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My punchline timing was awful until I timed myself with a stopwatch
About 3 months ago I was at a family cookout and told a pun about a ladder that needed a step stool. Total silence, then my brother-in-law said 'you gotta pause longer before the payoff.' So I went home and recorded myself telling 20 jokes into my phone. I found I was rushing the setup and the punchline in under 4 seconds every time. Now I practice each one with a cheap stopwatch, aiming for a 2 second beat after the setup lands. It sounds silly but the same ladder joke got real laughter at my kid's baseball picnic last Saturday. Has anyone else worked on delivery timing, or do you just wing it and hope for a groan?
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rileyjones5d ago
Heard a stand-up comic say the pause is where the laugh actually lives, the joke just sets it up. Tried the stopwatch thing myself after bombing at a work party and yeah, that 2 second beat feels like forever but it works. Winging it is fun until you hear crickets.
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