Whether you believe it or not, you don’t have to be a stand up comedian to be a good comedic actor. In fact, a good portion of the best comedy actors would be fish out of water if they ever tried stand-up comedy. Take Steve Carell for example, he’s one of the biggest comedy actors in the world, but he has expressed in numerous interviews how he would absolutely bomb if he ever tried stand-up. The point is that comedy acting is another art form in itself that even the most dramatic of actors can become great at. So even if you don’t find yourself to be particularly funny, you can still improve and unlock your comedy acting chops.
Here are some ways to improve your comedy acting performance that we recommend to our clients with AMP Talent Group:
Find the extremes in the character you’re playing: If you look at any great comedy show out there, the main characters will always have very extreme points of view. For example, Raymond in Everybody Loves Raymond was your typical guy’s guy who always got into domestic disputes with his wife and had a very rigid and narrow look at the world and his relationship. He was your classic simple man that every guy out there could identify with. It was his very stubborn and one-dimensional view of the world that created conflict, as well as humour in the show. So with every comedy character you play, make sure you pinpoint the extreme point of view that your character looks at the world from. It’s the character’s perspective that usually brings about pain and conflict, which is what makes it hilarious watching them. We’re just thankful that we’re not the ones going through what they are, but yet we’re so entertained by their misery. It’s also through this extreme point of view that you will be able to find and create physical comedic behaviour that you can connect your character with.
Always play the truth and believe in the character’s stakes: The truth about comedy acting is that it requires just as much, or even more commitment than drama. It’s not a walk in a park, and not something that you can just coast through to get laughs. The way that you’re going to get the laughs and be funny is by whole-heartedly committing to the stakes and truth of whatever your character is going through. Your job isn’t to try and put on a show for the audience to get the laughs, your job is to be completely committed to the world you’re living in. It’s going to be the writer’s words and circumstances that create the humorous world that you live in, and from there it’s up to you to find what’s funny about your character and their behaviour and commit yourself to it.
Find your funny: One of the first things you want to do before you even try and tackle comedy scripts or other comedy characters is by first unlocking what it is that makes you funny as a human being. We all have our quirks and idiosyncrasies and those personal pressure points are going to be where your own comedic hilarity comes from. Also by focusing on your own personal comedy character, you will begin to recognize what makes you funny, and thus what qualities about yourself you can bring to the characters you play. It will also be important that you figure out what your potential limitations are for comedy as well. Are you the type of person that has a very unique way of moving that would you make you good at physical comedy? Do you have a razor sharp wit that would enable you to improvise lines? Or are you just great at delivering the punch line? All of these are important questions to ask yourself before you tackle comedy roles.
Find your character’s comedy behaviour: In the beginning of rehearals, or even preparation for a role, go through your scenes without worrying about being funny. Just concentrate on finding the truth of your character, how they move, how they talk, and who they are. After spending some time getting identified with your character, then you can take steps to exaggerate and elevate the behaviour in a comical way that’s based from your character’s comedy persona — based on the truth of their needs and defenses. Great comedy comes from very real and honest behaviour in situations of anger, pain, and frustration. Also remember that comedy gold is often found in silent behaviour as well, particularly how your character reacts to certain people and situations.
Study the masters: Like with anything, you want to watch and study those that are successful at what it is you’re trying to do. Watch as many videos of some of the top comedy actors and see how they go about their work. Pay attention to the brave comedic choices they make in scenes and how they feed off, and work with the other actors. Most highly successful comedy actors are very giving to the other actors with the material, as well as willing to take themselves and the scene to some pretty absurd places. So whomever you admire and find funny, study as much of their work as possible.
Focus on the physical: So much of great comedy is based on the physical. The way in which our bodies react in certain situations — how we shield ourselves when we’re uncomfortable and awkward, how we completely lose it and thrash our body around when we’re angry and frustrated, or how our body reacts when we’re happy and excited. This is also another reason to study the masters — particularly the likes of Charlie Chaplin who had to convey all his emotion and inner dialogue completely through his body’s movement and facial expressions. Jim Carrey is also one of the greatest physical comedy actors who are known for using wildly outlandish facial expressions to depict character. Bottom line — your body and the way you use it is one of the greatest tools in your comedy performance.
No unscripted movements: It has been well documented in the comedy realm that any unscripted movements will kill the scene. This means that you need to remain static (or do you best to) whenever there isn’t a movement that’s specifically stated in the script. This will mean holding for laughs if you’re in a live performance, and not moving during someone else’s speech when you shouldn’t be. This is why it’s so crucial that you become aware of your body’s movements so you can control it and use it in a way that adds to the scene, not take away from it.
