I was at this conference.
Minding my own ‘bidniz’ waiting for the expo center to open up.
A dude comes up behind me in line and said five words that made me turn my head in laughter as to not bust wide open in his face.
Let me start by saying he was carrying this little chair thingamajig. He said he had bad feet and couldn’t stand long.
So each time the line moved he’d pop his bum off the chair, scooch it up a few feet, slap the cheeks back down, and commence to do what he was doing.
And what was he doing?
He was telling these one-liner jokes.
Oh, but don’t get the idea I was laughing at the jokes.
Are you KIDDIN’!
How much lip curl can you get from… “What do you get when you mix a bell with a camel?”
Okay, I admit, I was laughing way before the punchline ever arrived. I couldn’t believe one adult was telling another these jokes.
I mean it was hysterically pathetic.
I started to feel sorry for the guy.
But the more he went on, the more I could hardly contain my laughter, and yet I felt really sorry for this guy.
Then came the punchline of all punchlines.
And he was dead serious and it was no joke.
To him it wasn’t anyway. Me? I nearly pissed myself right there.
He told me he was…
A STAND-UP COMEDIAN.
I am not making this up!
A stand-up comedian who can’t stand up or tell a joke?
I bet he’s still sitting in the unemployment line.
But, again. Like everything in life, we can find a nice little songwriting lesson from this poor dude.
See any similarity here to what your song should do?
When he said he couldn’t stand up long, and had his little chair there, I was somewhat curious. After all, he was the only one in line carrying his own personal EZ chair. Get a listener’s attention.
Then when Romper Room jokes emerged I was being set up. Not like he thought, but I was set up nonetheless. The funny gun was cocked and finger on the trigger. Draw in your listener.
Then came the payoff of payoffs, I never would have expected. The standup comedian bit. Let them have it good with a lyrical climax.
You could even twist it up with the unexpected, like our lame jokester here.
I see at least two more songwriting lessons from this scene. Maybe some other time on those.
This little ditty has zero to do with June’s issue of Tune Booster, but that shouldn’t prevent you from subscribing in the next day or so when subscriptions open up. Stay tuned for an e-mail on that.
Get your tune on.
Until next time… keep writing from the heart.