The Comedy School London

amazingemmet

I'm thinking of doing their course in stand up. I've done a lot of physical theatre and performing before including comic sort shows but not any stand up but am thinking of making a stand up show. I have couple of hours worth of material made and tested already but no real idea about making it in the industry.

Has anyone done the course they offer in stand up comedy? Or any opinions on it?

This is their website http://thecomedyschool.com/
thanks

squidgey

amazingemmet wrote: »

I have couple of hours worth of material made and tested already but no real idea about making it in the industry.

A couple of hours worth of material?? How long have you been writing for? It would probably take an active performing comedian 5-10 years to gather together that much material. Just curious as to how this material has been tested if you haven't performed standup comedy before?

My advice is to try and isolate 7-8 minutes of the "best" of what you have a written, to book a date with Tony in the battle of the axe and to give it a go. I can't really comment on the course you mentioned however as I know nothing of it.

Couple of questions:

1) Are you in London already?

2) I can't reccomend Aidan Kilians course on stand up enough. He is a really great teacher. He did a course with our Drama group and he runs (IIRC) a monthly open (read fresh blood) night once a month in Anseo on Camden St.

I would also agree with squidgey. Cut your set down to 7/8 minutes and give it a whirl.

Best of luck

amazingemmet

@squidgey: I haven't been writing for stand up that long but I love story telling and for quite a long time have been using nights out with friends and other events from when I was younger and making them with a bit of artistic license into short tales. When I say two hours I don't just mean two hours straight talking it includes what ever time it takes me to do the characters and physical bits as well. If you get me.

Its been test by me telling my stories back to people in various situations. Strangers, friends, people at bus stops etc. I'm a bit of an attention whore

@papa smut: I'm based in london already

squidgey

If that's the kind of comedy you could see your self peforming - ie storytelling, then I suggest you take one of these stories and plan out word for word what you are going to say. You ideally want the story to have a big "reveal" at the end of it, which will generate the largest laugh - but you also want other parts of the story to have components which will generate their own individual laughs along the way.

After you have the whole thing scripted, look at the words you have written. Identify what words/sentances are essential to form the setup/s and what words/sentances are the punchlines or the bits that generate the laughs. And it doesn't have to be a traditional Christmas Cracker style punchline, it could be as simple as a funny face or an accent, as long as it is planned to be used and engineered to generate a laugh. If something isn't falling into the category of setup or punch then it's extra baggage that probably doesn't need to be there at all, so trim it down or cut it out.

The more extra words you can remove from the equation the better. In general an unscripted comedy act will usually be clogged up with unnecessary clutter, so in my opinion scripting your entire act word for word is vital. Some new comics are reluctant to do that because they say "I'm naturally funny, and this scripting will restrict me too much". That's a load of balls as far as I'm concerned.

If you aim for a LPM [laugh per minute] rate of 2. Then you're looking for 14-16 seperate instances where you say something, and hopefully the ausience respond with a laugh. Be careful though the longer you spend on the story, setting the surroundings etc. the bigger the expectation of the audience for a large laugh at the end.

Best of luck with it!

Damon Blake

Just gig dude. You're in London so go out and do some sets after you've prepared what you're going to do. Better to do that immediately then do a course rather than the other way around.

I wouldn't put much stock in courses, although good things have been said about Aidan Killian's one. Saying that, he himself has taken storytelling courses in England so that may be better suited to you what you see yourself doing.

eth0_

I wouldn't pay for a course like that. When you're paying big bucks, is it in their interest to be subjective about your act, or are they just going to tell you what you want to hear?

I've also heard good things about Aidan Killian's course but perhaps that's because it's small and appears to be run for altruistic reasons rather than as a way of getting rich! Also checkout meetup.com there are a lot of comedy groups on there, bound to be one for aspiring stand-ups in London.

There are so many comedy nights in London you're spoiled for choice. Do some material for your friends and gauge their reaction. Then go and do some open mic nights and build up from there. My experience of the 'scene' there is that it is very welcoming and people will give you a leg up if they think you are good.

jellyboy

Hi op

I cant recomend the comedy school enough...i done a course with them and it changed my life(really did)

they have links into some of the best teachers and agents around...the name is corny but thats about it...

it is money well spent.......

good luck and enjoy.....

amazingemmet

Cheers for the words of encouragement. I've taken the advice and have my first stand up set booked for a caberet next month, i'm gonna try get it taped and will put it up here.

@ jellyboy: who was teaching on the course?

Well done Emmet.

jellyboy

hi op

mick barnfather.and the guys from the comedy store players(great storys about eddie izzard)....a lot of fun...

amazingemmet

Jelly boy

How much of mick was there and what did he cover? I've already done about 9 months of 6hrs a week clowning and physical theatre with him and I think I'd end up slapping him about with the f-ing drum of his if it was clowning