Top 5 lessons from Fist Of Firsts

In his new podcast, Fist Of Firsts, comedy writer Tim Reid (Car Share, Meet The Richardsons) talks to the biggest names in comedy to uncover their backstories and their creative process. We asked him to share the top five things he's learned from the first series of his show.

1. Jon Richardson is a rule breaker

That might not be the first way you'd think of when describing Jon, but his break into comedy happened because he broke all the rules of the BBC New Comedy Award. The rules (OK, more conventions than rules) were that you do at least one gig, and more typically a few year's worth, before you enter the competition. Jon just taped himself for 5 minutes in the storeroom in the kitchen where he was cheffing. And annoyingly for all the other acts, he got through his heat.

2. Richard Herring works out every day

Not in a gym. At his desk. Richard works his creative muscles by writing a daily blog that he's kept going for over 20 years. And by forcing himself to find something funny from the day before, he gets to flex his comedy muscles, fine tune his writing technique, and land an incredible source of new material.

3. Seann Walsh needs to get better at asking for help

Imagine meeting your all-time comedy idol, Jim Carrey, being desperate to capture the moment for posterity, but your phone is out of charge. And instead of asking the two other comics you're travelling with to take the shot, you decide it's easier to write yourself a note saying "I met Jim Carrey" and framing that instead.

4. Zoe Lyons marinates her ideas

Zoe hates writing, pen and paper writing. So, what she's become brilliant at, is letting her comedy thoughts and ideas marinate in her subconscious, for days, months, sometimes years, confident that, when they're ready, they'll pop out of her mouth, often as a fully formed chunk, live on stage. You have to be brilliant, and open to those emerging ideas, to be able to work like that.

5. Creativity, just like comedians, comes in all shapes and sizes

Talking to a range of top comedians about their creative process has been unbelievably enlightening. And one of the most fascinating things is how different everyone's approach is. There are some common threads of course - being playful, brave, open and curious; understanding the rhythm and beats of funny... all of that. But what's really interesting is how there are so many different ways of coming up with new ideas. Whether that's the Richard Herring approach of writing, writing, writing, or the Hannah Byczkowski approach of throwing yourself in front of an audience and seeing what comes out, or the Zoe Lyons approach of letting ideas percolate and brew in their own good time.

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Fist Of Firsts - which features interviews with Jon Richardson, Seann Walsh, Adil Ray, Richard Herring, Kemah Bob, Geoff Norcott, Hannah Byczkowski and Zoe Lyons - is available via podcast apps now. Links to listen