Stand up comedy courses - are they worth it? Page 3

About ten years ago I paid quite a lot of money to spend two days listening to an American film producer called Dov Siemens who promised to teach me (and about 80 others) how to 'Write The Movie, Sell The Movie'.

Ten years on I haven't written or sold a single movie but I learned so much about how to work and how to present yourself creatively. It was money well spent.

Of course it would be nice to go to a stand-up course and graduate as a fully formed comic, but that isn't going to happen. Any more than you can spend three evenings at a rock climbing course and expect to set out to conquer Everest the next day. Most comics take years of gigging to learn their craft. Go on a course, and use the time to watch others and develop your writing and performing techniques.

Quote: The Man in the Bowler Hat @ December 1 2010, 11:03 AM GMT

I signed up for a course in the end, got two weeks left. It's going ok but far different from what I expected it to be.

So far for me the most interesting and, possibly, valuable things that it has offered is the opportunity to talk to some established comedians about comedy, audiences, and the industry. Apparently it turns out that I'm not going to do my first gig, get spotted, and then launched on to TV, film and DVD turning me into a millionaire in the process. Some of them said you may have to do at least 5 gigs before this happens - no wonder the drop out rate is so high!

I'm enjoying it, but will reserve judgement on whether or not I'd recommend this particular course until I've finished it.

I have been reading lots of books on the subject too, and found some very useful stuff - Logan Murray's book was very good IMO, am in the middle of Oliver Double's book which I'm finding a bit harder going.

First gig, a week on Friday (10th). Wish me luck (please).

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good work.

Which comics did you get to meet?

What a comedy course won't do;

1. Turn you into a fully formed stand up comedian
2. Make you rich overnight
3. Get you gigs
4. Get you laid

What a comedy course will do;

1. Nuture your comedy in a forgiving environment.
2. Give you support from your tutors and fellow students.
3. Give you an instant dozen or more contacts on the open mic circuit with whom you can share information, feedback, advice, etc
4. Allow you to develop material and get feedback on it
5. Practice stage craft without a proper audience being present.
6. Teach you mic technique and some basic practical considerations (such as dealing with mic stands, cables, etc)
7. Teach you the fundamentals of just being on stage so that you are then free to be creative rather than worrying about whether you're standing in the right place or if you're holding the mic correctly.

Doing a comedy course in preparation for your first gig is like a footballer practicing penalties, it doesn't necessarily mean that in the pressurized situation of a Word Cup final you won't miss but at least if means that you've stepped up to the penalty spot with the best preparation possible.

You don't NEED to do a comedy course, you can learn everything from reading books, attending gigs, watching DVDs and, of course, doing gigs, but a comedy course will give you the equivalent of anywhere in the region of 1-100 gigs experience before you even step on stage.

I can now, generally, spot brand new open mic comics who've done comedy courses because they don't make the simple mistakes that it can take others many gigs to learn from.

Quote: Anorak @ December 1 2010, 11:42 AM GMT

About ten years ago I paid quite a lot of money to spend two days listening to an American film producer called Dov Siemens who promised to teach me (and about 80 others) how to 'Write The Movie, Sell The Movie'.

Ten years on I haven't written or sold a single movie but I learned so much about how to work and how to present yourself creatively. It was money well spent.

Of course it would be nice to go to a stand-up course and graduate as a fully formed comic, but that isn't going to happen. Any more than you can spend three evenings at a rock climbing course and expect to set out to conquer Everest the next day. Most comics take years of gigging to learn their craft. Go on a course, and use the time to watch others and develop your writing and performing techniques.

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In fairness his course on building a more efficent fridge was excelent.

Quote: Tony Cowards @ December 1 2010, 12:36 PM GMT

What a comedy course won't do;

4. Get you laid

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You must have been on the wrong courses, Tony.

Any course where people travel away from home is WELL-likely to get you laid.

You have to be shagable in the first place though. Mingers are still mingers wherever they are.

