Two banner ads walk into a bar … and no one notices them. Badum-ching!
OK, I get it: I’m no Dave Chappelle. He’s a critically acclaimed comedy icon who sells out all of his shows. I’m a guy who runs a content marketing firm and is still waiting by the phone for Netflix to call.
But the legendary comedian and I aren’t as different as you might think because, ultimately, we’re both telling stories. He may be presenting in front of large groups of people, and I might be publishing an article online, but we both have to connect with our audience to be successful.
There’s a shift happening right now in the marketing world. We’re moving from making ads to telling stories (subscription required). Storytelling is not a skillset we ad people learned in school, however. Due to this, the industry is turning to the pros for help in shaping their brand stories: screenwriters, filmmakers, podcasters and, yes, comedians.
With this in mind, I reached out to some local comedians to discover just where our jobs converge and how the art of crafting a great joke or set can make any story better -- whether you’re at an open mic night, writing a blog post or pitching a new client.
Make them laugh.
If you don’t get a laugh during a comedy set, you’ve bombed. When telling a story, written or otherwise, coaxing out a chuckle or two should be a goal. After all, laughter is one of our most powerful bonding tools: Studies have identified it as a critical “social glue.” If you can make people laugh, you can make them feel at ease, which is a valuable skill for any storyteller -- even if you’re not in the room with the person when they read your work.
Get comfortable with vulnerability.
When comedians open their sets, it’s often by introducing themselves in a self-deprecating way. “I know what you’re thinking …” is the common lead-in, followed by some variation of: “Did Albert Einstein and Anne of Green Gables have a baby?”
It’s a tactic used to build trust early on because being flawed is accessible and being perfect is off-putting. Similarly, the best stories often come from a place of vulnerability or emotion. If you can open up to your audience, you can gain their trust (and maybe even their affection).
Embrace a personal perspective.
You can’t be neutral as a stand-up comedian. You need to be clear about how you feel about politics, your love life and even riding the bus. The best comedians have a clear point-of-view, even if it’s something the audience disagrees with.
The same is true of great storytellers. Nobody wants a wishy-washy protagonist. After all, a personal perspective makes a story engaging and narratively significant, whether it’s a five-minute bit about job hunting or an 800-word story about what inspired you to become a marketer.
Know your audience.
A comedian can perform the same set in two different venues and have wildly different reactions. For instance, the R-rated jokes you might tell in a club aren’t going to fly with a corporate crowd watching a midday performance. The real pros know they’ve got to tailor their jokes to the audience.
Are you performing in an urban setting or a rural one? Does it need to be buttoned-up or can you slip some slang in the mix? Content marketers need to keep the same audience considerations in mind when crafting their pieces: If you’re not tailoring your story to the reader, you’re likely to miss the mark.
Be unpredictable.
Great jokes often come from subverting expectations, such as building a pattern that you then break, presenting a new way of looking at something familiar or inserting a twist into a story that shocks the audience into laughter. It’s that swerve that keeps the audience hooked and listening closely, and you can bring that same element of surprise into any kind of storytelling.
Explore an idea from multiple angles.
Rarely will you see a comedian bounce from topic to topic (the late, great Mitch Hedberg being an exception). Typically, the performer will explore a subject for a good chunk of their set, but they certainly won’t repeat themselves. They might be talking about their dating life for 10 minutes straight, but they’ll come at it from a new angle for every individual joke.
Similarly, content marketers can tackle one subject in many ways. Just because the subject matter may be set, it doesn’t mean there isn’t an opportunity to get creative. A story for a mortgage lender company, for example, doesn’t just have to be about the bare bones of interest rates. It could be about how to buy your first home, how to save disposable income for a down payment or how to grow a backyard garden. A great storyteller knows there’s plenty of variation to be found on any theme.
Embrace failure.
Even the very best comedians in the world have bad nights: Nobody bats 1,000. Whether it’s a new set of jokes that didn’t land or a small and unresponsive crowd, there’s not much you can do about it but to try again another night.
If you publish a story and it doesn’t get the response you want -- or worse, if it provokes a negative reaction -- it can be disheartening. But the good news is that another opportunity is just around the corner, and it can be empowering to realize that even the most embarrassing of failures shouldn’t stop you.
There are a million ways to tell a story, but the common denominator is fostering human connection. Nothing connects humans better than a joke -- except maybe an umbilical cord, but that would be an awkward way to gain new customers. Alright, that’s my time. Please try the veal.
