Looking for tips on writing comedy material

Hello,

Let me start off by telling everyone a bit about myself. My name is Callum, I'm 15 years old from Bradford and was born completely blind.
I've always loved stand-up comedy from about the age of 4/5 when my dad allowed me to watch a Peter Kay DVD with him. After watching it I started telling the jokes to others in the same style as Peter Kay, being able to use the exact same timing, accents, voices etc. Although I was only 5 and didn't have a clew what the jokes were about I loved the different voices used, but most of all, the way they made people laugh.

I recently came across a bar local to me that hosts a regular comedy night. The owners had spoke to me a few times before when I'd been with family and suggested I gave it a go. The problem was I hadn't actually wrote my own material. I still gave it a go having had a couple of days to get between 3-5 minutes worth of material, and I also did another one a month later.
The problem is I am seriously struggling to write my own material. I'm wanting to write in the same style as people such as Peter Kay, Jason Manford and John Bishop, who are 3 of my favourite comedians. I love their comedy style, jokes about family and life that everyone can relate to, but are not offensive.
For me I can be funny and sarcastic at the right moment when with friends, but when I sit down and try to focus on writing, my mind just goes completely blank. This explains the unbelievably basic material I had on the comedy nights.

I've put 2 links at the end of this, which are to the videos of the 2 comedy nights I've performed at. If people could check these out, leave some feedback and give me their tips for writing material that would be absolutely great!

Thank you in advanced,
Callum Stoneman.

First comedy performance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PT10-nXrmkI
Second: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KBzZqGK6uA

Welcome to the site Callum. Nice effort there young man. I have watched the first clip. The old folks home and bob the builder jokes made me laugh out loud. Are they your own jokes? If so, well done. If not, they were still well delivered.

Hi,

Thanks for the feedback, yes those two were both my own jokes. Glad you enjoyed it

Really enjoyed these though there were as you say some issues with the sound quality. I thought you came across confident and the jokes were funny and you have a natural delivery. I especially like the one about your nan and the ipod.

As for tips on writing, there are lots of tips floating around here on the various threads so I'd say this would be a good place to start, plus you're amongst other aspiring writers here which I find helps to motivate.
Have you tried doing jokes on Twitter to see how they are received? Especially good for the one-liner type jokes of course.

Well done Callum, I hope you keep at it now once you've got the bug

Hello,

Glad you enjoyed the videos and it's great to hear such positive feedback, so thank you very much for that. I definitely have got the bug and want to continue to build my material. Is there a specific thread on here or anywhere else that would recommend?

I'm having the same struggle this early into the game. One thing I can say for certain is not to rush and to force something. You say your jokes were basic, but there was a real strength there because you were working with what you know.

For my part, I draw inspiration from my experiences working in retail and in basically not being able to interact with human beings on any sort of socially acceptable level.

My challenge is just cramming the complexity into simple jokes. But I don't think you're going to have that problem. Still, since you asked for threads that might be useful, here's a couple I can suggest.

This is the tell us a joke thread in the critique forum:

https://www.comedy.co.uk/forums/thread/29369/

I know you don't want to do offensive comedy, which I respect, so some of the jokes do dip into that direction. But you also get some great feedback on your own material as well as having the chance to offer feedback to others. You might think of a word or a phrasing that could improve someone else's joke, for example.

Also, just start a thread anytime you're working on a joke that you're just not feeling. Because people will respond and we generally are trying to help one another out.

So welcome to the forum.

Hello,

I haven't really been keeping this post up to date as I've been busy with a few other things and not really got round to updating it.
Below is another YouTube link, this time to a comedy set I did on 4 September in Bradford. A bit of background information, I was more in my comfort zone with this as, unlike the other two where I was with professional comedy acts, this was a comedy night more aimed at new comedians. This was at a new monthly comedy night open local to me called Comedy Hat. They are currently having a Comedy Hat comedian of the year competition, and the link at the end of this was my performance for the first heats of that competition. I got through to the final at joint second, so now I've got to get working on some more material for the March final

Find out more about Comedy Hat here: http://www.comedyhat.co.uk And watch my performance on that night here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DYfUaXfL2M As usual, any feedback and tips are very much appreciated.

Thanks,

Callum.