Comedy craft,
made practical.
Guides for working comedians on organizing material, building sets, and developing your voice faster.
- June 19, 2026·8 min read
Record Your Sets and Actually Listen Back
Recording and listening back is the highest-ROI habit in stand-up, and the one most comics skip. How to do it despite hating the sound of your own voice.
Read article → - June 15, 2026·8 min read
Burnout in a Job That's Supposed to Be Fun
The exhaustion of being 'on' wears comedians down in ways nobody warns you about. What comedy burnout actually is and what comics do to come back from it.
Read article → - June 10, 2026·8 min read
The Heckler Decision Tree: Engage, Ignore, or Call the Bouncer
Not every heckler should be destroyed. A decision tree for when to engage, when to ignore, and when the bouncer is your best writer.
Read article → - June 6, 2026·8 min read
Reading the Room Before You're On It
By the time you're adjusting on stage, it's too late. How to read a room from the back so you walk up already knowing what set to do.
Read article → - June 1, 2026·8 min read
Why You Keep Doing the Same Six Minutes
You've done the same set for months. The comfort trap keeping comedians stuck and a system for forcing new material into rotation before you stall out.
Read article → - May 27, 2026·8 min read
Stealing vs. Parallel Thinking: Whose Joke Is It Anyway?
Two comics can write the same joke without anyone stealing. The real ethics of joke theft, parallel thinking, and how to actually protect your material.
Read article → - May 22, 2026·9 min read
The Business Side of Comedy Nobody Romanticizes
Getting paid in drink tickets is still a business. How to track gigs, handle taxes, and treat your stand-up career like the small business it is.
Read article → - May 18, 2026·9 min read
What Headliners Know That You Don't
The gap between bits and an hour is architecture. What headliners understand about pacing, callbacks, and set structure that you can start using tonight.
Read article → - May 13, 2026·8 min read
The Clip Economy: Why Your Best Bit Flops on TikTok
A live bit that destroys can die on TikTok. How to translate stand-up into vertical video clips without turning into a content goblin.
Read article → - May 8, 2026·8 min read
Crowd Work Isn't a Personality, It's a Skill
Crowd work isn't a gift you're born with. It's a learnable skill with drills. How to get good at talking to the room even when you're completely off-script.
Read article → - May 3, 2026·8 min read
Open Mic Math: The Real Numbers Behind a Finished Joke
The real numbers behind stand-up: how many open mics, how many reps per joke, and how long until material is actually done. Stop guessing, start counting.
Read article → - April 29, 2026·8 min read
Your Tight Five Is Lying to You
The set that kills at your home club dies at a bringer show. Here's why your tight five doesn't travel and how to build material that works in any room.
Read article → - April 24, 2026·8 min read
How to Bomb Well: What to Do When the Room Is Already Dead
Every comedian bombs. Nobody teaches you what to do once it's happening. Here's how to survive a dead room on stage, recover mid-set, and walk off in one piece.
Read article → - April 20, 2026·7 min read
The Anatomy of a Tag: Why the Second Laugh Is Worth More Than a New Bit
A tag is the second laugh off one setup, and the most underrated move in stand-up. What it is, how to write one, and why tagging beats writing new bits.
Read article → - April 15, 2026·7 min read
Where Do Your Bits Actually Live? Probably a Graveyard
Your best jokes are scattered across napkins, voice memos, and Notes apps. Why you're losing material and how to keep it somewhere you can actually find.
Read article → - April 6, 2026·6 min read
The Best Apps for Stand-Up Comedians (And What Most Are Getting Wrong)
An honest look at the tools working comedians actually use, from Apple Notes to Notion to purpose-built comedy apps, and what the right system actually needs.
Read article → - April 6, 2026·6 min read
How to Write Stand-Up Comedy: A Beginner's Complete Guide
The complete beginner's guide to stand-up comedy writing: joke anatomy, finding material, developing your voice, and building your first set.
Read article → - April 4, 2026·4 min read
What Is Joke DNA? How AI Analyzes Your Stand-Up Material
Caligari's Joke DNA uses AI to analyze your comedy writing, finding structural patterns and helping you understand why some bits work while others don't.
Read article → - April 3, 2026·5 min read
Why Your Notes App Is Costing You Your Best Jokes
The Notes App is where good jokes go to be forgotten. Here's why comedians need a dedicated comedy material organizer, and what to look for in one.
Read article → - April 2, 2026·4 min read
The Comedian's Guide to Building a Tight 5-Minute Set
Building a great 5-minute set isn't about having five minutes of jokes. It's about architecture. How working comedians structure material for maximum impact.
Read article → - April 1, 2026·5 min read
How to Organize Your Stand-Up Material (Without Losing Your Mind)
Most comedians juggle Notes Apps, Google Docs, and napkin scraps. A proven system for organizing stand-up material so you can find your bits when you need them.
Read article →