I saw a magician on TV yesterday who really did suck. He has personality, no character and no style. However, he did have a whole collection of standard jokes which the host of the TV show laughed at.

I felt embarrassed watching him because I both knew and have used at some point EVERY SINGLE joke in his act.

What percentage of your jokes can be stock and what should be new?

One hundred percent should be your own. Comedian Buddy Hackett once said that, if you want to be an artist, you have to have the feeling come from you. And you can't do that if you are using someone else's material.

That aside, one of the problems with magicians who try to be funny is that there are so few good lines—so very, very few, that they all end up using the same bad ones.

After all, the good ones fit only the originators. For example, only Jay Marshall can get away with: "I'm one of the better, cheaper acts."

I think for me, as a magician who uses maybe 10% stock jokes in my card magic I couldn't go cold turkey.

I get such a good response from them and I have, to an extent, made them my own.

However, you are 100% right in suggesting I should be 100% original.

Cheers.

I don't use any other performer's lines (at least, as far as I can tell) but I DO grab jokes that spectators have cracked during my routines that I think are especially funny and seem to fit, and alter them a bit to fit me. I don't really know what to think about this stuff— it comes from the spectator, although you could argue your act "inspired" it, and if you change it slightly to suit you, would this make it "your" line?

-Reg {*}

Reg,
I would suggest that something that a spectator came up with during the course of your act, fits your act and, therefore, can be considered "your" line, in that -- if it hadn't have been for you -- the line would not exist.

Come to think of it, that last comment is not a bad guideline!

I use stock bits left, right, and center - no apologies. I try to stick to material which could be considered "public domain", and try to avoid theft.

There is a reason that these lines have been used - they are funny. The reason that we see them as "stock" is that we live with them. There are formulas that, to an atomic theorist are stock, but to you and I, are mind-boggling. It is the same in comedy.

Granted, these lines can still be done poorly - just saying the words does not make you funny - it is your timing, and I work my timing almost every day.

In addition, by using stock bits my own bits develop and evolve the joke.

-DD

I come from a stand-up comedy background. In the stand-up world originality is everything. But I think it all boils down to YOU. YOUR character. What fits YOU. Never ever steal. Ever. But if you find a a few stock lines that are so YOU that you could have written them then go ahead and use them. But remember that a joke people have heard before is an old joke and not as funny as it was the first time and makes you kind of look like a hack. So be careful. Only use a few stock lines if any. If you aren't naturally funny enough to come up with your own stuff (or aren't getting a bunch of funny lines from your audience which is also okay) then maybe you shouldn't be doing comedy magic.

For me, it's a case of it being so much easier to use stock lines then write and test your own.

Grrrr!

In a world with a few million people, how can most anything we come up with be truly original? If you need to use a stock line, make it your own. Take it, change it, retime it, rework it and you will have a great bit that you can be proud of.

S. Patrick

Whilst there is much truth in what you say, I have often heard those words spoken by magicians trying to come up with an excuse for stealing bits or not being as creative as they might be.

Whether originality is possible or not, we should still act as if it is, otherwise we will become complacent and lazy.

Who was it who said "To steal from one is plagiarism, to steal from many is research"?

Some good news here. Our world has a few BILLION people, about six thousand, thousand, thousand people. That's a thousand times more than MILLIONS.

Good humor comes from shared circumstance, so there is all the more room for new and good humor.

I thought good humor came from the ice cream truck...

-Jim

I hate it when I hit the m key instead of the b key. When they are two keys apart and you have lots of coffee in you you do some outrageous things all right.

S. Patrick