HeyJaredThe Funny Muscle Podcast
Guided by the belief that anyone can learn to become funnier once they understand what to practice, the Funny Muscle Podcast aims to break down how pro comics get their best laughs.
- Indexed episodes, last 90 days
- 4
- Latest publication
- Sep 22, 2026
- Audience
- Checking…
- Earliest in this view
- Jul 22, 2026
Latest episodes
Going to the Tape (opens the original)
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Comedy coaching is on full display in this episode as Mike goes to the tape to break down a recent open mic set from Chris. Like a football analyst studying game film—circling the missed blocks, fumbles, and blown assignments—Mike slows down Chris’s bit to figure out what worked, what didn’t, and where the joke left points on the field. Because great comedy rarely shows up fully formed. It takes writing, performing, bombing, audience feedback, coaching, rewriting, and then going back onstage to
Old-School Jokes vs. Modern Bits (opens the original)
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What changed between old-school stand-up and the way comics write today? In this episode, we compare Henny Youngman to Mark Normand, Rodney Dangerfield to Taylor Tomlinson, and Steven Wright to Nate Bargatze to see how stand-up evolved from joke-writing into bit-building. Old-school comedy typically had an efficient structure: setup, punchline, move on. Modern stand-up is more likely to take that first laugh and keep digging by heightening the premise, adding tags, creating act-outs, character p
Mike Fixes Chris’s Five Minutes (opens the original)
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In this episode of the Funny Muscle Podcast, Mike goes full comedy coach on Chris’s five-minute set. Over the course of an hour, they take the set apart joke by joke and build it back stronger by turning punchlines into heightened scenes, brainstorming better triplets, and throwing different heightening devices at a series of bait-and-switch jokes from Chris’s story about the perils of DIY bike assembly. It’s a behind-the-scenes look at how a professional comedy coach works.
Mick Napier: Improv Hacks for Stand-Up Comics (opens the original)
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Why is it that the harder you try to be funny, the less funny you become? Like your analytical brain hijacks your comedy brain? That voice that starts judging every idea before it's finished can keep you from ever reaching the loose, playful, creative state. We bring on a professional to help with that: legendary Chicago improv teacher, actor and director Mick Napier, one of Mike's former instructors/directors and the author of Improvise: Scene from the Inside. Mick shares practical techniques i
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