A Saver is a term...

A saver is a comedian’s funny comment on stage acknowledging that their last joke or series of jokes did not get a lot of laughs. Savers which are usually unoriginal can get at least a chuckle from the audience and break the silence in the room. The first saver I heard was delivered as a pay phone in the back of the club started to ring and the comedian, who was dying on stage said, “Is that the governor?” As if the governor was calling to stay his execution. I thought to myself, brilliant. The second saver I heard was delivered after a comedian got no laughs through the first several minutes of his set. He said, “let me leave you as I found you…in a coma.” BOOM! That line got his first laughs. He then built upon that response with several follow-up one-liners like a champ against the ropes about to go down but hangs in there, methodically hitting back with hard landing blows. He turned that audience around and finished very strongly. Impressive.