Tag Archives: standup

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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Microphone Technique

By Andrew | Published: March 4, 2010
Last Monday was week five of my stand up comedy course (read about week 1, 3 and 4). For the first time I used a microphone during my set. I’ll be honest, using a microphone is fairly trivial. Just point it towards your mouth and speak. But my instructor, Joe Charles, explained a few finer [...]
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