Interview Questions to Ask a Comedian
For a student journalist, podcaster, blogger or event host who has a stand-up comedian to interview and does not want to open with 'say something funny'. The questions run in the order the conversation tends to go: starting out, writing, on stage, the road, voice and limits, then closers. Each has a note on the follow-up, how a full answer differs from a rehearsed one, and when to leave the question out.
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The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
Starting out
How did you get into stand-up, and what finally got you onto a stage?
Why ask it
This is the one they have answered most, so treat it as a warm-up and listen for the gap between wanting to try and signing up. Whatever closed that gap, a dare, a class, a friend who wrote their name on the list, is a stronger opening for your piece than 'I was always the funny one'.
When did you first find out you could make a room laugh, and who was in it?
Why ask it
The room matters more than the date. A classroom, a dinner table and a break room each give a different reason for wanting the laugh. Ask what they actually said, since people tend to remember the line.
What do you remember about your first open mic?
Why ask it
Push past the polished telling to the small facts: how many minutes they had, what the first line was, who they told beforehand and who they kept it from. If the first one went well, ask about the second, which is often where the real story is.
What was your day job while you were doing open mics?
Why ask it
The day job dates the story and often turns up in the early material. Find out whether leaving it was a decision or an accident. Plenty of working comics still have one, so ask how the two fit into a week without making it sound like a confession.
What did your family make of it when you said this was the plan?
Why ask it
It brings in the people around the comedian without prying into them. Listen for whether those relatives have since ended up in the act, then ask if anyone has requested to be taken out.
How long was it before you got a laugh you had planned?
Why ask it
Early laughs often come from nerves or a slip, and comedians tend to know which kind they got. The answer puts a number of months or sets on the apprenticeship, which is the detail a reader thinking of trying it wants.
What is the difference between being funny with your friends and being funny on a stage?
Why ask it
Readers who are the funny one in their own group want this answered, which makes it a strong pick for a school or campus audience. The answers worth quoting name something that had to go, such as running jokes that lean on shared history, or something that had to be learned, such as waiting out a pause.
Who was the first comedian who treated you like one of them?
Why ask it
A name here opens up the local scene: who ran the room, who gave a note after a set, who handed over a first paid spot. Check the spelling before you leave, because readers will look that person up.
What was the first joke of yours that worked every time?
Why ask it
This asks about a joke without asking for a performance, and many comedians will describe it instead of doing it. Take the description. The follow-up is whether it is still in the set, and what pushed it out if not.
What did you believe about stand-up in your first year that turned out to be wrong?
Why ask it
A thin answer is a slogan about hard work. A full one names a specific belief, such as thinking the writing mattered more than the stage time or the other way round, and the night that corrected it.
Writing
Where does a joke usually start for you: something that happened, a phrase, or something that annoyed you?
Why ask it
Offering three options gets a quicker and more exact answer than asking where ideas come from. Whichever they pick, ask for the most recent example, since a joke from last week is remembered in more detail than a famous one.
Do you write at a desk, or do you work it out on stage?
Why ask it
Comedians split on this and each camp likes to explain itself. For a desk writer the follow-up is what a page of notes looks like. For the other kind it is a night when a bit went somewhere they had not planned.
Can you take me through one bit from the first idea to the version you do now?
Why ask it
If you have room for one long answer, spend it here. Name the bit yourself, from a set you have watched, so they do not have to choose, and ask what the first version was missing.
How many times does a new joke go in front of an audience before you trust it?
Why ask it
The number matters less than the method. Ask where they try new material, whether they record those sets, and what they listen for when they play one back.
When a joke is not working, how do you decide whether to cut it or move it?
Why ask it
An editing question, and the answer shows how patient they are with their own work. Some comics will move a line three times before giving up on it and others give it two tries. Get the example of a joke that only worked once it was somewhere else in the set.
Is there a joke you love that audiences have never agreed with you about?
