PAIN The delightful charm monster, Patrick Holbert, joins us to pick away at PAIN in stand-up comedy. We talk about how pain is the source of much of stand-up, both physical and emotional, and how usually the audience needs to know that the pain is ultimately “ok” in order to laugh. We cover generational pain, the occupational hazards of talking about pain, how to refocus personal pain onto a “shared” experience rather than just making it about you, and how Patrick went about talking about...

GAY S**T In this episode, the "illustrious" Jay Jurden joined us to gayly talk about gay humor and also humor about gayness. Our goal was to examine the relationship between stand-up comedy, homosexuality, and homophobia, tracing a path from Richard Pryor to the present. We cover how approaches to jokes about male homosexuality have shifted over the decades as American values have changed. We REALLY enjoyed listening to how crowds received this kind of material from one decade to the next....

MORALITY The Daily Show’s Roy Wood Jr. examines MORALITY in the context of stand-up comedy. Stand-up dances the lines of right and wrong, good and bad, proper and improper. Sometimes the question is,”Why in the world are you behaving like this?” Other times it’s, “Why is the world behaving like this?” The comedy we laugh at the most always plays with transgression, so what are some methods a comedian uses can deal with topics that push our moral sensibilities? Roy discusses how he spoke...

CALLBACKS The 8’9″ LeClerc Andre crawled in on his hands and knees to get through the doorway to lay down on the ground while he helped us explore CALLBACKS in stand-up comedy. A specialty of his, LeClerc walked us through (crawled us through, really) how he writes callbacks, the effect they have on the crowd, and how much late night shows love callbacks for their short, 5 minute stand-up features. We compare and contrast callbacks with running gags, catchphrases, crowd work callbacks, and...

CLEAN (part 2 of 2) In this second part of our CLEAN comedy interview of the pathologically nice Steven Rogers, we jump right into great material. We listen, laugh, and geek out over it through the lens of everything we explored about clean comedy in part one, so if you haven’t listened to the first installment, do that now. The bits we picked are fantastic–you’ll get some legendary Ray Romano, a taste of the genius Finish comic, Ismo Leikola, and some early hilarity from the brilliant...

CLEAN (part 1 of 2) It’s hard to say whether Steven Rogers is nicer than he is funny or vice-a-versa, but with Stephen Colbert and Brian Regan giving him their official thumbs up, the formula works. Steven will hate this description, but he’s so neighborly, let’s call him stand-up’s young Mr. Rogers. As such he joins us to discuss CLEAN as it relates to stand-up comedy. What the heck does clean even mean? Clean content? Clean presentation? Swears, innuendo, drugs, religion, politics, general...

The way-too-likable, philosophically funny comic, Bret Raybould, explores the role of PRESENCE in stand-up from a makeshift recording studio inside Bret's private plane. We break this topic down into "being present" and "stage presence", touching on the stages of learning, flow state, body language, not giving a f**k, and knowing your act. Bret tells us how dealt successfully with following SNL's Leslie Jones after she brought down the house. We dig into these aspects of presence and a lot...

PATREON LINK: https://www.patreon.com/letstalkaboutsets SEE JEFF (MCBRIDE) ON TOUR (6/2/19-July)! DETAILS AND TICKETS: http://www.jeffmcbride.com/shows COMEDIC STORYTELLING (AGAIN) The loquacious, award-winning raconteur and NYC stand-up comic, Jeff Simmermon, hopped on the mic for the show’s second foray into COMEDIC STORYTELLING. He explains his own simplified version of Dan Harmon’s simplified version of Christopher Vogler’s simplified version of Joseph Campbell’s “The Hero With A...

ormer NYC comedy wunderkind, now a full grown rocket-to-the-top funny manchild, Usama Siddiquee, returns to the show to explore the central pillar of laughter, CONTRAST, through killer bits by Nate Bargatze, Andrew Schulz, and Demetri Martin.

FAMILYThe hilarious and legendary Jackie Kashian joined us to talk about FAMILY in stand-up comedy. Everyone has a family, and everyone has family dysfunction, so this topic is one of the most fundamental, relatable, and powerful elements of stand-up. By its nature, making jokes about one's roots involves talking about the problems, the disappointments, and the tragedies. But how do you make fun of your family without ruining your relationships? When does it work, and when doesn't it? Some...

THE SETUP Undeniably funny, whitely awkward Geoffrey Asmus joins us to explore THE SETUP in stand-up comedy. Like most things in life, the bulk of the work goes into setting things up. If the punchline is the slide, the setup is the stairs to the top. But what is the setup for a joke? Information? Structure? Misdirection? A wink? Any of the above? Is the setup the premise, or is a premise just a part of the setup? We explore these comedy nerd questions along with some setup structures, and...

JOKE THEORY (PART 2 of 2) Harrison Greenbaum shows how he actually applies all his theories from part 1 of JOKE THEORY to his stand-up writing and performance. We go step-by-step through some of his best material, laughing and geeking out the whole way. It's f*****g awesome, so just listen to it. But make sure you've heard part 1 first, ok? (I'm so cranky, I've been working through technical fuckery on this second half for days.) ABOUT THE GUEST COMIC Harrison Greenbaum been featured on...

