Raj Ray
Tuesday 22nd June 2010 6:14pm [Edited]
Margate
3 posts
I did the London Comedy Course and have my showcase at Up the Creek on the 14th July and found it a really good course. The tutor pulls no punches and I agree with a previous post which states it isn't suitable for anyone just doing it for fun and I like the previous post was impressed with their honesty. As this course teaches you how to perform at pro level and every gesture, pause and word out of your mouth is micro directed, and rehearsed and, tweaked so the final results in the class were impressive. We spent the first half hour on the course just working on how to hold the mic like a pro and it may seem like overkill, but watch us all try it for the first time and none of us could do a simple thing like taking it out of the stand, place ourselves at the correct part of the stage and introduce ourselves. The detail they go into is really useful and they drum home all the time - performance, performance, performance.
At present the BBC are filming all the students for a documentary series and will be following some of them once they finished the course and out doing open spots, and you will get asked if you want to be part of the year long filming or not, if not they give you course start dates where there is no filming, so no pressure of being filmed if you don't want it.
I did their weekend 2 day course which included a nice hotel as I am not from London and my wife got to stay for free and took in the sights while I was on the course. On the weekend course you get to perform two minutes and on the longer courses they allow five minutes of material. Two minutes may not seem a lot, but we counted as a class 6 punch lines in my two minutes and we were shown how to make the set so tight that I am very happy with it.
Hearing lots from other students who are now doing this course who were on the Comedy School course and glad they moved to this one for the good reviews it is getting and the high standards required. The students who did the other course saying that they never got behind a mic until the night of their show on that course and were no way ready to perform. I was amazed that one student who did that other course had no idea how to hold a mic and mucked it up on our first task like the rest of us.
Plus points about the course:-
1. The tutors and invited speakers are all either headline comics or promoters of major comedy clubs and they know their industry
2. No time is wasted on this course, you are behind the mic from day one and the standard they set is high and the results impressive
3. You get to do your first gig at 'Up The Creek'
4. They have an amazing training centre with writing room, great facilities and professional staff.
Negative things about the course:-
1.If you don't do your homework and don't learn the routine you are working on, you simply get left behind as they don't allow any looking at notes or writing on hand etc. This isn't as harsh as it seems as all they expect is that you lean about 1 minute per week of your own material.
2.If you don't want to hear it as it is, don't do this course as they pull no punches and you will be told that something isn't funny and it's not working.
3.If you have pre conceived ideas about how you want to perform and not prepared to open up and try new things, this will defo not be the course for you.
Hope this helps.
They have a website at www.londoncomedycourse.com