Why Opening Jokes Matter

The most important moment a comic has is the moment they walk on stage. You convey everything with your body language, face, smile, frown, wave, or lack of acknowledging the crowd. You either demonstrate confidence and control or nerves and anxiety. Most people will start making judgements about you immediately. For better or worse. I'm talking about the showcasing comics. The middle acts. The openers. When Jim Gaffigan walks on stage, the whole room knows him. But for most of you reading, the only people who know you are your friends who came out. And they won't be there on the road. If they are, either they are super loyal or potentially stalking you. Which is really just a form of loyalty. 

The second most important moment is when you open your mouth and say the first joke. And it should be a joke, because it's a comedy show. Assuming you're not the host, you have one moment to get the crowd excited about the journey you're taking them on. That first joke is going to create a flight or fight moment. That first joke is going to either inspire hecklers or tell them to back off. And this moment happens in every show. From dive bar s**t shows to theater corporate gigs. Comedy is always comedy. It's the first impression, and while a bad first joke can be recovered from, you know the old adage: You never get a second chance to make a good first impression. 

So many comics self-sabotage their act by wasting time on stage. Either through silly dancing while the intro music is playing, trying to hype up the crowd with "Heyyyyy where my [single people/married people/random ethnic group/random gender group] at?" or acting confused on stage ("What do I want to talk about?"). 

So let's dive into what you should be doing in that first 20 seconds.

You Should Be Building an Identity  
What that first moment should be doing is creating an identity on stage. The first joke let's the crowd know the style of comedy you're doing. Are you dirty? Clean? Observational? Personal? Intellectual? Silly? There are a lot of ways to go. But the first thing you say builds a foundation. It's the moment people start to build the impression you try to give them and NOT the impression they created in their head. This is beyond crucial to your show going well. 

Identity is then the prism in which the rest of the set makes sense. If you walk up on stage and go "What's up Fuckers!" and then try to tell jokes about puppy sitting and church, unless they're "ironic," you will create a whiplash that makes no sense. If you start with something innocent, lacking a dark edge and switch into dirtier jokes about sex, the crowd is going to be confused. And not in a fun Andy Kaufman way either. But in a open micer just took a dump on the stage sort of way. 

Your Identity can be fleshed out over the set, but the crowd should get a sense of who you are immediately. Are you the fun aunt or uncle type? The tired parent? The swinging single guy? The creepy clown? The deadbeat child? The overthinker? The shy tech nerd? Something should scream out to the audience about how you think about yourself. They should be able to see your desk at work and your room at home in their head.  

For me, I start with insecurity. My act is a balancing back and forth between a full dating life traveling around the country for work or comedy while never feeling secure about any of it. Imposter syndrome galore. This allows for people to believe my stories about dating adult film actresses while looking like Frodo Baggins and working in TV and film while never feeling like it will last. This also gets the crowd on my side faster, as they like rooting for me. And I have to do this in the first 20 seconds. 
I can do this in a few ways. One way is by saying a "first joke" and the other is having an established "opening joke." There is a difference and I'll beak that down now. 

Opening Jokes Should Start Off Most Sets 
An opening joke will establish you and your style of comedy. I usually make a weight loss or weight gain joke, depending on where I am in my life. But the purpose is to get the crowd into a trance - to sell my act off the bat. I've changed it over the years.

When I was 260 pounds, my opening joke was:
"Glad to be here. Thank god I'm in an air conditioned room. I hate the heat. Because I'm fat. Hell, I sweat eating a salad. That's just a joke. I don't eat salad."   

After losing weight because of heath changes:
"I'm excited to announce my doctor told three years ago to lose fifty pounds and I've done it and kept it off! I no longer feel like a fat guy who has to lose fifty; instead I feel like a skinny guy who just gained thirty."  

Notice each joke has a self-deprecation tone. It let's the audience know how I see myself. And it lets them know it's okay to laugh with me and at me, because I do it too. 

And while your opening joke doesn't have to be self-deprecating, it should give them a taste of the type of jokes you'll be slinging all night.    

First Jokes Are Not Opening Jokes 
While an Opening Joke is an identify defining joke, first jokes are just that: the first joke. There can be multiple types of "first jokes" that help establish your style of comedy. Here a few examples:

• Joke from the previous comic's set (tag) 
• Joke about the venue 
• Joke about a person in the front row 
• Joke about the city/local establishment 
• Joke about the neighboring city 
• Joke about your trip over 

While these jokes demonstrate quick wit, and I do these types of jokes a lot, they can also make the rest of your set feel wooden by comparison. That is because everything following will have a script rhythm to them. But here are a few of my favorite first jokes I might do. 

When the last comic or host is tall and good looking:
"Give it up for [_______]! Wasn't he great? He's everything my ex girlfriend wished I was." 

When I'm in a rough part of California:
"Who here is from [this city]? Who here is from [neighboring city]? Great, we'll meet in the parking lot after my set for the gang war. I hope you wore the right colors!"    

These jokes don't really say anything about my act, but what they do is create the potential of future improv and off-the-cuff possibilities. And that can open you up and be the reminder YOU (yes, you!) are funny and not just the jokes. 

Final Thoughts
As you navigate through your comedy journey, you have to remember that as you evolve, so will your jokes. So don't be afraid to change the opening joke as you change. With that said, make sure the opening joke shows a sense of your act so the crowd can feel excited about the set. Recently, I made a mistake of making an Epstein joke that got big laughs from half the crowd and bigger groans from the other half. Which means I had to tap into my dirtiest jokes only, limiting my ability to flow through the act as I desired. By creating a division up front, my more evergreen jokes didn't hit and I was forced into blue crowd work about a married couple looking for a throuple that got a great response. They didn't know I was drowning and using the crowd work as a safety raft. It's a trap and if you go too far off course, pivoting can be tricky.  

​Regardless of your choice to start with a tag joke from early in the night or sticking with a tried and true opening joke, you never reach the level you want if you just jump into odd observational humor. You then become a human joke book and not a flesh and blood person. You can move into those observational jokes later, but not until they get a sense of who you are first. Because after that you will have created a space that invites all the creativity you need to be the comic you want to be.