Friday night I went to the Funny Bone to catch a couple shows. Kevin Patterson was MCing for Andi Smith and Danny Bevins. I saw both of Danny's sets, which were not only funny, but chocked full of messages, political, religious and such. I got a chance to talk to Danny for a couple minutes and he pointed me towards a writing book, by Lajos Egri. Danny also gave me some very decent advice (and this is another time where I wish I could have recorded a conversation with a pro because I probably forgot most of it two minutes after we were done talking). Probably one of the most useful pieces he gave was "always have an out". When telling a joke that the audience might not agree with, put it on someone else, like a relative or a friend. That way it's not YOU who feels such and such a way about something, it's someone you know. And you're just the messenger. I read something like that in one of the books I have, but it was directed towards premises more. The example was like this. If you say you got abducted by aliens, the audience might not relate with you. If you say you dreamed about being abducted by aliens, that's more believeable. If you say you have a friend or relative and they're so crazy they believe they were abducted by aliens, now you get your premises, a character, and if the crowd doesn't like it, you can shift the blame to someone who's not there (and possibly doesn't exist).
I got a gal, she lives on the hill,
She won't do it, but her sister will