Stand-Up Comedy - A Blog

Hello to all, last month I realised that I've been doing stand-up for three and a half years and have little in the way of actual record of that so started a blog in the hope that it will record things better than my memory.

Anyway, I decided to write a brief history of my experience of performing on the open-mic circuit, divided into three parts:

Beginning: http://stuchopslaws.wordpress.com/2010/03/29/the-open-mic-circuit-in-england/

Hiatus/Resumption: http://stuchopslaws.wordpress.com/2010/03/30/the-open-mic-circuit-in-england-hiatus/

New Direction/Conclusions: http://stuchopslaws.wordpress.com/2010/03/31/the-open-mic-circuit-in-england-new-direction/

Anyway, thought it may interesting to other stand-ups or to people considering doing stand-up. Especially as I conceive the third part to be a breakdown of major mistakes that I made and I've seen made by others and the things I found incredibly useful for improvement.

I enjoyed reading that. I started stand-up about 5 months ago and am perpetually confused. I think I've changed my material about a million times (and am about to do so yet again). I know it's probably not my material that I need to work on (as you say of yourself at the beginning) but it's the most concrete thing you can go back to so you at least feel like you're doing something to improve! It's just difficult to decide what's good and what's not if the same jokes go brilliantly one night and die the next.

I was talking to someone recently who described a good persona as being able to talk to the audience as if they were your best mate. I guess "being yourself" must have a lot to do with that, as you seem to be saying. Still don't know how people manage it though!

Look forward to reading the third part about your mistakes. Not only because I can only feel happy when others fail.

Interesting stuff Chopz, I totally agree about the sometimes adversarial nature of stand up, some comics see it very much as "us vs them" but I agree with you, the job of the comic (and especially the compere) is to create a community where we are all sharing a joke and the experience of having a laugh.

Ok, part 3 is up: http://stuchopslaws.wordpress.com/2010/03/31/the-open-mic-circuit-in-england-new-direction/

And "The Mistakes of the New and Sometimes Experienced Comedian"

http://stuchopslaws.wordpress.com/2010/04/01/the-mistakes-of-the-new-and-sometimes-experienced-comedian/

sglen: agree about persona being such a large part of stand-up, maybe more so than material

Hi there,

So I've written a new blog about technique vs. non-technique in stand-up comedy...

http://stuchopslaws.wordpress.com/2010/06/20/technique-versus-non-technique/

I'm not a stand up, but I still found it very interesting!
Thanks Mr. Laws.

Ah, thank you