I’ve been teaching Stand Up since 1995. I’ve been performing Stand Up since 1985. As I prepare to teach another class at Yuk Yuks Edmonton; (the class begins Monday September the 12th and ends Monday Oct 17. The Comedy Grad is Monday October 24.) I’ve been looking at the habits that can make a difference in your Stand Up Comedy.

1. Theme: what are the stories in your life, the big stories that have stuck with you from childhood? These stories carry your “MITACOMEDY-DNA. The big stories in your life is your market brand, the stories that make your stand up unique! I’ve always been this person that was driven to be creative. In the core of this need: Stand Up, Play Writing, Writing Novels, the habits that I’ve found are most paramount are the ones that make us different, traits others might find as weaknesses within us, are strengths!
2. OUR SECRETS: Mine your secrets! The things you’re afraid to share, the failures, heartbreaks, addictions, fears; all these things and more are filled with the ingredients that connect us to an audience. My dad called me “IDIOT.” It took me years to even say this word. Now it’s my theme. All my material is based on the one word I was afraid to even speak. I have other kinks in my armor, I used to have low self esteem, I was a slob! “My mother was a slob. When she went into assisted living, Scientists cleaned out her house and found the hoarding gene!” I picked up some of her hoarding habits. Like most comics, I’ve learned to throw garbage in the back of a rental. After a couple of weeks, the car would be packed ceiling high with wrappers, pizza boxes and papers. This was a habit that I had to learn to undo, just as I learned to undo my fear of speaking, organizing my ideas, and low self esteem!
3. Framing! The ability to amplify (TAG) one of your theme inspired stories into a set is a Comedy Gold mine! In my class we will work on the mechanics of joke writing and story. And we accomplish this by moving into the classic fears most comedians have: doubt, frustration, work ethic and cultivating NEW habits aligned with OUR strengths. What would Sveen do? I decided I wanted to break my habit of having a messy vehicle. I wasn’t prepared emotionally to actually clean the vehicle all at once. I decided to be proactive and grab one large fist full of garbage and throw it out every time I got out of my car. I had a corporate out of town so I went to the bank to get some cash. As I left the car I shoved a fist full of garbage into a pocket and walked into the bank. There was a line up of a hundred people and they were pissed! Apparently the main frame computer had crashed and NO ONE was able to get any money! I finally get to the front of the line. The customer in front of me at the teller was losing his mind, shouting something about opening the account! He stomps out, I step to the teller and ask for 300$. She says: “unless I have the letter that I was given when I opened the account I wasn’t able to withdraw any funds.” I wanted to say, what idiot carries that #!+* letter around? Then, I remembered the fist full of garbage in my pocket! I dig it out and place the pile on the counter. The teller looks at me and digs into the mess with a pencil and screams: “OH MY GOD!” The letter was in the pile! I get my 300 large and walk out of the bank and someone asks how I was able to get some cash! I looked at the guy and said” because I’m an idiot!:  (This is all absolutely true and I told this story at a bank corporate recently filled with tags and it killed!)
4. I’ll share the other habits in another blog soon. If you want the full effect, take my Stand Up Writing Class begging Monday September 12th. Message me on FACEBOOK or E MAIL ME AT: paulsveen@shaw.ca