This module is not currently running in 2024 to 2025.
Over the course of the academic year, you will be set tasks which involve reflecting on your own work, exploring the context of professional stand-up comedy, and engaging with relevant theory to develop your analytical skills. These tasks will lead towards a written assignment, in which you will, for example, reflect on aspects of your own performance, discuss the work of other comedians, accurately transcribe stand-up comedy routines, etc. The second phase of the module will move from written reflection to making practical use of this, employing the insights you have gained to revisit earlier performances. You will learn how to repeat and rework existing gags and routines, and how to structure a longer act out of them. The module will culminate with you performing a 15-20 minute set of this reworked material in a more prominent public venue, effectively a professional environment for stand-up comedy.
Practical Workshops - 4 hours per week for 12 weeks
100% Coursework: 15-20 minute performance (60%); 2500 word portfolio (40%)
Allen, Tony, Attitude: Wanna Make Something Of It?, Glastonbury: Gothic Image, 2002
Barker, C., ‘The “Image” in Show Business’, Theatre Quarterly, Vol. VIII, No. 29, Spring 1978, pp.7-11
Bradbury, D., and McGrath, J., Now That’s Funny: Writers on Writing Comedy, London: Methuen, 1998
Byrne, J., Writing Comedy, London: A&C Black, 1999
Carr, Jimmy and Greeves, Lucy, The Naked Jape: Uncovering the Hidden World of Jokes, London: Michael Joseph, 2006
Carter, J., Stand-Up Comedy: The Book, New York: Dell, 1989
Cook, W., Ha Bloody Ha: Comedians Talking, London: Fourth Estate, 1994
Cook, W., The Comedy Store: the Club that Changed British Comedy, London: Little, Brown, 2001
Double, O., Stand-Up: On Being a Comedian, London: Methuen, 1997
Double, O., Getting the Joke: The Inner Workings of Stand-Up Comedy, London: Methuen, 2005
Koestler, A., The Act of Creation, London: Hutchinson, 1964
Mintz, L.E., ‘Standup Comedy as Social and Cultural Mediation’, American Quarterly, Vol. 37, No. 1, Spring 1985, pp.71-80
Murray, L., Teach Yourself Stand-Up Comedy, Abingdon: Teach Yourself, 2007
Rutter, J., ‘The stand-up introduction sequence: Comparing comedy comperes’, Journal of Pragmatics, Vol. 32, 2000, pp.463-483
Wolfe, R., Writing Comedy, London: Robert Hale, 1996
See the library reading list for this module (Canterbury)
On successful completion of the module, students will be able to:
- Reflect on their own performance practice, demonstrating how this relates to relevant contexts and theories
- Analyse the work of other comedians
- Carry out independent research and deploy this to support their analysis of their own work and that of other comedians
- Deploy advanced skills in performing stand-up comedy
- Deploy advanced skills in editing, reworking, and possibly writing/devising stand-up comedy material
- Demonstrate the ability to structure and perform a longer set of stand-up comedy material
- Demonstrate the development of an individual voice in their work (original approaches to stand-up comedy, in material and performance)
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