Animators attempt stand-up
Don't get me wrong. I'm sure each and every one of you are very funny and talented animators (though I haven't actually checked) but the key here is that stand-up comedians and animators work in totally different styles of comedy.
Animators typically do situational comedy. More of a Comedia del' Arte form of comedy in which the manners and actions of the characters typically have control over everything that happens. They can shape these events into something that's funny by creating the scene.
Stand-up comedians have it much differently. Comedians can only talk and are funny by using three things:
1. Material: The most important thing to a stand-up comedian is their material. What their using and how they are going to deliver it. A couple of the "comedians" only used the Rodney Dangerfield approach which is just put out normal one or two line jokes that only exist for the purpose of being funny. The difference is that Dangerfield would put all his jokes together in a string called "The Necklace". Every joke would have a constant theme which was self degrading. "As a kid I had a lot of acne, one day I woke up and a blind guy was reading my face." Boom! Short, sweet, funny and then he goes into another joke about him or his wife (note: he did joke about things other than this). But when you are just saying old jokes that have no constant theme it's hack-ish and kinda lame. A couple of other people were funny by being bad, which is fine, as long as you validate it. Meaning you're bad, but you put it off. You've got to stay in character. It's like you are trying to convince that you are actually a bad comedian (or something else) but you're really a good one. Stephen Colbert is a great example. Each night he makes fun of senators, judges, congressmen etc. by playing the devils advocate. Ex: "There are more nerve endings in your gut than you're brain. Now some of you may say this is not true, but that because you looked it up in a book and not your gut." Makes fun of people who act on impulse or belief by exemplifying how they are wrong.
2. Tempo: ABSOLUTELY IMPORTANT!!!!!! Tempo is the driving factor in what you do. All comedians have a certain tempo that if you blurred their words into sounds you'd hear a constant beat. You have to keep your tempo or else the entire thing falls apart. The last "comedian" completely broke character by saying "and now time for Bush says the darnedest things." It killed it. The flow of his jokes was broken. People in the audience were no longer drawn into the comedian. As a comedian you have to draw people into you're world and then give em the jokes. If you break the tempo suddenly it's just a guy on a stage who isn't funny. A better way to do it would be to say: "I was listening to Bush the other day on the TV and he said..." then add in a comment about it and your set. Make every joke a present. Give them the introductory: "Listening to Bush", put it inside a box "... and neither do we.", and then wrap it with an end comment.
3. Delieverance: Comedians on stage are doing as much acting as a professional actor doing Shakespeare or improv. In fact, to a certain degree, parts of stand-up comedy is improv. Often, when comedians are heckled they can turn the heckling into another joke. He needs to completely sell his material to the audience. It does not matter what you are saying unless you get into it and make the audience laugh. At a certain point your audience might start laughing at anything you say, as long as you sell it well enough. A comedian with horrible material who acts well is just as bad as a comedian with great material. This isn't to say you have to be very bombastic. Demetri Martin is a great comedian who goes through his entire performance dead-pan (which is another great who of delivering your material). For more examples of dead-pan comedy, please watch The Office.
So in general, for next time, just follow these rules. You could watch Dan Cook, Jerry Seinfeld, The Colbert Report, Squidbilles, The Brak Show, Harvey: Attorney at Law, or any other comedy for examples.
