While watching the weird subjective judging sports in the Olympics - gymnastics, synchronized diving, etc etc - I couldn’t get into them because I had no clue how they’re judged. But you can rest assured that the people competing at that level know every last point of how they get judged.

I wrote a lot about understanding the contest rules already. Anyway the same applies for humorous, once again our good friends in Chicago have posted up the contest rules for us.

The take away here is that you have to move (physical + manner, 20 points combined), use vocal variety (10), and have a developed speech (~45). In the next post I’ll have a lot more to say about speech development versus standup comedy. But for now, if you’re weak on any of these areas be aware you need to stretch a bunch if you want to compete at a high level. That’s the point of the contest after all, anyway.