Why are they laughing at me? Part 1 Letting them get ahead.

Comedy for kids is a huge subject so I thought I would write about a few of the techniques that I use to create routines that make kids laugh. The first is one I call letting them get ahead. This is basically situation comedy and the idea is to have something happen that you are not aware of and then give a comedy reaction to it when you find out. I guess its basically the old slipping on a bannana peel routine applied to lots of other things. The first thing to realise is that almost anything that gets a laugh will be made funnier if the audience is aware of the situation before you are. Slipping on the bannana is funny but no where near as funny as when you see the person drop the peel and then walk back over it after they have forgotten it was there.

With kids this can be done in so many ways its not funny (excuse the pun). Anything that does something by itself can set up this routine. Imagine this... you put on some big headphones and carefully put a big pin on the table. You then blow up a balloon and put it down on the other end of the table just as you turn away to get the pin so you don't see it fly away. When you turn back you react to the fact that the balloon has disappeared. The kids are yelling that you forgot to tie it while your looking round the room for the balloon pretending you can't hear them. Finally you find the balloon, blow it back up and go to put it back on the table.... I'm sure you get the idea.

Lets look at another example. You carefully balance a uni-cycle on its wheel then walk away to get a run up as the uni falls over. When you turn around you react. Each time you stand it up you try to go faster to get back before it falls and the funnier it is.

And another, You get the old peanuts snake can joke and let the audience see you set it up ready to trick another person in the show. You then put some pickled onions next to it. You bring the person over and ask if they would like some yummy peanuts or a yucky pickled onion. They pick the pickled onion because they LOVE pickled onions. Later in the show your making a cake and it needs some peanuts so you open the can and the snakes pop out.

As you can see with a little bit of thought you can at least double the impact of a funny bit by letting the audience get ahead of you. Try and find things you have that could be used this way and you have a great tool for creating routines.

For information about my shows and routines visit www.drippydragon.com