Finding Your Comic Genius by Adam Bloom

As anyone (anyone?) who’s been regularly browsing this blog will know, in the last few months I’ve begun doing some stand up comedy. And, as will also be obvious to regular readers of TriumphOfTheNow.com, I adore to read, so it was only a matter of time before I would find myself reading a book on the topic in an attempt to self-improve or, at minimum, other-understand.

This book, Finding Your Comic Genius: An In-Depth Guide To The Art of Stand-Up Comedy by Adam Bloom, is one that comes highly recommended.

Many people I’ve met and encountered during my maladjusted attempts at mingling/networking on the comedy open mic circuit have recommended this book (by many people I mean two, but two is considerably more than zero!), and it’s also something that I have seen advertised online to me based on algorithmic choices I’ve made. And this copy that ended up in my hands was given to me as a birthday gift from my sister, so there’s no real excuse whatsoever for me not to give it a go.

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First off, I do have to admit that Adam Bloom is not a performer/writer whose work I was particularly familiar with previously, but the blurbs on the book from very famous (and even kinda infamous!) internationally performing comedians go a pretty long way towards justifying his claims about knowing what he is writing about.

Bloom is not only a performer and a writer, but he’s also a ghost writer, he’s also someone who works with other comedians to make their material and their performances better. He is, therefore, imminently qualified to write this book.

Given the high fame level of the people willing to blurb the book, I was surprised to notice, once I had a copy in hand, that this is a self-published, (or possibly micro-press) published book. However, I know better than to be shocked by this…

When I had a conversation with the acclaimed (and, to my mind, globally leading in terms of quality) internet slash post-internet novelist Jarett Kobek last year, he mentioned that, actually, if you have the readership equivalent to even the least anticipated book published by a mainstream publisher, then it is far more lucrative to a writer to self publish than to be published via a traditional publisher.

Unless the book is going to need a legal team to fight for allegations in its content, prestige (a familiar logo or cover design!) is desired and/or a serious marketing budget is needed, then it’s a no brainer.

And Bloom has clearly made the right call here, as by nothing but word of mouth (and the blurbs, which one presumes were favours rather than purchased), Finding Your Comic Genius has managed to become the go-to bible for the new (and ongoing) comedian, as – as I mentioned – I’ve had this book organically recommended in person multiple times, and algorithmically it had appeared in my online peripheries separate to those occasions, too. I received the book as a gift from my sister, which means she found it, too. (I think it was a good gift, and – especially as my sister has seen me perform a couple of 5 min sets  – I chose to see the gift as a very supportive, rather than a critical gesture… Not a “give up, you’re shit”, but a “nice work but here’s some tips” kinda gesture. Supportive, yes, I think? (Maybe all those shouts to “abolish the family” are misplaced? (They’re not, sorry, abolishing family structures isn’t about not getting on with the biological siblings you already have)…)

Finding Your Comic Genius is the book, then, on the scene, on the circuit. I haven’t done any performing since reading it (and, sadly, may not end up doing any until January as I’m struggling to get myself into a practical schedule where I can attend a Toronto open mic atm as though there are a few about, many seem to only take sign ups on the day and also start at like 11pm and I’m not in a life stage where I’m out in bars at 11pm on the off chance I might get to do and watch some amateur comedy, though if I was here for longer I’d obviously make the fucking effort, of course I would, Jesus Christ, sure), but I have taken the writing advice towards the material I’m working on while I’m here, and I’m looking forward to drilling down on some of the intricate and syllabic/rhythmic advice included before I next take to a stage (/corner of a room)…

Because, yes, although there’s lots of super useful big picture stuff – status and how this is portrayed and why it’s important, tone/content and the need for this to match or be contrasted in an interesting and intentional way, how to approach improvisation and audience interaction etc etc etc etc (there’s also a good and practical – though way beyond my level! – appendix on the practicalities of corporate entertainment gigs and how this differs from clubs/theatres/standard performance venue audiences and expectations) – there’s also really good and really detail oriented stuff that looks at how language, rhythm and structure – down to a sentence and even word-choice level – makes a huge difference to performance.

It’s all useful advice that makes a lot of sense, and it’s full of examples of the sounds, structures and forms that can be used to craft great comedy. I will definitely continue to refer to it as I draft and redraft my own performance work, I think.

What I thought, though, was conspicuously absent while reading this book was any big laughs. Any jokes or routines that are included in full here tend to have been analysed and dissected in part (or in draft) prior to being included in their final form, meaning that the things that tend to make something funny have been spun and teased out and listed to the point where the jokes (or parts of jokes) in here arrive as if a cold leftover after you’ve already watched a chef serve many happy patrons. Like, the book isn’t trying to be funny and failing – it’s about building and structures and meanings and language. Jokes are here to be analysed and understood, not laughed at. Comedy books exist (here’s another self-published one, for example), but this is one about the subject, not an example of it.

And that’s the point of the book – this isn’t material for plagiarising, it’s about teaching approaches and forms, and more importantly it’s about emphasising the importance of intent and effort and work.

Yes, intent and effort and work. The things that matter more than quick wit and excellent timing and funny ideas – those things don’t grow or develop (or remain indefinitely) if the effort and the intentionality and the work doesn’t go into the performance and the writing. Which is important to remember.

It’s an interesting book. It’s interesting that it’s self-published and so well known. It’s interesting that it’s about comedy but I don’t think I laughed many times while reading it. But it’s also interesting because the general consensus seems to be that the advice within is rock solid.

So, yes, I should pay attention to it and go write, go edit, go perform, and put some more effort in…

Yes, I think I will …