The comedian Simon Brodkin invaded the pitch at Goodison Park during the warm up of the match between Everton and Manchester City this Saturday. Dressed up as one of his characters, the footballer Jason Bent he joined in on Man Citys warm-up for about five minutes before he was escorted out by the securityguards.
Jason Bent is a well known character and has appeared on Lee Nelsons Well Good Show with his documentary, “110% Bent” providing an insight to his life as a shallow and stereotypical Premier League footballer.
As he was escorted out he supposidly yelled; “Come on let me play. I’ve got 50 grand on me to score first.”
Brodkin is now being charged for the pitch invasion and might end up paying a fine of £1000. It is still unknown why he did the invasion but, Jason Bent is one of my favourite comic figures and I can not wait to se the result of the sketch. In the meantime we can enjoy some of his old bits;
The comedians I watch and enjoy the most changes from time to time, but at the moment this is my top favourites.
Jimmy Carr
Without any doubt my all time favourite comedian, and one of the main reason I wanted to have a go at comedy. Carr is known for his deadpan delivery, rude jokes, and clever wordplays. In my mind no one does stand-up better than him. He is currently on tour with his great show “Gagging order” which I was lucky enough to see at the Richmond Theathre in October, I reccomend everyone who’s a fan of comedy to go and see it! Carr can also be seen on screen hosting the weekly panel show “8 Out Of 10 Cats” together with the two other comedians, Sean Lock and John Richardson
Jack Whitehall
Young, fresh and gifted. Jack Whitehall is an up-and-coming comedian, and was crowned the King of Comedy at the 2012 British Comedy Award only at the age of 24 competing with well established comedians like, Alan Carr, Lee Mack and David Mitchell. Late last year he came out with his first stand-up dvd simply called Jack Whitehall Live. It is a great dvd, and Whitehalls energy on stage is very good and he is at his best when he goes ranting on about Nandos, iPhone and of course not to mention, Robert Pattinson.
Frankie Boyle I could sit for hours and watch Frankie Boyle’s gags on youtube, especially from Mock The Week, were he used be a panel member and was to me the highlight of that show. Boyle spews out provocative and cheeky jokes of high class time after time. He is perhaps the most controversial comedian in Britian, and some might find him too offensive, but in my mind one can joke about anything. It is just jokes, aimed to get people to laugh, and that is what I do when I watch Boyle, I laugh. A lot. He was recently in media because of his act at Russel Brands “Give it up for Comic
Relief” where he joked about the Queen, Pistorius and the pope.
Time Vine
Whilst most of todays comedians focuses most on storytelling, and their funny views on things going on in their life, Vine is consistens to his one-liners and puns. And because of that it is almost a relief to see Vine on stage, you are guaranted to have huge laugh. He is probably the comedian that gives the most value for your money just because he manages to squeeze in a huge amount of jokes in a one hour. He actually used to be a
world record holder with 499 jokes in one hour.
The best way to get better at stand-up comedy is by doing stand-up, but whenever one is not performing it is important to watch and try to observe how the professional do it. During the last month I saw a couple of different shows and present an extra look on two of them, and I also reflect on the difference between a gig on a small “above the pub” venue, and a major venue like the Hammersmith Apollo.
Last month I had the pleasure of seeing the great comedian Alan Davies at Hammersmith Apollo. known from the TV serie Jonathan Creek, and maybe most known as regular member of the very pouplar panel show QI with Stephen Fry. On QI Davies appears as an likeable idiot, who is acting quite flippant in silly. On his stand-up show he come across a bit more reflected and smart but still with a portion of the sillyness that has made Davies a very familiar character amongst the British people.
The Life is Pain tour was actually Alans comeback to stand-up as he had not gigged for over a decade. It was a highly entertaining comeback, and the most enjoyable part was the interaction between him and the audience. He does that exceptionally good, and has the audience in the palm os his hand. On every andswer and every feedback from the crowd Davies has a clever and witty respond.
In mid February I went to London Comedy Club in Piccadilly to se four comedians perfome. The four comedians were, Daniel Simonsen, Grainne Maguire, Sunil Patel and Tom Toal. They all had great acts but the one I enjoyed the most and also the reason I went there was Norwegian comic, Daniel Simonsen (how patriotic, i know).
Simonsen is a well known name in the London Comedy Circuit and has also appeared on Russel Howards good news. In 2008 he won the prestigious ”So You Think You’re Funny” at the Edinburgh Fridge Festival. Simonsen reflects humorously on stage his life as person who is socially very uncomfortable and shy. Combining this with his extreme scandinavian accent and his expressions Simonsen is a great act to watch.