Why ask it
Almost everyone has one and enjoys defending it. The defense shows their taste more clearly than their best joke would. Should they decide to do the joke for you, let them, but leave that choice with them.
How do you decide what opens a set and what closes it?
Why ask it
Order is a craft subject that audiences rarely think about, so the answer is usually fresh. Ask what goes first in a room that does not know them, and whether the closer is the strongest joke or just the hardest one to follow.
When someone in your life turns up in a joke, do they hear it from you first?
Why ask it
Material about partners, parents and children raises a question of permission, and comedians handle it differently. You get their rule without asking about the relationship itself. Leave it out if their act is not personal.
On stage
What is the worst you have ever bombed, and what did you do the next day?
Why ask it
The bombing story is expected and usually well worn, so the next day is where the new material is. Going back up within the week and staying away for a month are both real answers, and each says something about how they treat failure.
When nothing is working, what goes through your head in the next thirty seconds?
Why ask it
It turns a story into a decision: speed up, slow down, drop the plan, or say out loud what is happening. A newer comic may say they just push through, and a veteran usually has a specific move. Both are worth printing.
How do you tell a bad crowd from a bad set?
Why ask it
A comedian who always blames the room and one who always blames themselves are both telling you something. The fuller answers include a test, such as how the act before them did or whether the same jokes worked the following night.
What is the best set you have ever had, and could you tell while it was happening?
Why ask it
Interviewers ask about the disasters and skip this, so the story is less polished. Get the size of the room and where the night fell in their run of shows, then find out whether they have managed to repeat it. It also lifts the mood after the bombing questions.
What do you do when someone in the audience starts talking back?
Why ask it
Asking for the best heckler story gets a rehearsed one, while asking for the approach gets a way of thinking. Some ignore it, some answer once, some leave it to the venue staff. Then ask for the time the approach failed.
Has a heckler ever been right?
Why ask it
Short, and it tends to get a laugh followed by a real answer. A yes usually comes with a joke that was changed afterward. A flat no is an answer too, so take it and move on.
How much of your crowd work is really made up on the spot?
Why ask it
Crowd work is the unscripted talk with the audience between jokes. Ask with curiosity and not as an accusation: keeping a few lines ready for common situations is ordinary practice, and many will say so. The better story is a night when the room handed them something no prepared line covered.
Which kind of room is hardest for you?
Why ask it
Leave it open and let them name it: a private company event, a bar where nobody came for comedy, an outdoor stage, a very large theater. The reason shows what their act depends on, whether that is quiet, closeness or an audience that chose to be there.
Do you still get nervous, and at what point in the night does it arrive?
Why ask it
When it arrives tells you more than whether it does. In the car, during the act before them and in the first minute on stage are three different kinds of nerves. Ask what they do with that stretch, since a habit before a show is easy for a reader to picture.
The road
What does a working week look like for you right now?
Why ask it
It replaces the idea of a comedian's life with a calendar: how many sets, how far apart, how many of them paid. Ask about this month in particular, because a typical week is often an average of weeks that never happened.
How does a comedian at your level actually get paid?
Why ask it
Pay arrangements differ by venue, by city and by country, so ask how it works where they perform and do not assume a model. Many will explain the structure happily and keep the figures to themselves, and that is enough. Do not press for a number they have declined to give.
When did comedy start covering your rent, if it has?
Why ask it
Keep the last three words in. Plenty of working comedians have other income, and saying so costs them nothing when the question allows for it. A date gives your piece a turning point, and 'not yet' leads to what would have to change.
Who books your shows, and how much of the job is email?
Why ask it
Readers tend to picture an agent, and for many comics the answer is that they do it themselves. Whatever the arrangement, it explains how a tour or a run of local dates comes together, which is a part of the work that rarely gets written about.
Has posting clips online changed what you write or how you perform?
Why ask it
Opinions on this run strong in both directions. Listen for specifics, such as holding back new material so it is not posted too early, or favoring moments that work in a short clip. A comic who posts nothing has a different story to tell, which is how audiences find them.