Practice your comedy: If you’re brand new to the world of comedy acting, it would definitely be beneficial to take comedy acting specific courses to expand and improve on your craft. Taking classes will allow you to relax, feel more comfortable, as well as help to develop your comedy character. You will also begin to understand some of the comedy techniques that are used, how to break down comedy scripts , as well as build your comedy repertoire and have more to bring to your scenes and performances.
Let loose and have fun: Comedy is supposed to be created in a fun environment. You won’t be able to bring out the best in yourself if you’re nervous and uptight, or unwilling to make a fool out of yourself. You have to check your ego and pride at the door and be willing to look and feel silly. Be prepared to commit to the ridiculous circumstances that are going to be thrown in front of you and create a world that is full of quirks, but is ultimately real and honest. If you can manage to do that, comedy performance will be your new addiction.
Even if you don’t become one of the next great comedy performers, you can still gain a lot of skills from the comedy art that will relay into your dramatic acting. And of course, comedy acting is a whole lot of fun and something that becomes a real ensemble with the cast you’re performing with. So give it a try, look inside yourself, and get outside of your comfort zone to find your funny!
1. Know your character: One of the most important starting points before trying to work on creating a voice is to know exactly the character you’re supposed to be portraying. For example, before you were to create a voice for an animated character you would be given multiple pictures of the character and you would get an opportunity to talk with the writers before working on carving out a voice that would best suit the character. So, just as you would spend the time, and do your research on your character for an acting role on screen, for voice it is the same. You need to put in the time, to rehearse, study and create all aspects of the character you’re going to be playing.
4. Practice by reading out loud often: Obviously the best method for improving your voice skills is going to be to speak and read out loud as often as possible. You can find different passages to read and take on various voices and characters, as well as practice different voice techniques. The best voice 
6. Develop accents and a few key voices: Voice work is definitely a time when having the ability to take on different accents will be a huge advantage for you. Even if the accents are made up, through the process you could potentially bring different characters to life. So by improving your ability to take on some of the important accents, you can increase your diversity and marketability for booking voice work. Also, trying to create 3-4 voices that you have stored on the back burner to showcase if somebody asks you if you can do voices is going to be key as well. These are also voices that you can showcase on your demo reel when it comes time to making one.
7. Know your voice type: Before even entering into the voice industry you should access what type of voice you may be. Are you going to be a real voice? A narrator? An announcer? A spokesperson? Or a character voice actor for animation? These are all very important things to take into consideration before proceeding because knowing your type will be exactly what your voice demo should be catered to. For example, if you saw yourself as the perfect voice for late night infomercials, then that would be one of the main selling features on your voice demo reel. Seek out voice workshops in animation, commercial, and or character, to learn what areas of voice work your best suited to, and to gain valuable feedback from voice professionals on your voice and where it is suited to be cast within the film, television, commercial and animaton voice market.
Deciding to pursue voice work is a very important thing for every actor to consider, as it opens up the doors to so much more work at your disposal, and will help to improve your acting performance on the screen. It also gives you another avenue to build a name for yourself and book more work. Many name actors (Kiefer Sutherland in Phone Booth and Scarlett Johansson in Her for example) are lending their voice to take the life of characters, whether it’s in big feature films, sports, car and beer commercials, or for the latest wacky and wild animation film. Voice work is another exciting way to broaden your opportunities off screen!
DO respond to all Agency Communication immediately. In this fast paced business, Actors must be on the ball with the best communication skills by responding quickly to confirm auditions, and all communication from the Agency. Response times by the actor within the hour of an email or phone call being sent is required, not hours or days later. Casting people are waiting to confirm or replace the actors for the auditions. Know there are many people involved in getting you the audition and timely response to auditions is key with respect to all and future auditions.
DO turn up the charm before your audition begins. This is the time when you need to showcase your personality before you showcase your acting chops. Show them that you are ready, and would be a delight to work with, and not in an overbearing, front-row-of-the-classroom kind of way.
DON’T wear heavy make-up. You’re there to show off your natural self as a performer and what you can do with whatever character you’re auditioning for. Too much make-up will just distract from your performance and focus the casting director’s attention on all the wrong things.
DON’T disagree or argue with any direction that you’re given. You’re there performing something for them, so make sure you do what you’re asked.
Obviously it helps if you’re naturally funny, or have a natural tendency to use humour as a way to deflect problems and deal with your insecurities. Great comedy comes from drama, which comes from pain, so most comedians, or naturally funny people, have this innate tendency to use humor as a way to deal with the difficulties and downfalls in their own life. So if you do in fact find yourself to be funny, or are even a stand up comedian or comic actor already, you’re off to a great start and probably just need to hone the skills that you naturally possess.
For those that don’t consider yourself to be a stand-up comedian or naturally hilarious person, don’t worry, it doesn’t mean that you’ll never be able to do comedy. It just means you’re going to have to work at it a little more and practice to get better at finding the funny moments in things you do. Obviously timing, and finding the right timing in a scene to deliver a particular joke or behaviour is something you can work on and get better at, the more you do it.
