Tag Archives: comedy

Writing for stand up part 2: Having funny ideas

By Andrew | Published: May 14, 2010
This is the second installment of a series about writing  stand up comedy material. Read Writing for stand up part 1: What is a joke?. The third and final part is coming soon. A joke subverts an assumption. A comedian must identify or create assumptions and then surprise the audience by veering off in another direction. [...]
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My first (proper) stand up comedy set

By Andrew | Published: March 18, 2010
Last night I performed my very first open mic stand up comedy set. This was a big personal milestone for me and is my first completed resolution of 2010. I performed a five minute set that I have been working on in my stand up comedy class. It’s essentially a cut down version of the speech [...]
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Writing for stand up part 1: What is a joke?

By Andrew | Published: March 12, 2010
Jokes subvert assumptions. Consider this joke from Jimmy Carr: My girlfriend said she wanted me to tease her. I said “alright, fatty”. Carr creates an assumption (that his girlfriend wants to be teased playfully) then subverts it (by teasing her maliciously). It’s a classic setup/punch joke; the first sentence (setup) leads us in one direction, the next sentence (punch) reframes [...]
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