Stand up Comedy

Ok. No prises for guessing what this post is going to revolve around. I am a huge fan of comedy. Like most people (I would imagine) I love laughing. In this sense, the title is a bit misleading as it's not just standup I'm a fan of. I love bands that re-word popular songs with their own lyrics: some examples are here and here if you're interested (WARNING: the latter contains VERY bad language. Don't watch if you're easily offended... you have been warned!). I'm also rather partial to sitcoms: no surprise there since most people are. What I really love are ones like M*A*S*H and Yes Minister which, as well as having plenty physical gags and ones based on comic misunderstanding, also have magnificent wordplay. Recently I have developed a taste for more classic music-hall style stuff such as the Two Ronnies, Morcame and Wise and Andy Stuart (I know the first two aren't strictly speaking music-hall but in my mind they are a sort-of logical outcome of the genre). 

Unsurprisingly given the title of this post, I also love stand up comedy. My tastes in this field are rather eclectic. Undoubtedly my favourite of all time is Billy Connolly. The man is fantastic; the epitome of Glesgae Patter. His material never gets old so even when I know exactly what's coming, the anticipation of the punchline is pleasurable in itself. A true mark of his genius is that he can get my mother (not noted for her sense of humour) roaring with laughter every time. Although The Big Yin is often very crude and rude, he is always charming with it and can get away with it. Despite the profanity, it's mostly gently and good-natured. I also rather like Michael McIntyre for a similar reason. That said, I also love Frankie Boyle and his brand of "did he REALLY just say that?" humour.

Anyway, before this becomes a rather boring list of stand up comedians followed by clumsy summaries of their style, let me get to the point. I'm now seriously thinking about having a go myself. Of course, the logical time to give this a go would have been at Uni. You know? The place for experimentation and growth. I did think about joining the society but for whatever reason I didn't: probably because it clashed with my relentless pursuit of girls/learning. I did write a couple of sketches for departmental revues but claiming they were finely crafted comedy would be like claiming whisky is a soft drink. They went out pretty much unedited. Unfortunately, rather than enjoying the laughs which they undoubtedly got, I was squirming with embarrassment at how clunky they were. Writing dialogue has never been my strong suit and the lines I wrote were more of a guide to the editors and performers in the hope that they would convey the sentiment in words that sounded more natural.

Before I do myself down too much here, I do genuinely think I'm quite funny. It may not come across much here when I'm either ranting or promoting a cause, but generally I'm fairly affable and can see the funny side in almost any situation. However this trait doesn't necessarily make a comedian. It's all very well being able to laugh at something at the time but it's not much use if you relate the story to someone else who then looks at you blankly before saying (slightly too politely), "Hmmm. Perhaps you had to be there." Ouch. So anecdotal comedy I could well struggle with.

I could just get up and tell jokes. I have literally millions stored away in my memory banks however as I have heard all of them from other people, this feels a bit like cheating. Yes it's partly the way you tell 'em but it's also not really fair to take the credit for someone else's work.

Again this is erring on the negative so let me look at how I do make people laugh. I do this in several situation-specific ways. If I was being particularly pompous, I would call them personas but we all know we act differently in certain situations so the term is overrated. I can do grumpy rants peppered with outrageous metaphors. Usually they reach a crescendo of bile and vitriol having lost, almost entirely, the point of the rant. A few have been published up here but in person they generally get even more outrageous and colourful. This way could be fun. Certainly, it would be fairly straight-forward material to prepare and being grumpy comes worryingly easily. I also know that towards the end, the laughs would be directed at me rather than at what I was saying. No huge deal but if I go to the effort of writing material, it may as well get laughs on it's own merit.

So what next? My former flatmate and I had a good line in "banter" (for want of a better word). Part of this was the usual stream of knob jokes and accusations of self-abuse, part of it was winding each other up about the various scrapes we had found ourselves in over the years. Funny? Undoubtedly. Certainly as far as good-natured piss taking went. However this was most certainly a double act. Although some of the reposts could be used on hecklers, the winding up relied essentially on us knowing each other's slip-ups and gently making fun of them. That said, Dara O'Brien sometimes does something similar in his acts when he gently sends up members of the audience and at times himself so it is possible. Do I think it would work in a five minute slot in an open mic night? Do I hell.

So what next? In my most recent job I became known as a dispenser of 'dad jokes', you know? Awful puns and plays on words. This was largely due to the office being politically correct to a fault and therefore me having to keep the jokes clean (I say having because I find gratuitously serious situations unbearably dull. Yeah the work has to be done but there's no reason we can't have the odd laugh too). It was actually quite a refreshing change from my usual brand of innuendo and certainly allowed my love of word play to flourish. I did enjoy seeing how many people rolled their eyes as a reflex before ending up in fits of laughter. However this again would be hard to transpose on to an open mic format.

I could jump on the current bandwagon which seems to be along the lines of topical satire. There are several pitfalls here however. Firstly, if I hit a slow news day that's me buggered. Similarly it would be easy to misjudge entire situations. Bad if you have a reputation which you can work off, worse if it causes your first ever joke to bomb. There is also the significant chance that someone else better known is doing the same joke making you look like a lazy copy-cat. Finally, I know I often think along rather obscure lines (although the internet is going a long way to making me feel more normal... you're right; I need help!) therefore things that I pick up from any given news item might not be picked up by everyone else leaving them slightly perplexed. A good hypothetical example of this would be seeing a motorcade on one of Britain's roads. These have motorcycle outriders from a specific police team who only do this type of work. My initial reaction in seeing the motorcade could well be not, 'who is that?', nor even'where are they going?' but 'I wonder what the motorcycle outriders keep in the panniers of their bikes?'. See what I mean... weird! 

So this has been a ramble through the various ways I think I can make people laugh. It still hasn't got me much further forward with the idea of doing an open mic night. I do have some material written but it needs a lot of polishing. As I've written this, I've come up with a few more which I will jot down in a second. I can certainly get a five or ten minute routine out of it. Whether it's any good is another matter. When I eventually pluck up the balls to find out, I'll let you know (and I do it. My curiosity about my ability to make essentially strangers laugh is growing almost daily).

In the mean time, if you've read anything on here that you've found particularly amusing; please do take a second to let me know. Feedback is always welcome.

JR