JOKE THEORY (PART 1) The magically funny, wildly prolific, and hyper-analytical Comedy Cellar comic, Harrison Greenbaum, delivers a masterclass on JOKE THEORY! He's been doing comedy since he was 18 years old, and he wrote his Harvard psych thesis on stand-up! Harrison enthusiastically shares his favorite joke theories he's learned from others; and he generously outlines his own original theories. These are, truly, some of the best and most actionable approaches to jokes we've ever heard....

COURAGE Nationally touring, Brooklyn based comic Brian Enck examines COURAGE in stand-up comedy. Courage is the ability to do what frightens you, so facing fear--fear of failure, fear of non-acceptance, and fear of humiliation--are all central to getting on stage. It takes courage to start, to keep going, and to speak your "truth" or to speak candidly about your flaws, mistakes, or personal weirdness. Yet it's that vulnerability that can yield some of the most powerfully funny comedy...

CONFIDENCE The delightfully confident comedian, Sally Ann Hall, joins us to explore CONFIDENCE as it pertains to the craft of stand-up comedy. What is confidence conceptually? Why is it so critical for a good performance? Where does it come from and how can a stand-up develop it? How do you explain the relationship between portraying yourself as a low-confident person in your material while simultaneously displaying immense confidence as a performer and a writer? We f*****g loved recording...

ANECDOTES Newly-minted Netflix "specialist" Kate Willett gets down and dirty with us on stand-up ANECDOTES. Anecdotes are distinct from storytelling. They often lack a complete storytelling framework--a beginning, a middle, and an end. They're usually "pointless." There are no emotional expectations that then are either met or shattered. No one's life is changed by an anecdotal incident. Yet these flimsy, insubstantial retellings of inconsequential events are the backbone of a lot of the...

SELF-DEPRECATION Jacob Williams (MTV's Wild 'N Out, Colbert, America's Got Talent, & a lot more) KILLED it in this episode! We absolutely could not stay on topic, and so what? This conversation was UNDENIABLY funny! It starts to really pick up steam at about 30 minutes, Jacob has us in literal tears of laughter at the halfway point. Between all the goofing around, we hit every angle we could think of on self-deprecating humor in stand-up. We think Jacob is a grand master of it, and...

PACING Fresh from a set on the Late Late Show with James Corden and just two days after dropping his new Comedy Central Records album, “Innocence,” the highly credited and ridiculously funny Joe Zimmerman graced us with a wide-ranging discussion loosely focused on PACING in stand-up comedy. Also of note, Joe responded to John Mulaney’s fervent public wish that he could steal one of Joe’s bits. Pacing is a feely thing. Some of it’s instinctual, and some of it’s learned; but you learn...

PERSPECTIVE Award-winning comedy writer and stand-up comic, Dan Perlman, shares his perspective on PERSPECTIVE in stand-up comedy. Questioning, digging, zooming in and out, and navel gazing are some of the many methods stand-up comics use to quickly shift the perspective on a premise and elicit laughs from crowds. We discuss how providing a new perspective is at the heart of great stand-up. The most memorable bits are capable of briefly re-positioning audiences' mental lens, so we all...

THE ROOM Carolines Breakout Artist Series headliner, Norlex Belma, breaks down THE ROOM in stand-up comedy. When comedians talk about the room, they're referring to a lot of performance parameters: the feel of the crowd, the kind of venue, the demographics, the kind of comedy scene, and the setup of the performance space itself. We thoroughly enjoy ourselves while we dig deep with our comedy nerd shovels into Norlex's experience performing all over the US, highlighting his first headlining...

WRONG Conan alum Mike Recine is a nationally touring headliner and a hysterically twisted joke writer--the perfect guy to explore WRONG comedy. What is it? How can comics do it well, and why can it go so badly? Everyone has laughed at something and said "That's wrong!" Or at least we've all laughed at things that simply are incorrect or illogical. Why? How does that work? What's funny about wrongness, and why is it that kind of comedy such a big deal for society and for stand-up right now?...

I'm off to Burning Man. We'll be back with our regular bi-weekly production schedule in the fall. For more information about the coolest f*****g thing I've ever participated in, see burningman.org.

COMMITMENT Andrea Allan, an aggressive, crazy, "wild animal" of a comedian, joins us to chart COMMITMENT through stand-up comedy. When a comic creates a provocative performance or talks about challenging topics, he or she can face overwhelming negative pressure from the crowd. But if the comic pulls through the end and gets a huge laugh, people will say, "She's committed!" You don't need commitment when everyone already agrees with you or if you're playing it safe. Commitment is for when it...

Happy 4th of July! Hey everyone! Happy 4th of July! We’ve got more great episodes coming this summer, but for now I’m taking a break for family and fun, AND I’m re-jiggering our production workflow to incorporate the talents of our new executive producer, Bobbi Jean Misick. In the meantime, here’s a portion of a recording with the incredibly prolific linguistic genius that is Myq Kaplan. We recorded a full two and a half hours on a wide range of topics. It was a great conversation, but...