What did opening for other comedians teach you?
Why ask it
An opener has a short set, a cold room and someone else's audience, so the lessons are concrete. Ask whose show taught them the most and what they watched that person do from the side of the stage. Skip it with someone who has only done open mics so far.
What changes when a set has to run an hour and not ten minutes?
Why ask it
For a comedian with a long show or a recorded special. The answer is about structure: where the quiet parts go, what holds the hour together, how long it took to build. With a newer comic, ask instead about the jump from five minutes to fifteen.
How do you keep a joke alive on the hundredth telling?
Why ask it
Repetition is a real problem of the job and every touring comic has an answer. Some change a word each night, and some retire a bit the moment it bores them. Ask which joke they have told the most times and whether they still like it.
Voice and limits
Who made you laugh hardest when you were growing up?
Why ask it
Expect a famous name, a relative or a friend from school, and treat all three as equally good. The follow-up that makes it specific is what exactly that person did: the timing, the face, the willingness to look foolish.
Who did you sound like when you started, and when did that wear off?
Why ask it
Nearly every beginner borrows a rhythm from someone, and comics tend to admit it easily. The wearing off is the story: the joke or the night when their own voice turned up. Someone who insists they never copied anyone can still tell you who other comics compared them to.
Which comedian working now makes you wonder how they did that?
Why ask it
Praise for a peer is usually precise, since they are describing a technical thing they cannot yet do. It also gives your audience someone else to go and watch. Keep it to admiration and do not ask them to rank or criticize anyone.
What kind of comedian would you say you are?
Why ask it
It saves you from labeling them yourself and getting it wrong. Quote the description directly in your introduction. Some dislike labels, but they will know how the people who book them describe the act, so ask for that version.
How much of the person on stage is you?
Why ask it
Some comedians perform a character, some an exaggeration, and some say there is no gap at all. A thoughtful answer names what gets turned up and what gets left at home. It is also a polite way to learn how true the stories in the act are without checking them one by one.
Is there a subject you will not joke about, and is that a rule or a matter of taste?
Why ask it
Put it as a question about their own work and not as a test of their opinions. Offering rule or taste as the choice is what gets a considered answer: many will say it depends on the joke and then explain what it depends on. Do not turn it toward another comedian's controversy.
Have you ever dropped a joke that was getting laughs?
Why ask it
This is the question about limits asked through a real decision. The reason might be a person in the audience, a change in their own life or a sense that the laugh was the wrong kind. 'Never' deserves a follow-up as well: what would it take?
Do you work clean, and was that your choice or what the booking asked for?
Why ask it
Whether a comedian swears on stage can be a practical matter of where they get hired as much as a matter of taste. Ask whether they keep two versions of a set and what is lost or gained in the cleaner one. For a school paper it also tells you what you can quote.
Has what audiences laugh at changed since you started, and have you changed with it?
Why ask it
Expect an opinion they have given before on the first part. Asking whether they changed moves it from the state of comedy, which nobody can settle, to their own material, which they can speak about exactly. An old joke they would write differently today is the example to get.
Closers
What is your new material about, even if none of it is ready to show?
Why ask it
New material is the thing a comedian is most excited and most protective about. Ask for the subject and not the jokes, and offer not to print any line they try out on you. A premise they are stuck on makes a good detail.
Do you want stand-up to be the job for good, or is it a way into writing, acting or something else?
Why ask it
Neither answer is the better one, so ask without implying that stand-up is a stepping stone. A comic who wants only the stage will tell you why, and one with other plans will give you your news line.
What would you tell someone signing up for their first open mic this month?
Why ask it
The standard advice question, made narrower so the answer is practical: how long to prepare, what to bring, what to do after it goes badly. It works as a sidebar for a student paper or a how-to post. When all you get is 'keep going', narrow it again to the first week.
What do you wish people would stop saying to you when they learn you are a comedian?
