“The ability to access everything instantaneously with Avid is crucial.”

The Comedy Cut: No Faking Funny

 

When it comes to comedy, I've had some challenging sequences that I had to work with, primarily when dealing with multiple shows and trying to find the rhythm between them as far as mixing up jokes and continuity and creating a flow like it's happening live.

You can't cheat moments. You can't tighten moments. You can't make false moments because viewers feel that, especially in comedy. You have to really make it feel like it is coming from the voice of the comedian.  

 

 

Tailoring the Edit to the Comedian  

 

When I do a project and it's comedy based, it evolves. It really depends on the comedian, how they deliver. Some of them are rapid fire. Some of them are narrative storytelling. Some of them are punchlines. Ali Wong tells stories. Nate Bergazzi tells stories. You have to accentuate those. So that creates a different pace. I spend time watching the comedian before I edit them. What I'm looking for is their flow and rhythm. I need to find ways to make every word they say pop. 

I spend more time on the first cut than some people do because I want it to be as close to finished as possible. I spend a lot of time with the comedian working out the order and pacing and trying to tighten it up. Most shows will run 1:20 and a lot of streaming platforms want it to be an hour. So we find ways to lose things that aren't landing. But I follow the editing all the way from that to the mix, to color, to the final watch down with the comedian. 

Ways we get around problem areas is we make sure that in our multi-cams we have angles, for instance, like shooting from behind, or extreme wide shots where you can't see a lot of lip flap. We have a bit of latitude, with the comedian’s blessing, to pull the joke up, clean it up, work through stumbles. 

 

We will shoot four, five shows. I have to be able to move a joke from show two to show four. And then oh, we want to move the opening from show one because there was a better one in show three. The ability to access everything instantaneously with Avid is crucial. Otherwise it would be an endless search and would take much longer to create a final cut without it. Using ScriptSync is very helpful, being able to organize bins with B roll and things like that is very helpful. Avid gives you that ability to really sort and feel pretty thorough about it. And that's what I love about it.  

 

I use a lot of stabilizing. Because it's live. Someone in the audience gets up and you all of a sudden see a shake, or something gets bumped. I use some color correction, because the LUTs (Lookup Tables) aren't always correct. And it just helps overall. I can even the show out for basic viewing purposes. 

 

 

On the Emmy 

 

Being nominated has changed my daughter's outlook on her father. My daughter thinks I'm very cool. She's looking forward to going to the Emmys, she's already picking her dress out, and that's a really good feeling to finally do something that my daughter thinks is cool.

Every one of us goes into a new show not knowing what it's going to be. It slowly morphs into what it ultimately becomes. We try one way. We try another way. I've always gone into projects thinking, ‘I know exactly how I'm going to do this.’ And it never turns out that way. It always becomes a hybrid of something we started with. But we had to explore all these options. 

 

 

The Star Wars Factor 

 

What inspired me to be an editor was Star Wars. I grew up in a little small town outside of Yosemite. I remember watching on my little black and white television that we had in our farmhouse, the making of Star Wars, how they used to hit the tension wires on the electrical poles to make the lightsaber sounds. I was so intrigued, that I knew I wanted to be a filmmaker, and at that time, there wasn't videotape. There was nothing that I could really do to make film. So I pursued photography at CalArts. My first summer job out of CalArts was with Alan Rudolph (director and screenwriter), as an apprentice editor. I worked my way through three of his pictures. I then started editing, pursued feature films, indie films and a couple of reality series, but it all comes back to Star Wars. 

 

 

Don’t Wait for Permission 

 

Definitely learn the basics of Avid. Learn how to cut a basic scene and cut it well. Have someone you know that edits look at it. Don't be afraid to show it. We all started with our first scenes that we were fearful of showing the editor and they got ripped apart. That's how you learn. 

If you are an assistant editor and want to edit, no one's going to come to you and say, ‘Guess what? On the next project, you're going to edit.’ You have to force the situation. You have to go and cut stuff on the side or after hours and let producers and editors see what you're doing. It's not magically going to happen like, "Wow, I was an assistant and now I'm an editor." If you're not putting the effort in, no one's going to realize that you can edit.  

 

 

About the Editor

 

Sean Hubbert, accomplished veteran editor and producer whose career spans critically acclaimed feature films, unscripted adventure series, and high-profile stand-up comedy specials. Early credits on major studio releases such as Crash (2004), Assassins (1995), and The Ghost and the Darkness (1996). In recent years, he has become a sought-after supervising editor in comedy, shaping the visual rhythm and timing of specials by top-tier talent like Nate Bargatze, Ali Wong, and Kathleen Madigan. Earned two 2025 Emmy nominations for Your Friend, Nate Bargatze and Ali Wong: Single Lady. Hubbert’s deep understanding of stand-up’s unique narrative demands, paired with his mastery of Avid editorial tools, allows him to craft experiences that resonate with both audiences and peers. His versatile range is further highlighted by his work on unscripted projects like Running Wild with Bear Grylls, Extracted, FOX, and The Summit, CBS.