Tom Segura on the Art of Storytelling and Bad Thoughts

TL;DR

Great storytelling depends on context: you must give the audience enough setup at the top so the payoff lands. Tom Segura learned this by contrast, watching his mother heighten and color her stories while his father left out every key detail. His Netflix sketch show Bad Thoughts dramatizes the dark, intrusive impulses everyone has but never acts on.

Transcript

So, it wouldn't be a Mr. Ballan episode if I didn't tell you a story. Yes, this story isn't really on the internet. You have to write them a letter to get access to this story. You set up like a bond story. I had to like request access through headquarters to hear a story. I don't know where this is going to go, but I'm in. Dude, those stories beco... Read More

Key Insights

• Context is the biggest thing in storytelling and joke-telling. A joke often fails not because it is unfunny but because the comedian has not conveyed enough information at the setup for the observation to work.
• Storytelling is considered advanced for comedians. You rarely see year-one or year-two comics praised as great storytellers because getting an audience to come along on a story requires a comfort level built over thousands of performances.
• Tom Segura learned storytelling by contrast between his parents. His mother was a naturally dramatic storyteller who heightened parts, added color, and knew when to pull the pin, while his father left out all the key information.
• Punching up a story is part of the craft. Segura's mother would exaggerate details, like saying a hundred people were in line, to paint a picture and draw the listener in, which is a legitimate storytelling technique.
• Segura's go-to true story is the lost wallet story about a guy named Justin, built on context and a payoff where both Justin and his father react with total indifference to the wallet being returned.
• Bad Thoughts is a Netflix sketch comedy show where each sketch starts one way with beautiful cinematography, then takes a ridiculous detour by having a character act on the worst intrusive thought available in the scene.
• Comedy works as a release because the comedian says the thing everyone wants to say but does not. Audiences find it relatable and freeing to hear their own suppressed dark thoughts voiced aloud.
• Everyone has dark or bad thoughts, but societal norms mean people process them rather than act on them. Segura compares the fear of standing on a building edge, where the fear is not that you will fall but that you might jump.

Questions & Answers

Q: What is Story Time with MrBallen?

Story Time with MrBallen is a brand new format MrBallen introduces in this episode. It is an addition to, not a replacement of, his core Strange, Dark and Mysterious content. In it he interviews a guest for the first time on any of his shows, explores the art of storytelling, swaps stories with the guest, and tells a story he has never shared anywhere before. The debut guest is comedian Tom Segura.

Q: Why does Tom Segura say context is so important to storytelling?

Segura argues that context is the biggest thing in both storytelling and joke-telling. He explains that a joke often fails not because it is unfunny but because the comedian has not conveyed enough information at the top, at the setup, for the observation to land. The audience does not yet understand what the joke is about. The only reason they do not get it is that it was not set up clearly, so context is what makes something funny or a story matter.

Q: How did Tom Segura learn to become a good storyteller?

Segura learned largely by contrast between his two parents. His mother was a naturally dramatic and gifted storyteller who heightened parts of the story, added color, painted a picture, and knew exactly when to pull the pin. His father, by contrast, was the single worst storyteller, leaving out all the key information so listeners could not follow what happened. Seeing both extremes helped Segura recognize what makes storytelling good and what makes it fall flat.

Q: What is Tom Segura's favorite go-to story to tell?

Segura's go-to is the lost wallet story, which he says is true. It is about a guy named Justin who lost his wallet in a cab. Segura shared the cab with a woman who found the wallet, and he took it upon himself to return it. He calls many places, reaches only Justin's father, who dismisses his son as worthless, and later encounters Justin himself as a waiter, only to have Justin react with complete indifference when the wallet is returned.

Q: What is the Netflix show Bad Thoughts about?

Bad Thoughts is Tom Segura's sketch comedy show on Netflix. MrBallen describes each sketch as starting one way, with beautiful cinematography and a sense of where it is going, before taking a ridiculous detour into crazy territory. The show encapsulates the worst intrusive bad thought a character in a given scene could act on, and then has them act on it, pushing the premise to an extreme level. It dramatizes the dark impulses people have but normally suppress.

Q: Why is telling stories considered advanced for comedians?

Segura explains that getting an audience to come along on a story is difficult and advanced. You rarely see year-one or year-two comics praised as great storytellers because their material is short form. Storytelling requires a level of comfort on stage that cannot be manufactured. That comfort only develops after performing thousands of times, which is why storytelling tends to emerge later in a comedian's career rather than at the beginning.

Q: How does comedy work as a release for audiences, according to Tom Segura?

Segura says comedy provides release because the comedian says the thing everyone wants to say but does not. When audiences hear their own suppressed thoughts voiced aloud, it feels relatable and freeing. He connects this to social media, which gives people permission to express things they would never say to someone's face. Voicing dark or blunt thoughts, like telling someone you hate them, becomes a release precisely because it is normally held back in everyday life.

Q: What does the edge-of-a-building metaphor mean in the discussion of bad thoughts?

The metaphor illustrates intrusive, self-destructive thoughts. Segura and MrBallen note that when you stand on the edge of a building, your fear is not that you will fall but that you might jump. It captures the idea, tied to Edgar Allan Poe's story The Imp of the Perverse, that people carry self-destructive impulses. Everyone has these dark thoughts, but societal norms mean they process them internally rather than act on them, which is the theme Bad Thoughts explores.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• MrBallen launches a new format called Story Time with MrBallen, his first time interviewing a guest, added alongside his regular Strange, Dark and Mysterious content. The guest is comedian Tom Segura, and the episode covers the art of storytelling, swapping stories, and a story MrBallen has never shared before.

• Segura traces his love of storytelling to his parents. His mother was a naturally gifted, dramatic storyteller who heightened moments, added color, and drew listeners in, while his father was the single worst storyteller, leaving out all the key information. The contrast taught him what works.

• Segura shares his lost wallet story about returning a wallet to a man named Justin, whose father dismisses his son and whose own reaction is indifferent. He and MrBallen connect this to Bad Thoughts, his Netflix sketch show exploring the intrusive, self-destructive thoughts everyone has but never acts on.