Comedic contemporary two to three minute monologue for men. Age 25+
Monologuist gives advice on how to go about successfully dating your mother. Frazier handles this ridiculous and taboo premise with comic flare, taking an Oedipal approach with the monologuist doling out advice on how to cut your father out of the relationship.
Monologue is a great example of the hook opening described in Monologue Writing 101. The opening line of this absurd monologue is virtually guaranteed to wake up your audience: "Dating your mother might seriously might seem difficult at first, but once you try it I'll bet you'll be surprised at how easy it is."
The comedy of this humorous monologue is born of the fact that the monologuist never acknowledges how wrong and taboo the premise is.
Great illustration of the "Straight Line/Wavy Line" concept from Steve Kaplan's excellent book The Hidden Tools of Comedy. In Frazier's monologue, the monologuist serves the role of "Straight Line." The offstage person to whom the monologuist is speaking is the "Wavy Line." Read Kaplan's book for "the deets," but in a nutshell "Straight Line" is the person in the scene barreling straight ahead in a highly problematic direction but totally blind and unaware that there is any problem. So the "Straight Line" is basically an idiot who doesn't see a obvious problem. Perfectly describes Frazier's monologuist, who totally misses obvious problem of incest and only sees the obstacle of dad. Meanwhile the "Wavy Line" is the person witnessing this madness and unsure how to handle it. Clearly the person listening has not interrupted, so they are stuck hearing this mom-dating insanity and unsure how to respond.
Frazier's monologue is also a solid illustration of basic joke structure. Check out chapter 1 of by Greg Dean's book Step by Step to Standup Comedy, where he breaks down how setup (expectation) and punch (surprise) function - includes diagrams! But anyway, the basic jist is that in Frazier's monologue sets one expectation and then surprises us by taking a different direction. Our expectation is the monologuist will talk about getting over the taboo of dating one's mom and instead he talks about getting one over on dad!
Preview author Ian Frazier's absurd monologue, which is part of his collection of humorous essays entitled Dating your Mom, by jumping over to google books. You can also order a copy here.
Monologuist gives advice on how to go about successfully dating your mother. Frazier handles this ridiculous and taboo premise with comic flare, taking an Oedipal approach with the monologuist doling out advice on how to cut your father out of the relationship.
Monologue is a great example of the hook opening described in Monologue Writing 101. The opening line of this absurd monologue is virtually guaranteed to wake up your audience: "Dating your mother might seriously might seem difficult at first, but once you try it I'll bet you'll be surprised at how easy it is."
The comedy of this humorous monologue is born of the fact that the monologuist never acknowledges how wrong and taboo the premise is.
Great illustration of the "Straight Line/Wavy Line" concept from Steve Kaplan's excellent book The Hidden Tools of Comedy. In Frazier's monologue, the monologuist serves the role of "Straight Line." The offstage person to whom the monologuist is speaking is the "Wavy Line." Read Kaplan's book for "the deets," but in a nutshell "Straight Line" is the person in the scene barreling straight ahead in a highly problematic direction but totally blind and unaware that there is any problem. So the "Straight Line" is basically an idiot who doesn't see a obvious problem. Perfectly describes Frazier's monologuist, who totally misses obvious problem of incest and only sees the obstacle of dad. Meanwhile the "Wavy Line" is the person witnessing this madness and unsure how to handle it. Clearly the person listening has not interrupted, so they are stuck hearing this mom-dating insanity and unsure how to respond.
Frazier's monologue is also a solid illustration of basic joke structure. Check out chapter 1 of by Greg Dean's book Step by Step to Standup Comedy, where he breaks down how setup (expectation) and punch (surprise) function - includes diagrams! But anyway, the basic jist is that in Frazier's monologue sets one expectation and then surprises us by taking a different direction. Our expectation is the monologuist will talk about getting over the taboo of dating one's mom and instead he talks about getting one over on dad!
Preview author Ian Frazier's absurd monologue, which is part of his collection of humorous essays entitled Dating your Mom, by jumping over to google books. You can also order a copy here.
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