For Comedians, jokes actually expire. I’ve had jokes that literally got me standing ovations but later could barely do more than chuckles.
A lot of reasons can cause this. I would highlight a few. Sometimes the topic of the joke is outdated. For example A joke about people dancing to ringtones would work better when GSM first came.
Another reason might be that you actually grew. You set a high standard from previous performances so people now expect more and a normal joke that would kill them when they didn’t know you wont fly now.
Finally….you have gotten tired of telling the joke so much but you don’t even know it. It has now affected your delivery. You don’t even know that you are not delivering it as well as you used to when you first started. And that’s normal and good.
I know we would like to have evergreen jokes but it doesn’t quite work like that for comedy. You need to let that JOKE go. This is why you should have Specials so your jokes can be documented. Let the joke go, it might be sad if you love the joke but yeah let it go.
And yeah, if you find yourself bombing or you can feel the flop coming on stage, you might need to run back to those “reliable” jokes to help you. More like incase of emergency…sha don’t just make it your plan.
Olu Salako aka SL Komedy is a Nigerian comedian.
