How To FAIL at Stand-Up Comedy

Avoiding the Pitfalls that Kill a Comic's Career

By: Steve Sabo

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

PICK UP THIS BOOK BEFORE YOU PICK UP THE MICROPHONE Part instruction manual, part memoir and part cautionary tale, “How to FAIL at Stand-Up Comedy” is a hilarious and sometimes heartbreaking exploration of a 30 year career in stand-up. Sabo pulls no punches while revealing what it’s really like to live the life of a traveling comedian, warts and all. Sabo points out everything you can do wrong in this business with glaring detail and without judgment. Chock full of advice from industry insiders and experts in the field, “FAIL” takes you on the journey from open-miker to seasoned headliner and all the speed bumps in between. You will learn how to get booked into top clubs, how to create perfect promotional material, how to ace an audition, and how to avoid becoming a statistic. You will also learn what jokes NOT to tell, what food to NOT eat at a comedy condo and how careers can be ruined before even picking up the microphone. Sabo doesn’t have his own sitcom or Netflix special; what he does have is a wealth of comedy experience and the scars to prove it. This book is a must read for any aspiring comic, established comedian or fan of stand-up. “Don’t let the title fool you. It’s not about failing to make it as a stand-up comedian. This book is about the experience: learning from your failures, mishaps, surprises and the need to develop a thick skin in order to become successful. Sabo’s writing takes aspiring comedians by the hand and leads them through the ups and downs of what it takes to make a career in this crazy business. This is a view from the comedy trenches.” - Dave Schwensen, author of How To Be A Working Comic and talent coordinator for A&E’s An Evening at the Improv “Steve Sabo literally wrote the book on making mistakes in the comedy business. You name it, he’s effed it up, probably more than once. That’s what makes this book so helpful and entertaining!” –Rob Durham, author of “Don’t Wear Shorts on Stage”

Career Comic Gives Advice for Aspiring Comics

I've read over a dozen books on comedy, and all of them have had a few nuggets of enlightenment. However, most of the comedic autobiographies like Steve Martins, Billy Crystal, Jimmy Carr, etc, while great books, come from comic geniuses that found their way to greatness in unrelatable ways.
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Steve Sabo, is a battle hardened comic, who despite being incredibly funny (check him out on YouTube) has never had a Netflix special. What he has had is a fulltime comedy carrier for decades.
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Steve Sabo tells it like it is - the raw and unpleasant truth about Show Business and the life of a Road Comic. And while it is often quite disheartening, it is also educational and helps young comics make realistic goals.
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More importantly, How To Fail At Stand-up Comedy gave great nuance advice about what not to do that no other How To Be A Comic book touched on.
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I've been doing open mic's for a year now and last month I bombed for the first time. Don't get me wrong, I have had sets with only smiles and light laughter before but this was boondock crickets quiet! I was shaken to my core. The strangest part was that I had actually killed with the same set the night before at another club. It wasn't until I read this book, did I realize it wasn't just a bad crowd (which it was) but I had made two major fauxpas with my first two lines.
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-See, I'm 6'3", 400lbs, and fairly animated when I preform. So when I saw the sage at the back of the bar was only 4'x6' I thought it would be funny to say, "What happen, you couldn't afford the whole sheet of plywood... I'm a big ole boy, I need more room than this" to open my set. So what I thought was self-deprecating was actually fauxpas number one, "Never insult the stage."
-The next joke was my actual opener, that had gotten huge laughs the three previous shows - which had caused me to become accustomed to pausing to let the laughs die down - however this time, it was met with depravation-chamber quality silence. Granted this was an open-mic with only comedians in attendance and half of them had heard the joke at the other club the night before, but this was almost angry silence. Fauxpas number one had already alienated these local comics (I was in WI but live MS). Then I made fauxpas number two, as the silence continued through my set, I acknowledged that I was bombing. From there, I couldn't bring the crowd back around. Even the two friends I brought with me looked at me with a level of pity that is usually reserved for conciliation over the death of a pet.
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However, until I read this book, I didn't see that the bad night was mostly self-inflicted. However, once I was able to see those things, I was able to analyze the set in a new way and found that the night before, I had also left out an edgy tag by accident, but I had added it to the blitzkrieg of bombs the second night. I've since corrected these fauxpas and the set is better than before and back killing.
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One last note on this book: the narrator is a computer program that was shockingly good. Professional narrators are in deep trouble.

Great strategies - for life….

Great strategies for comedy, but I think it’s a great book on being successful in all things!! Great read!!!!