---
title: Stand-Up & Comedy Writing
description: Comedy is a craft with structure. You will learn joke writing and premise development, set construction, stage presence and open mics, and how comedians actually develop material.
category: music-audio
subcategory: theater-and-acting
difficulty: beginner, intermediate, advanced
url: /subject/stand-up-comedy-and-comedy-writing
---

# Stand-Up & Comedy Writing

Comedy is a craft with structure. You will learn joke writing and premise development, set construction, stage presence and open mics, and how comedians actually develop material.

## Available Resources

2 Books

## Podcasts

### 1. Good One: A Podcast About Jokes

**Author:** Jesse David Fox

Vulture critic Jesse David Fox plays a single joke or bit, then dissects it with the comedian who wrote it, covering where the premise came from and how it changed onstage. Guests include John Mulaney, Tig Notaro and Bo Burnham. The one-joke-per-episode format makes premise-to-punchline development concrete.

**Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free

**Link:** https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/good-one/id1203393721

**Tags:** comedy-writing, joke-analysis, stand-up-comedy, comedian-interviews

### 2. The Comedian's Comedian Podcast

**Author:** Stuart Goldsmith

Long-form interviews in which stand-up Stuart Goldsmith asks comedians such as Stewart Lee, Bill Burr and James Acaster how they write, structure shows, handle bad gigs and build careers. More than 500 episodes since 2012. The deepest free archive of working comics explaining their methods; questions are technical (writing routines, editing, performance) rather than promotional.

**Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free

**Link:** https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-comedians-comedian-podcast/id513734888

**Tags:** stand-up-comedy, comedian-interviews, comedy-writing, comedy-craft, comedy-careers

## Youtubes

### 1. Jerry Seinfeld Interview: How to Write a Joke

**Author:** Jerry Seinfeld

Five-minute New York Times Magazine video in which Jerry Seinfeld walks through his handwritten drafts of the Pop-Tart bit, explaining how he trims syllables, builds segues and spends years refining a single joke. A short, concrete look at a professional's editing process on paper; shows the rewriting habit that books describe only in the abstract.

**Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free

**Link:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itWxXyCfW5s

**Tags:** joke-writing, comedy-rewriting, stand-up-comedy, jerry-seinfeld

## Books

### 1. Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life

**Author:** Steve Martin

The best first-hand account of how an act is actually developed over years of club work; widely recommended by working comics as essential reading. Steve Martin's memoir of his eighteen years developing a stand-up act, from magic shop tricks and folk clubs to arenas. Details how he built an anti-punchline style, tested material nightly and decided when to quit.

**Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid

**Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/1416553657?tag=edmonddante07-20

**Tags:** stand-up-comedy, comedian-memoir, comedy-act-development, steve-martin

### 2. Step by Step to Stand-Up Comedy

**Author:** Greg Dean

Greg Dean's structured method for building jokes from setup assumptions and reinterpretations, then turning them into routines. Covers writing exercises, rehearsal, stage fright, working open mics and handling hosts, aimed at first-time comics. Gives an explicit, teachable model of joke mechanics (target assumption, reinterpretation, reveal) instead of vague advice, plus drills.

**Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid

**Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0325001790?tag=edmonddante07-20

**Tags:** stand-up-comedy, joke-structure, comedy-writing, open-mics, stage-performance

---

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