British Comedy Guide

Stand Up Routine

This is the first time I've ever tried to write any stand up - I'm a little worried about posting this becuase I've tried to relate it to my personal experiances. Experiances which may well not relate to anyone else - simply because they can't appricate being in my position. But I guess this is the best place to "try it out" as opposed to live.

I think most people are aware of my history with my weight but I also have a slight stutter, nothing major and you might not notice it unless I mention it but if I was going to have a bash at stand up then this would certainly worry me. So I thought it best to address that right at the start of the routine.

Anyway enough waffle here it is. - I appreciate your views.

I'm a rarity in a stand up, I have a stutter. Particularly on the letter F. It's great when I'm ffff**king my wife, makes things last a lot longer.

As you can see I'm really into health and fitness and all that.

Actually I lost over ten stone recently. Yeap, it amazing to be able to move around again, the only thing is I have to go to the shops for my own fags now.

It's amazing how ignorant people can be when dealing with the larger gentleman. Believe it or not most fat people are actually ashamed about their size and hate being looked at. Restaurants are the worst thing. You go in and you can almost see the Manager rubbing his hands together at the prospect of a big order. They then parade you through the whole restaurant, to a table in the furthest corner – making sure that everyone sees you on route, they virtually get the flags out to wave in front of you, I'm surprised they don't hire a military brass band to lead you to the table....just to make sure no one misses the fact that you are there. Of course all pairs of eyes are now on you, everyone seems to rush to get their orders in as though you're going to eat everything on the menu. Then of course you find that the table, which seems to be located somewhere near Melbourne, is in fact a booth. The manager then looks at you strangely when you quietly explain that it might be a tight squeeze - they act all dumb as if they have failed to spot the size of your girth. Then in the loudest voice they say "Ah you can't fit in there can you?" and then are paraded back through the restaurant back to the table right by the door. My which time, you've gone so red in the face that the steaks can be cooked on your cheeks.

In fact one of the more bizarre incidents of my life happened in a restaurant. Earlier in the day I had proposed to my girlfriend, she said yes and then helped me get up off bended knee. We then decided on a nice romantic meal to end the day. It was great, we had the whole restaurant to ourselves, it was all lovely candles and quite music and then twenty sumo wrestlers walk in. Honestly this is a true story. So there I am on the night I become engaged, my myself and my fiancée are sat eating dinning with twenty or so sumo wrestlers. Then a smaller guy who is obviously the manager of the group walks over to towards, and I think oh God he's going to ask me I want to join his team. But I was just being paranoid – it was my fiancée he wanted to sign up.

I think it's got promise Bigfella.
And I understand your reluctance to post it, as stand up isn't stand up until it's performed.
A good start to the routine & I could see the stories working quite well with the right amount of oomph.

Write loads & loads, chop it down to 5 minutes & give it a go someday.
You've definitely got the talent to make it work.

Quote: Fred Sunshine @ June 20 2009, 9:49 PM BST

I think it's got promise Bigfella.
And I understand your reluctance to post it, as stand up isn't stand up until it's performed.
A good start to the routine & I could see the stories working quite well with the right amount of oomph.

Write loads & loads, chop it down to 5 minutes & give it a go someday.
You've definitely got the talent to make it work.

Thanks Fred.

Yes I think things don't work quite as well on paper - as you say everything needs oomph! Stand up needs the facial expressions and arm waving and marching about the stage to get the full picture.

There's a lot of promise there. But you may be being a little to honest and not enough narrative which makes life harder.

e.g. the waiter is a good story, but if you told it as you narrating a story it might have more zip.

But good stuff, you could also fit in a few more gags. Maybe some similees or lists.

e.g. the 3 things I hate about restaurants are...

Thanks Sooty, useful comments.

I did enjoy this. It's a whole different discipline writing stand-up but I echo the others, you have some nuggets here. :)

Quote: SlagA @ June 20 2009, 10:22 PM BST

I did enjoy this. It's a whole different discipline writing stand-up but I echo the others, you have some nuggets here. :)

Cheers Slag.

Here is a bit more.

The other thing about being fat is that people think you're stupid. Fortunately. I'm not. I've got a degree in Aeronautical Engineering.

