My point though, was that when you read comedy, it’s universally less funny than it would be if someone was performing it. Even a great like George Carlin loses something moving to the page. And there are few George Carlins. The Demetri Martin quotes you gave are funny, but I’m sure I would have reacted much more strongly if I saw him perform them.

It’s possible to be funny on paper, but it’s really hard. Douglas Adams and Kurt Vonnegut can both make me laugh out loud. But those are really the only two I can think of. But as a poet on stage, it really is easy to get laughs, which, I’m positing, makes us forget how hard it actually is to do.

I think you may be generalizing about how easy it is to be funny on the stage vs. page, and I don’t feel you really give credit to standups for the amount of writing they do. I’m sure we’ve all seen at some point a comedian that has bombed or failed to repeat a funny joke as well as we had heard.

Yes, good comedians have a great sense of timing on stage, but their sense of timing is often built into the way they employ language, the writing that is done before they even get to the stage. I often think poets can learn a lot about the pacing and structure of a poem from listening to comedians. Both attempt to do essentially the same thing, which is, as a teacher once told me: change our perceptions. I suppose this applies to any art, but I guess that is also my point, you kind of dismiss comedy for the stage as a kind of craft.

One of my favorite comedians right now is Demetri Martin, who I think has a really refined understanding of language, and whose jokes I often believe could easily swing into the realm of poetry. Some quotes of his that I’ve enjoyed:

“Swimming is a confusing sport, because sometimes you do it for fun, and other times you do it to not die. And when I’m swimming, sometimes I’m not sure which one it is. I gotta go by the outfit. Pants – uh oh. Bathing suit – okay. Naked – we’ll see. Should I be swimming faster, or am I getting laid?”

There’s a saying that goes “People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.” Okay. How about “Nobody should throw stones.” That’s crappy behavior. My policy is: “No stone throwing regardless of housing situation.” Don’t do it. There is one exception though. If you’re trapped in a glass house, and you have a stone, then throw it. What are you, an idiot? So maybe it’s “Only people in glass houses should throw stones, provided they are trapped in the house with a stone.” It’s a little longer, but yeah.

To me, I don’t hear his voice in these quotes because I’ve seen him. I hear his voice because of the way it has been written. Actually, I think the same could be said about the Carlin piece. It “sounds” like Carlin.

I don’t think this is a case of the stage being easier than the page or vice versa, but that each format requires a different set of nuances necessary for success.