Why ask it
The answer is often the request to say something funny, which explains why you did not make it. It also tends to get a relaxed, funny reply late in the interview without your having demanded one.
Which clip, special or live date should someone new to you look up first?
Why ask it
A clip, a recorded set or a date on the calendar gives the reader somewhere to go, which is the main thing the comedian wants from the interview. Confirm titles, dates and venue names before you publish, because these change and you are the one printing them.
Is there a story you were hoping I would ask for?
Why ask it
Comedians tend to arrive with stories, and one usually goes unused. Leave the recorder running after this, because what follows is often the loosest talk of the session. A no is your cue to say thanks and stop.
Interviewing a comedian without asking for a joke
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Before you sit down
Watch a whole set, not a clip
A clip shows one joke and a full set shows how the comedian builds a night. Watch the longest thing you can find, write down two bits by subject, and ask about those. Most of the Writing questions get better answers when you can point at a particular joke.
Find out what the interview is for on their side
A comedian usually agrees to an interview because there is a show, a tour or a recording to mention. Find out which, and get the dates and spellings in writing from them or from whoever arranged it. Then none of your interview time goes on it.
Agree what happens to the jokes
A punchline printed in full is one fewer surprise for the next audience. Before you start, ask whether they mind jokes being quoted or would prefer them described, and whether anything they try out in conversation is off limits. People talk more freely once that is settled.
Pick ten and mark five
Nobody gets through a list this long. Choose two from each group that fits the person, mark the five you most need and ask those early in case time runs short. A comic one year in has more to say under Starting out and On stage than under The road.
While you are talking
Let them be funny on their own schedule
Funny answers tend to come when the question is serious and specific. Ask how a joke was built and you may well get the joke. Ask for something funny and you get a polite, flat line from a guest who has now decided what kind of interview this is.
Do not compete
An interviewer who tries to match the guest's jokes takes up time and rarely comes off well. Laugh when something is funny, briefly, and go on to your follow-up. On a podcast a short real laugh is fine on the recording, and a long one covers their next sentence.
When the answer is a bit
Comedians sometimes answer with a piece of their act, because it is tested and safe. Let it finish, enjoy it, then ask the same thing again in plainer words: 'And what actually happened that night?' The second answer is the one you came for.
Ask for the night, not the lesson
'What did bombing teach you?' gets a moral. 'Where was it, how many people were there, and which joke went first?' gets a scene with a venue in it, and the lesson arrives on its own at the end.
What goes wrong
Say something funny
Comedians get this request from strangers often enough to be tired of it, and it asks for a performance with no stage, no build and an audience of one. If you want a joke in your piece, ask permission to quote one from a set you watched.
Turning limits into a trap
Questions about what should not be joked about can sound like an invitation to say something quotable and regrettable. Keep them on the comedian's own material and decisions. Leave other people's controversies out unless that is the agreed subject of the interview.
Explaining comedy to a comedian
A question that opens with your theory of why something is funny leaves them nothing to do but agree. Ask what they were going for and let the theory be theirs.
Assuming the money
How comedians are paid, and whether early spots are paid at all, varies from one venue, city and country to the next. Do not write down what you have heard is standard. Ask how it works where they perform and print only what they tell you.
Three ways to use the list
Ten minutes for a student paper
Take the first open mic, one bit traced from idea to stage, the worst bombing and the day after, and the advice for a first open mic. Finish with where to see them. Keep two spares from Voice and limits in case an answer comes back short.
An hour on a podcast
Go in the order of the groups, three or four from each, and plan to stay longest in Writing, where the answers run long and are the least rehearsed. On stage sits well in the middle, once you have both settled, and the best-set question keeps it from being all disasters. Hold the money questions until there is some trust.
A live Q&A at an event
On stage, the audience has just watched the act or is about to, so skip description and biography. Use the questions that get stories: the first joke that worked every time, the best set they ever had, a heckler who was right. Keep the questions about limits for a quieter setting, because a crowd changes how they land.