Persona tips for Writing Stand-up
Stand-up Persona Sessions – Week 2 Notes (Persona Games, Status, Archetypes, and Likeability)
In the second session of my Stand-up Persona classes, we explored four key areas:
Persona Games, Status, Archetypes, and Likeability.
In these notes I’m sharing more widely, here are tips on persona games and archetypes, looking at using these persona traits to inform writing.
Persona Games: These are the key mechanisms for exploring a comedic persona, defined as the playful aspects of attitude, character [and] temperament.
1. Persona Games
The discussion began with a review of various traits, which Chris refers to as "persona games."
The "persona games" (character traits) that were discussed and applied to the stand-up comedy personas are:
Arrogance
Shamelessness
Innocence (or Playing innocent)
Awkwardness
Dark and twisted
Too clever
Wordy
Overthinking
Too relaxed
Confused
Being out of touch
Giving bad advice*
Embarrassment
Impulsive
Short fuse
Crude
Playing dumb
Loser
*Tips and Advice as a Game: "Giving advice to the audience or tips to the audience is a really nice thing that anyone can do." This game works especially well when the information is presented as something that could "benefit the audience," creating a specific, engaged dynamic. Either the comic believes it will be helpful (even it won’t) or they are maliciously offering bad advice.
Purpose for Writing: Identifying your persona games is useful for generating new material. The process involves asking, "What does the [insert persona trait, e.g., arrogant, shameless, out of touch] person have to say about [insert topic]?"
Consistency and Planting Seeds: Consistent persona games help the audience quickly understand who you are and where your comedy is coming from. The concept of "planting bombs" or "sowing seeds" suggests introducing the extremes of your persona's character early on so they can "sprout (or detonate!) later in the set."
2. Archetypes Based on Jungian archetypes, these provide broad character models for a persona. They can be used as a strategic filter for generating material on any given topic.
The 12 Archetypes (and Stand-up Application):
Innocent: Naive, accepting, or trusting viewpoint.
Regular Person: Relatable, the "man/woman in the street" perspective.
Crusader: Opinionated, wanting to change the world, pointing out a problem that "has to be sorted out."
Caregiver: Expressing genuine concern or care for others related to the topic.
Explorer: Curious, intellectually exploring the topic, or having literally gone somewhere to learn more.
Rebel: The contrary opinion; adopting the opposite of the consensus view.
Sensualist: Taking great pleasure in the topic (e.g., food, drink, the senses).
Creator: Bringing extra elements to the comedy, such as music, cartoons, or expanding the form of stand-up.
Jester: Focused on one-liners, practical jokes, or being a "wind-up merchant."
Sage: Offering something useful, thoughtful, or profound to say on the topic.
Magician: Conjuring crazy, impossible imagery or surreal scenarios.
Ruler: Believing you know how things are; an "alpha" who's cleverer than everyone else. An interesting twist is a Low Status Ruler, who is trying to be the ruler but failing, which can be very funny.
Chris suggests using the archetypes as a framework for generating material, encouraging you to think about which archetype you currently embody or want to embody for a particular topic. He gives examples of how to approach a topic from the perspective of different Jungian archetypes:
Innocent: Come from a place of naivety, being very accepting or trusting, or seeing it from the "man in the street" point of view.
Crusader: Focus on changing the world, identifying a problem, and expressing what needs to happen with a strong opinion.
Caregiver: Express concern for people dealing with the topic (e.g., those with weight issues or side effects from drugs).
Explorer: Show a desire to understand more about the topic, having literally gone somewhere or read around it.
Rebel: Take the contrary opinion, being the opposite of the consensus view.
Sensualist: Take great pleasure in the topic (focusing on the sensual aspects)
Creator: Bring in extra elements like cartoons or songs related to the topic.
Jester: Use one-liners or practical jokes about the topic.
Sage: Have something useful, thoughtful, or profound to say on the topic.
Magician: Conjure up really crazy, impossible imagery.
Ruler: You are certain about the topic, you know how things are, and you're cleverer than anyone in the room.
An interesting twist is a low-status Ruler, meaning you try to be the ruler but fail.
Chris emphasises that none of this is "straightforward" in stand-up and should have a "mischievousness" or "cheekiness" to it, or a "playing dumb" attitude.