Now this makes for great fun when jetting off on holidays. Obviously everyone on the plane is already praying that I'm not going to be sitting next to them. It all starts in the departure lounge, people go into hushed huddle as I walk past..now I know damn well what they're saying. You see everyone staring as I squeeze along the aisle and they all let out a massive sigh of relief as I shuffle past. Then I see the look of horror on the poor victims face when the reality hits her that's she's got me for next eight hours – of course there is no effort to hide the repulsion.

So I always decide to have a little fun.

I normally wait till we are racing up the runway then I mention that I'm off to a conference on stress propagation in a few weeks. Now stress propagation means nothing to them, to be honest it means nothing much to me either, but I do remember that it's very common on the fuselage and if it is failed to be spotted can result in the plane snapping in half – I always feel it is my duty to share this piece of valuable information.

Now I've put the victim at her ease because she knows that I am a professional So I go on to tell my story about a four engine flame out.

Flame out's are basically when the engine starts working backwards and result in flames coming out the back. They look horrifying to the passengers at 30,000 ft but in reality are quite rare, they aren't actually a problem, the pilot shuts down the engine and then starts it up again – of course I don't nessecarly share that nugget. I tell how I was reading the other day about a plane that experienced all four of its engines flaming out at the same time. Now, if all four engines stop working at the same time your normal 747 turns into a flying brick. So as the plane starts to plummet from the sky, it's the pilot's job to start the engines again. Now because a four engine flame out is so rare, he doesn't know what to do. But it's all okay, because it takes over three minutes for a 747 to fall from 30,000 ft when it loses power, the pilot has time to consult his manual to find out what to do......now wouldn't that be great if that happens to us.

My travelling companion will now normally be in such a state that she buggers off to the bog for the best part of the flight leaving me in perfect comfort.

I think this bit is a bit gag lite and I think you're wearing your heart to much on your sleave.

If you fill in some little gags along the way it might make it a bit funnier. A technique I use is to go through and replace lines with gag lines.

So for example,
Then I see the look of horror on the poor victims face when the reality hits her that's she's got me for next eight hours – of course there is no effort to hide the repulsion

could become,

she looked like Princess Leia realising Jabba the Hutt had a boner.

or

Flame out's are basically when the engine starts working backwards and result in flames coming out the back

could have added to the beginning.

A bit like a vindaloo and 6 pints of Cobra.

A good stand up routine has maybe 4-6 gags per page of writing in my experience. Also your standup persona kinda needs to decide in my view if it's high or low status.

Thats really good advice. Sooty. I like that.

A good method I think too, Write the story then go back and replace, with visual things. Excellent. Top tip.

Well you're obviously very much a writers and as a writer you have a very confident style.

If you got the oportunity it could be interesting to do this as a story telling exercise.

Quote: sootyj @ June 21 2009, 9:41 AM BST

Well you're obviously very much a writers and as a writer you have a very confident style.

If you got the oportunity it could be interesting to do this as a story telling exercise.

Maybe I could go into my daughters school at story time Whistling nnocently

I liked this Bigfella.

Made me laugh, it does work without lots of gags to be honest. If you can tell a funny story in a very funny way, that can work well and can have just a big an impact.

Enjoyed it, im working on material myself too, just playing around with what comes into my warped head, but it's fun. :)

Earlier in the day I had proposed to my girlfriend, she said yes and then helped me get up off bended knee.

I loved this line. :)

Thanks folks.

Now I'm just going to have to get pissed one night....

Yeah, I kind of agree with a lot of what Sooty's saying. The stories/ideas are a good starting point but I too think you need more gags in there. You don't need to be so truthful in stand-up; people are there to laugh, not relate to your autobiography, so they're not fussed what is/isn't true.

Somebody said once that, as a stand-up, you need a laugh on average once every 10 seconds (barring bits where you're obviously building to a big laugh or trying to make some sort of point) and I think little gags like Sooty's suggested right the way through will make it a lot more polished and, critically, funny. You need some proper big laugh punchlines at the end of each 'story' too, I reckon. The 'signing up my fiancee' thing is a good ending. The 'perfect comfort' thing isn't funny enough IMO.

Hope this is useful

Dan

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