Rather than a standup course, I really fancy doing an improv course. I quite like the idea of doing some MCing and I think this would help a lot.

Ok, I've come to the end of my course now and so am in a position to be able to look at it a bit more subjectively. I enjoyed the course that I did and found the advice given to us by professional comedians absolutely great. The little things like dealing with microphones etc were also really helpful. Other tips, about things like pauses and giving the audience enough time to laugh are things that otherwise it would have taken me a lot longer to learn. I've been going to a lot of open mic nights to watch others new acts and there are things that some acts do that we've been warned to avoid by the teachers.

At the end of the course we did a showcase, this was held in a theatre and I don't think it was a good venue for comedy, especially for us as first timers. You could not see any of the audience because of the lighting and they felt distanced from the acts so it was much harder to build that interaction that makes comedy work.

I also was less than impressed with the amount of time we spent on developing material, or methods of developing material. In my own situation this is less important as I write quite a lot anyway but some members on the course really struggled.

I would recommend doing a course if you are starting out, it won't make you into a comedian as such but it has probably helped me with lots of things that I wouldn't have necessarily have known otherwise. And I got to meet some really good people.

Quote: Tony Cowards @ November 30 2010, 1:48 PM GMT

Harry Denford, Oliver Double, Dave Cohen, Marc Blake, Susan Murray, all successful (in that they've all, at one time or another, made a living from performing comedy) stand ups who are involved or have been involved in comedy courses.

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Harry was my tutor on the London Comedy Course and he still gigs lots. We went and saw him during the course performing at The Orchard Theatre in Dartford for a Jongleurs gig. He does lots of Mirth Control clubs also where he headlines. Don't know others but Susan Murray still has lots of gigs listed besides her name when you Google it.

For the record I would recommend the London Comedy course www.londoncomedycourse.com for many factors, one of the main being for me, the chance to perform in front of 250 people at 'Up The Creek'. Best gig ever! and that rush will never be repeated on stage for me again I don't think.

A comedy course worked for me as it gave me the stage skills I needed and I don't agree that you can't teach someone to be funny, I think you can and saw it happen with me, just by changing words, pauses and opening up more. However down side is that you still have to do the time gigging like others who haven't done courses and you still have to be improving all the time and that only comes from regular stage time. Going on a course does put you ahead on performance and confidence, also it opened a few gigs and some pro comedy club promoters got to see me, who wouldn't usually see me at that level but it is easy to lapse back and not keep writing as you have a this fine tuned 5 min set.

I looked at the course run by Chris Head as that also gets lost of positive reviews. I applied for information on both, although Chris let me down on the admin side as he never got back to me, so opted for The London Comedy Course and very pleased with the result.

Here are a list of comedy courses from Google - sorry if they are very southern England based.

www.citylit.ac.co.uk www.londoncomedycourse.com www.chrishead.com www.thecomedyschool.com www.loganmurrey.com www.laughinghorse.com

I did Logan Murray's Stand Up and Deliver course (The Amused Moose one). It was very expensive at over four hundred quid... but it was probably the best four hundred I have ever spent. I met some amazing people, made some really good writing contacts, found people who were interested in forming a sketch group, gained confidence as a performer AND as a person and was given a safe environment to try out material and get supportive and helpful feedback. I learned how to write stand up, how to generate ideas and the business side of it too.

I have been writing comedy for a couple of years, mostly sketches and sitcom but I had no idea how to write stand up. The material just generated itself over the weeks from the homework excercises which were set. It allowed me to produce ideas and concepts I wouldn't have come up with otherwise. It also motivated you into getting your ideas onto paper. Gave you a structure to work within and then a lovely big first gig to get your teeth into. The support and encouragement from Logan was amazing and he was always on hand with excellent advice. He never pushed you into doing things a certain way.. but helped unlock what is funniest about you.

I loved it.

You've done a very good job of selling his course, he should put that on his website!

