[1] Routine—­the entire monologue; but more often used to suggest its arrangement and construction.  A monologue with its gags and points arranged in a certain order is one routine; a different routine is used when the gags or points are arranged in a different order.  Thus routine means arrangement.  The word is also used to describe the arrangement of other stage offerings—­for instance, a dance:  the same steps arranged in a different order make a new “dance routine.”

1.  The Introduction

A monologue introduction may be just one line with a point or a gag that will raise a snicker, or it may be a long introduction that stamps the character as a “character,” and causes amusement because it introduces the entire monologue theme in a bright way.

An example of the short introduction is: 

“D’you know me friend Casey?  He’s the guy that put the sham in shamrock,” then on into the first gag that stamps Casey as a sure-’nuff “character,” with a giggle-point to the gag.

The very best example of the long introduction being done on the stage today is the first four paragraphs of “The German Senator.”  The first line, “My dear friends and falling Citizens,” stamps the monologue unquestionably as a speech.  The second line, “My heart fills up with vaccination to be disabled,” declares the mixed-up character of the oration and of the German Senator himself, and causes amusement.  And the end of the fourth paragraph—­which you will note is one long involved sentence filled with giggles—­raises the first laugh.

Nat Wills says the introduction to the gag-monologue may often profitably open with a “local”—­one about the town or some local happening—­as a local is pretty sure to raise a giggle, and will cause the audience to think the monologist “bright” and at least start their relations off pleasantly.  He says:  “Work for giggles in your introduction, but don’t let the audience get set—­with a big laugh—­until the fifth or sixth joke.”

The introduction, therefore, is designed to establish the monologist with the audience as “bright,” to stamp the character of the “character” delivering it—­or about whom the gags are told—­and to delay a big laugh until the monologist has “got” his audience.

2.  The Development

The “point,” you will recall, we defined as the funny observation of a pure monologue—­in lay-conversation it means the laugh line of a joke; and “gag” we defined as a joke or a pun.  For the sake of clearness let us confine “point” to a funny observation in a monologue, and “gag” to a joke in a connected series of stories.

It is impossible for anyone to teach you how to write a really funny point or a gag.  But, if you have a well-developed sense of humor, you can, with the help of the suggestions for form given here and the examples of humor printed in the appendix, and those you will find in the funny papers and hear along the street or on the stage, teach yourself to write saleable material.  All that this chapter can hope to do for you is to show you how the best monologue writes and the most successful monologists work to achieve their notable results, and thus put you in the right path to accomplish, with the least waste of time and energy, what they have done.