Good comedy acting
and insecurities they were able to open themselves up to their own comedic world.
Hard Work & Commitment: This is another trait that should go without saying. Lazy people usually don’t make great actors — unless they’re so naturally talented and it comes easy to them. This is the case because acting is such a self-starter business and is going to require so much self-motivation, as well as endless amounts of your personal time in order to be successful. Also, with every job you get, you’re going to have to generously research for your role/character, as well as put in hours and hours of rehearsal time. Then once you start working on the job, the days are long and you’ll be drained at the end of them. If you don’t have the type of personality that is ready to grind and endure hard work, you will go nowhere. Commitment is also a huge one. You will have to commit your life to developing your craft, as well as bringing 100% percent of yourself to each role you play. Acting requires you to be present in the moment at every turn, which can be mentally, physically, and emotionally exhausting. People that can whole-heatedly commit themselves to something, even going overboard and becoming obsessive with their commitment, are the ones who will be successful as actors. (Just look at some of the greatest method actors in the business, as well as the great extremes that the best actors will go to in order to prepare for roles: weight loss, muscle-building, extensive research and character development, real-life situational training).
Confidence: This personality trait is another common one. It will help in a lot of areas in your performance career, particularly in the early stages of 
Energy, Energy, Energy: When you take an acting class, the beginning of the class is often dedicated to exercising the body — both physically with movement and vocally through voice exercises. These exercises are designed to center the energy in your body and for you to be fully aware of where all the energy in your body is being stored. Yes, actors are required to exert a lot of energy, thus it’s beneficial if they’re naturally energetic people. But that energy will be chaotic and counter-productive for a good performance if it’s not used in the correct way. The best actors are exceptional at dispensing and controlling their energy. They know when to release bursts of energy, as well as when to bottle the energy up because their character is holding something back on the surface, but on the inside they’re exploding. So it’s so important that actors know how to move the energy in their body around to help guide and emphasis their performance. Also, it’s important to note that not all energy is going to be emotionally expressive. They’re forms of energy that are not emotional, and it’s important that actors have a handle on all energy types.
Introspective & Constantly Learning: One of the most important relationships an actor will ever have is the one they have with their self. It’s essential that actors are constantly learning about themselves and trying to understand more about who they are as a person. They will also go to great lengths to improve who they are as a person and get more in touch with their authentic self. This is necessary, as acting requires bringing a large amount of yourself to every character you play. You will to make the emotion in your performances feel authentic. If you don’t actually feel all the emotions and sensations that your character is going through, the camera or audience will pick up on it and it won’t be believable. The great actors are able to dig deep into themselves and pull out the good, bad, and ugly of who they are and put it on show for everyone to see. If you aren’t willing to live with that type of revelation and truth in front of audiences, then acting will be a tough job for you. You can’t be afraid, or unwilling to go to the dark and emotional places of yourself and become a great actor. Actors have to constantly be assessing themselves as people, trying to improve, as well as get closer to who they really are. Another way to get closer to this truth is by constant exercise through meditation, mentors, relaxation, visualization, and classes.
Interest in Psychology and Humanity: This is not to say that a psychologist would make a great actor, or that an actor would make a great psychologist. But having an interest in the subject will go a long way in improving your performance. Again, understanding the psychology of humans and what drives people is essential in the acting discovery. So those people who are very intuitive and able to quickly conceptualize other’s behaviour and why they do certain things, is a natural skill that very good actors should possess. This also could be why you see so many actor humanitarians (also because they have so much money) but they have such a vested interest in humanity that they’re passionate about world issues, and really empathize with human suffering.
Ahhh the dreaded cold read. It’s something that a lot of actors fear. That’s because usually there is no opportunity for preparation. A script is thrown in front of you moments before you’re to appear on camera, and panic can set in. You worry that you’re going to deliver the lines completely flat, you aren’t going to figure out what’s going on in the scene fast enough to deliver a satisfactory performance, and it’s just going to be painful and you’re going to be terrible. Yes it might not be the most comfortable thing you’ll have to do, but it’s a big part of the audition process and something that you’re going to have to get a handle on if you want to book acting jobs.
Be Flexible: When you’re going through your cold read, it might not be blatantly clear from the outset if you’re reading a comedy or a drama. I mean, hopefully it is, but there is a possibility that you won’t get the tone of the script right away. This is why you need to enter into your reading with complete flexibility. Go in with the mindset that they might ask you to read the script in a certain way that you weren’t expecting, or maybe you’ll even discover things in the middle of the reading that take it to a whole different place than you expected. Considering that this will be one of the first times you’ve read through this passage of the script in its entirety, you definitely can’t be opposed to figuring out certain things from the inside. So be loose, flexible, and ready to go in any direction.
