Good Segues Are Key for Successful Stand-Up Comedy Writing

My husband and I are new members of Netflix, and the very first thing I viewed was a new stand-up comedy special by Ellen Degeneres, called Relatable.

As a professional writer, I tend to watch shows and read books from a writer's point-of-view, in addition to a consumer's point-of-view. So when I watched Relatable, there were things I noticed  from a writer's perspective that the typical person who is just sitting down to watch comedy might not notice, and these are the things that I think someone who wants to write comedy might want to pay attention to.

First of all, Ellen was very good at segues. One thing that drives me crazy about stand-up comedy iswhen a comedian just switches the conversation without easing into it with a good segue. A segue is a connection that takes you from one thought to the next. It's like a bridge that connects the two thoughts. A lot of comedians are not good at this. It's their weakest feature.

But Ellen did an excellent job of segueing from one piece of the conversation to the next, and I think that anyone who wants to be a stand-up comedian or wants to write comedy should watch Relatable to learn from her segue process. It is the best I've ever seen.

The other thing that Ellen is really good at that I also think most comedians lack is coming full circle. She started out explaining what she meant by Relatable. Then we meandered down her comedy routine, but in the end, she brought the conversation directly back to the subject of being Relatable. This was priceless and I was very impressed.

I think that these two traits -- strong segues and coming full circle -- really bring quality to the writing and to the entertainment. And I would encourage anyone who wants to or is writing comedy to check out Ellen's show Relatable on Netflix. There is much that can be learned from watching her.

Happy writing!

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