Jerry Mabbott's Blog

Last Sunday our pastor preached about 20 minutes longer than normal. As I shook his hand to leave I told him how inspirational the sermon was. He thanked me and I said, “Yeah, it’s amazing what a power nap can do.”

I don’t think I’ll go back for a few weeks. He was pretty upset because he knew I was serious. I know! Studies have shown that the perfect time for nearly every speaker is 22 minutes. Why? Because that is the median attention span of the average adult.

So unless the speaker is very compelling and humorous, f’get about it. Nobody is listening. That’s why headlining a comedy club and doing it well can be difficult. The standard expectation for a headliner is 45 minutes to an hour. That’s a lot of time to keep an audience laughing.

There are many who can do it and more that just can’t. You have to know how to take an audience up and bring them down at the proper times in order to hold their attention. Oh and you need to be funny. Otherwise you will get people telling you things like “You’re pretty funny. Keep practicing.” You want to throat punch them but better to listen and learn unless they’re the only one who says it. Then the throat punch is perfectly legal.

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