On Bombing: Causes and Strategies of Resilience for Stand-Up Comedians

Abstract: For stand-up comedians, bombing—that is, failing to make an audience laugh, resulting in a sour, unsatisfying, and perhaps humiliating performance—feels terrible. It is also an inevitability. Eventually, even the most skilled and seasoned comedian will suffer a misfire. Comedians bomb if the audience doesn’t understand or agree with their material or if they fail to create sufficient rapport with their audience. Sometimes bombing occurs for reasons well outside the comedian’s control. However, there are some practices that can blunt the effects of bombing, if not avoid it altogether. Drawing from my own practice-as-research as a stand-up comedian, coupled with close readings of comedy studies scholarship, I delineate several approaches comedians can take to mitigate bombing on stage. Comedians can shift their mindset away from chasing laughs. They can focus on telling the truth and amusing themselves. Finally, they can adopt a playful curiosity about the present moment that can steer them through disaster. While bombing is not pleasant, it can be instructive.