5 Tight Minutes A Guide to Joke Writing Performing & Selling

Stu Cassell was born in St. Louis, Missouri and raised in a traditional Jewish household; something which has always made him wonder since his family is Italian! His family moved to Detroit, and as a member of the National Guard, Stu got into trouble trying to bring home a war bride during the riots of 1967. He began his comedy writing career as a free-lance writer at the age of 21 when he sold one-liners to greeting card companies. The first joke he sold was: Front: "Your lips say no, but your eyes say YES" Inside: "How about putting the rest of your body to a vote?" A few years later he saw an ad for an open-mike night at a local bar and decided to try stand-up comedy. The first time he got on stage he spotted an attractive woman in the audience, and being single, after his set he approached her and used a Woody Allen line on her: "You're beautiful, would you like to take me home and hurt me?" The woman smiled and said, "Why wait?" and then she kicked him in the shin. The next week he used that in his act. Within 3 months he was getting paid work in Detroit, and within a year bookings out of town. He has since appeared in over 300 nightclubs and colleges in the U.S. and Canada, and opened for Jim Carey, Gary Shandling, and Bob Saget. But his real claim to fame occurred after he moved to Los Angeles. He was living down the street from George Lopez in Mission Hills, and George helped him move a couch. With fellow comic Bill Thomas, he founded the Detroit Comedy Society, and when he moved to Los Angeles, The L.A. Comedy Repertoire. His articles have appeared in the Detroit Free Press, and more recently he wrote a weekly column for Highlands Today in Avon Park, Florida. Today he currently resides with wife Mary Rose and dog Jack in St. Louis, MO. While living in L.A. he taught "5 Tight Minutes", a comedy writing, performing, and selling class at the Learning Network and Learning Tree. At the same time, he sold jokes to Joan Rivers and Rodney Dangerfield, who featured some of Stu's material on his "Rappin Rodney" album. "Five Tight Minutes" is based on 20 years experience as a professional comedy writer, performer, and teacher. It refers to what all club owners ask of new comics, "Give me 5 tight minutes", meaning, giving me a set with nothing but big laughs. It's what all comics aspire to, and continually add to until 5 become 10, 10 becomes 20, etc. etc. etc.