I'd have said writing stand up is much easier than writing sitcoms, though it depends on what your skills are etc, some great writers would really struggle to write stand up and some great stand ups would really struggle to write a sitcom I imagine.

Quote: Nat Wicks @ December 2 2010, 3:54 PM BST

You have to be shagable in the first place though. Mingers are still mingers wherever they are.

Rather than a standup course, I really fancy doing an improv course. I quite like the idea of doing some MCing and I think this would help a lot.

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Yeah, but people would be more likely to lower their standard if no-one they knew would see or find out, and if they'd be unlikely to see that person again.

Quote: Sammy @ March 27 2011, 12:34 PM BST

I did Logan Murray's Stand Up and Deliver course (The Amused Moose one).
The material just generated itself over the weeks from the homework excercises which were set. It allowed me to produce ideas and concepts I wouldn't have come up with otherwise. It also motivated you into getting your ideas onto paper. Gave you a structure to work within and then a lovely big first gig to get your teeth into. The support and encouragement from Logan was amazing and he was always on hand with excellent advice. He never pushed you into doing things a certain way.. but helped unlock what is funniest about you.

I loved it.

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That was the impression I got from his book 'Teach Yourself Stand-Up', which I highly recommend. Especially if (like me) you don't have the economic or geographical situation to attend his course.

Re: stand-up comedy courses. As far as I can see, you might as well cut out the middle man and give your money straight to the coke dealer/prostitute/betting shop.

Hi folks

I've done a couple of beginners stand-up courses and a more advanced Writing for stand up course, all in London, I also canvassed opinions about other courses and wrote an epic blog on the subject

Hope you find it helpful

http://sean-ruttledge.blogspot.com/2012/03/stand-up-comedy-courses-in-london-good.html

Cheers

Some good points being thrown about - I'd add one, make sure you actually see the person giving the course performing. If you don't find them funny, you're unlikely to take as much away from it.

Also, to TMITBH (Original poster) - I've definitely seen you at open mic sets last year, thanks to your distinctive name you're memorable! This included the Gong show at The Comedy Store and I (think) I saw you at a Comedy Bin venue. Either way, interested to know why you didn't keep gigging and went for a course instead?

Hi Comedyoflife,

Glad you saw my fabulous success at the Gong Show, it takes some skill to last 24 seconds I can tell you! To be fair, I'd been at the England/India game at Lords that day so didn't really care about how I did at the gong - just as well really!

Looking back and reading my first post again was funny. You ask why I hadn't kept gigging and went for a course instead, well.....

I'd always fancied doing stand up, ever since I'd been a student but like many people I'd never done anything about it, then about 11 years ago I went to a comedy night in London called Red Shoes, No Knickers with my then girlfriend, a mate of mine and his girlfriend. Chatting to the compere I found out that one of the acts hadn't turned up and I said I'd get up and do a 5 minute set. And he let me! I wasn't good, but I wasn't awful.(Actually I probably was awful but too naive to realise.) I enjoyed it and then went back to work the next day and thought, I could do that...a thought that pretty much continued with me for the next 10 years until I actually decided to act on my convictions. Hence me asking for advice about comedy courses.

Funnily enough in one of my early gigs the headliner was the compere from all those years ago.

Reading that first post of mine is also funny for reading this again:-

"I reckon I've about 30minutes worth of stuff so far, although I know I'm going to have to edit it down into 5minute slots to start with."

I did have 30 minutes of stuff, it was just all absolutely dire. As I type this I cringe that I even thought that.

Since the end of the course I've been gigging regularly. In just over a year I've done about 200 gigs, out of the 16 people that went on the same course as me there's only one other of my contemporaries who's still gigging.

So, yes I'm still gigging and now writing and submitting stuff to other shows too. Occasionally if you go and see the News Revue you might hear some of my stuff being used.

Nigel Lovell - The Man in the Bowler Hat