How to Properly Build a 30-45 Minute Set

I work with a lot of comics. I've studied a lot of comics. I've taught a lot of comics. So when I tell you the biggest misconception across the board of aspiring feature and headliner acts is the same for 90% of working open micers and showcase comics, I'm telling you there are universal bad habits in both philosophy and structure. Comics have the idea that building a 30-45 minute act is simply building 3-5 minute sets and then like Lego pieces, connecting them. So let me get this out of the way first. 

WRONG! 

While the idea looks correct on paper, combining 7-10 random bits will not be a sustainable or consistent methodology to keep an audience engaged and in the passenger seat with you while you feature or headline. So let's look at how to build a 30-45 minute act that you can take anywhere. 

Lego Building Acts Create Tonal Whiplash
The main reason you don't want to just take random bits about a current job, Joe Biden, your first date, a trip to the Grand Canyon, dating apps, war movies, and forgetting passwords is because they might have nothing to do with each other. If you think of a long set as a road tip, there is a way the map is laid out and elevations increase and decrease. Weather gets progressively colder or hotter. And the scenery fades into new landscapes. Plus, there is a central destination. 

In comedy, your act should be building toward a point where the crowd realizes you've revealed all you can on an aspect of your life. You might be many things, but your act for a few years (or decades in some cases) is showing one side of you. You might have done everything you joke about, but there needs to be a through line for the material to feel connected. 

In more human speak: There has to be a reason you are talking about a topic. If you lack this, you end up just whipping your crowd at your whim, making them confused with tonal whiplash. 

Your Personality and Identity Are Key 
Once you walk on stage, the crowd makes assumptions about you. Some people will naturally be excited and others will be annoyed. Think of your act as a car trip. Would you want to listen to you for 45 minutes straight? Are your stories just "Oh, then this happened...and then this happened...and what's the deal with..." OR are your sharing and building toward a climax of sorts. Are you answering the unasked questions the person in the other seat was wondering about? 

At the start of any set, outside of some riffing about previous comics or the venue, you must establish a few things about yourself. How do you reveal yourself to the crowd? Here's how a few comics clarify identity: The middle age slacker (early George Carlin), the cool sexually free aunt (Amy Schumer), the frustrated boomer (Jerry Seinfeld today), the lazy dad (Jim Gaffigan), or the feminist fed up with feminists (Whitney Cummings). Or maybe it's just the Wild and Crazy Guy (Steve Martin) or the drunk redneck (Ron White) or the macho guy (Joe Rogan).

Through this identity (and it's basically one identity) all your jokes run through that prism. For me, I'm the Almost Successful Single Guy. I joke about jobs that were disasters, advance degrees that mean nothing, dates with hot women that went nowhere, nightmare paid gigs, and my first year teaching that went from inspirational to disaster. Everything is about my hope being snatched away by my own insecurities and indecisiveness. The American Dream gone wrong. Even when I joke about not knowing how to put chains on my tires, at the heart of it is my lack of masculinity. It's through this prism I'm able to create an act that takes a crowd through an aspect of how I see my life, and how I want audiences to see me. 

Creating 3-4 10 Minute Sets With Connected Themes 
Once you figure out the Identity you want to develop, you need to write basically 3-4 ten minute sets with an opening joke and closer that can be connected for a full show. Here's what I'm doing these days:

• 10 Minutes on Losing Weight But Feeling Fat 
• 10 Minutes on Dating Gorgeous Women and Failing 
• 10 Minutes on Overcoming Health Issues and Failing 
• 10 Minutes on Jobs that Never Worked Out 
• 10 Minutes of Being Heckled in Paid Shows 

Then I pick the three or four sets that work best for the crowd, connect them, use crowd work as a transition, and then collect the check. All of them are about my attempts at glory, only to have defeat handed to me on a silver platter. I once explained every joke I do can be broken down as "I win when I lose, and I lose when I win." 

Your Act Should Be Building To Something
When you think about the destination of your 30-45 minute show, keep in mind, your mini-closers thrown in are a taste for the biggest laugh of the night by the end. My mini-closers:

• For Fat Jokes it's shaving my beard to look handsome, only to look worse 
• For Jobs it's using an Australian accent for a food delivery job to make tips to survive 
• For my Health Jokes it's about the fear of impotence and overcoming that through weight loss
• For my Dating Jokes it has to deal with accidently dating an adult film star who just wants money

And I end most sets with me talking about my road gigs, finishing with how my senior center gig lead to me being heckled by an old man. Nothing is more demoralizing than trying to give back only to be walked out on. It's a fun act out and wraps up the whole show. 

​Final Thoughts 
As you are building out 5 minute sets, keep in mind, you want to be interchanging jokes so you can make sure they continue to have a similar theme. Once you have that prism/identity down, the writing becomes easier, and the laughs become more frequent. Even your crowd work will flow better, as you know what you're trying to accomplish. I know getting 10-20 minutes is tough in LA, but if you work with independent producers, venues, and other comics, you will find opportunities to see your act blend together. It might not work at first, but with a little practice and patience, you'll start turning 5 minute sets into 10 minute sets, and one day your 10 minute sets will become 30-45 minute sets, and you will be ready to take on the road like a pro.