythm and beat when delivered or it just doesn’t work.

My wife took a comedy class from Jeff Justice here recently. The last class is actually their performance at the Punchline. Getting to listen and watch their first performances as compared to listening to seasoned pros had more to do with their timing than with the words.  I could feel the lack of rhythm in their delivery and then when a seasoned pro closed the night off, could sense the next line and how wonderful it felt.

What the comedian must write into their routine is silence. It is one of the most important aspects of good comedy and music. The famous jazz artist Miles Davis used silence to create his melodic melodies create mood and an atmosphere.

The audience needs time to absorb the situation and understand it before they can respond to a punchline. Some of the best comedians can take you through a series of punchlines to a great crescendo by just spacing the lines a part from each other.

The key to timing understands the need for the audience to absorb a moment. This is the common thing that still photography and comedy have in common.

A visual moment needs time to be absorbed and depending on the moment may need longer for better impact.

It is all in the delivery

While the comedian has written all their material and practiced it over and over, then final piece of success and failure is in the delivery to the audience.

Printed on the page these same routines will be flat.  The comedian brings them to life.

For the photographer the deliver of the image to the audience needs space and time as well. This is where one good image with text is far more powerful than a video that doesn’t give the audience the time to absorb a moment.

Just as the comedian doesn’t pause after every word, neither does a video need to be all stills to have impact. The communicator understands what moments need a pregnant pause.

One thing I have come to believe is a key to when something needs a visual pregnant pause is when it is emotional. It can be on either end of the emotional spectrum from pure joy to despair, both ends of the spectrum need more time to breath.

As you move more to the center of fewer emotions then the time necessary is less.