So, the differnces between seeing comedy at Hammersmith Apollo, and Piccdilly Comedy Club. First their are the obvious one, Piccadilly can host around 100 spectators whilst the Apollo can host about 3500. In order to see an established act at a venue like the Apollo you have to spend around 30£ pounds and more, whereas a visit to a small comedy club usually costs around 10£, but there are also loads of free comedy clubs were you can see unestablished comedians doing open spots as mentioned in an earlier post.
There are also usually differences when it comes to expectation one might have before visiting either. When you go and see an established act like Alan Davies, you know approximately what to get after seeing him countless of times on variuos performances on TV, whilst going to a comedy club you are unlikely to have seen all the acts, and you can never know what to excpet, which is one of the greatest thing about it all.
There is a lot of books written on how to stand-up, how to write comedy and joke theory. Below i present three of my favourite readings.
Be a Great Stand-Up, Logan Murray Be a Great Stand-Up is a handbook on how to do stand-up comedy written by London based comedian Logan Murray who also does comedy workshops and courses. Murray is an experienced stand-up and has appeared on several TV shows such as Peep Show, Packet of Three and London Underground. The book is a great read and covers everything from joke theory to microphone technique. It also includes several writting exersices to unlock your creativity. A great part of the book is the chapter where other well established comedians such as Milton Jones, Greg Davies and Richard Herring reveal tips, and insight to the job as a professional stand-up comedian.
The Serious Guide To Joke Writing, SallyHolloway
The Serious Guide To Joke Writing focuses more about the writing part of comedy than the book above. It is written by Sally Holloway. As Logan Murray, Sally Holloway runs her own comedy course. She used to do stand-up until 2003 when she had to resign from it due to illness. The book includes a lot of writing excersises that guarantees you to write funny and generate material for a great stand-up act.
The Naked Jape, Jimmy Carr & Lucy Greeves
Unlike the other two books, this book by Jimmy Carr and Lucy Greeves goes more indepth into the history and the effect of jokes. It gives a very good inside on the theories on why people laugh and what sort of impact a joke can have. The book is also a huge laugh as it consists of a lot of great jokes.
In order to start as a stand up comedian one must try to get an open mic at a comedy club. Usually you get five minutes to do your performance. I have so far attended at three open mic nights in three different comedy clubs.
The first open spot I did was at the Dirty Dicks in, Bishopgate, on an open mic night called Touching Cloth. It was a very weird and interesting experience, since it was my first open mic I did not really know what to expect but the night had absolutely everything; great comedians, breakdowns on stage, drunks and heckling from the audience. The nigh was hosted by Frank Cassidy, he was very funny and had a lot of energy that spread to the audience and the performers. For me it did not went very well, I was nervous, scared, stressed and it totally messed up my act. But I still got some laughs and told me after my performance that I was good for being 20 years old and that it well done for a first timer.
The second one I did was in the cellar of The Red Lion at Westminster, the night was promoted by Electric Mouse Comedy, who has been hosting for seven years making it one of the longest running comedy clubs in London. It was a very small and intimate venue, and it probably were around 14 people in the crowd. There were 10 comedian performing that night divided into two sessions of five. I feared it would be too intimate and therefore become a bit akward but, it went really well, the crowd was friendly and it was a great pleasure performing.
The third and so far the last gig I have done was at Party Piece in the cellar of Shaker and Company in Euston. The place was absolutely packed t, which made it a great night for comedy. There were 15 comedians performing divided into 3 sessions, it was hosted by Samantha Mann who is a character stand up done by Adrian Gillott. Samantha was a funny, warm and a very likeable host who did a good job pulling the strings that night.
I have to admit doing all three gigs has been really scary but It has so far been great fun, and I cannot wait to continue performing. As I am still very much a rookie in the open mic circuit I do not have many tips to give, but one of the clings I hang on to, and I would recommend to other beginners are not to drink before a performance. Why? Have a look at this:
I started my journey into to stand up comedy by signing up for a stand up course at the Comedy School in Camden. The Comedy School is a non-profit organisation who was founded by Keith Palmer in 1998 and offers courses in stand up, improvisation, comedy acting and comedy writing. Some of the Comedy Schools friends and associates are great comedians such as Jo Brand, Stephen Mangan and Phill Jupitus.
The course lasted for seven weeks with a session every Sunday and with a showcase at the end where we performed 5 minutes of material. I found the course extremely helpful, and I learned how to structure jokes, generate material, finding my comic attitude and maybe the most important; giving me the confidence to get up and perform in front of people. At the course we were tutored by the founder, Keith Palmer and comedian Mr.Cee. They were both great teachers and I especially found the sessions with Mr.Cee helpful as he had himself taken the same course some years ago, and he was also brutally honest if something was not funny enough.
As mentioned we did a showcase at the end of the course, the showcase took place at the Pirate Castle in Camden and there were around 100 people in the audience, most of them friends and family of the comedians performing. Below you can see a video of my 5 minutes performance that night.
norwegian comedian trying to breakthrough in the london comedy circuit 