Stand up daily notes.

Word of the week: schtick.

  =The thing that a person could be 'known' for, e.g. Russell Howard prances around the stage before starting a gig and is very energetic in his shows, that is his 'schtick'.

The three don'ts in comedy:

1.) Racism

2.) Sexism

3.) Homophobia

Whimsy= Not real (e.g. talking to things that are inanimate and cannot talk back, involving them in your sketch could be funny too.) Here is an example of the context: 'You are my wild flower' (talking to something that cannot talk back.)

My limerick...

'There once lived a boy near the ocean,

 who thought he'd found a magical potion.

 He took a big drink,

 and started to think.

 It tasted just like suntan lotion.' - Today I learnt that a limerick is a short verse that usually rhymes and is good with comedy as it usually holds a cliffhanger for a while then ends with a laugh.

Research into my comedians.

When researching my three comedians (one from pre-1980s, and two from any generation) i chose to use Jim Carrey for my pre-1980's comedian, and then for my last two i chose to use Sarah Millican and Ricky Gervais. However, when researching these comedians I found some potential comedians that I thought about using and picked out their characteristics.

-Jack dee: sarcastic, whitty, deadpan humour.

-Russell Howard: energetic, puts on a show.

-Sean Lock: older humour, whitty.

-Jimmy Carr: slightly racist/ sexist (very risky).

-Jim Gaffigan: whitty, quick whitted.

Research into my material - Jim Gaffigan's work.

[James Christopher "Jim" Gaffigan (July 7, 1966)] Source: LYBIO.net
"I reference McDonald’s a lot because I go to McDonald’s. I love the silence that follows that statement, like I just admitted to support dog fighting or something. How could you? McDonald’s! 

It’s fun telling people you go to McDonald’s. They always give me that look like, Oh! I didn’t know I was better than you. No one admits to going to McDonald’s. Cause we all now better right. We’ve all read the article, seen those documentaries. It’s the same message. Look McDonald’s is really bad for you. It’s very high in fat and calories and we don’t even know where the meat comes from. And we’re like, that’s disgusting. I’ll have a Big Mac, a large fry, and a two gallon drum of diet coke. Cause there is a McDonald’s denial, we all embrace it. No one is going in there innocent, or walking into a red and yellow building with a giant M over it, what is this, a library? I’ll get some fries while I’m here. Because those McDonald’s fries are truly amazing, right.

Has your mother ever made anything as good as a McDonald’s fry? Not even close. We lie to ourselves when we eat at McDonald’s fries. Oh, they are so thin, they couldn’t be fattening. You ever eat too many McDonald’s fries? Of course not. There is never enough of them. There’s always that moment when you’re eating McDonald’s fries really. What happened? Where did they go? Then you search, scrunching for the fry crumbs. Oh that’ just a piece of paper from the straw, but it was touching the fry so…

Sometimes there is a loose fry in the bag, you know the bonus fry. (applause) It’s like Jesus is up in heaven, give him an extra fry. He’ll pay it forward. By the way, that’s how Jesus sounds or at least I hope you won’t want to meet Jesus, and he’s like: “Hey ya’ll. How you did, you been turning that other cheek, I gave you that bonus fry for a reason. That bonus fry, it’s never a regular size fry, it’s always extra long you’re like, how did I miss you. Bonus fry, you got your own ketchup packet. You always savor your last fry. I’m going to turn this into 10 bites. I’ll meet up with you later, I got the bonus fry. Fries are amazing. For what like seven minutes, then they turn into something that’s likely not biodegradable.

Thank you McDonald’s. Without McDonald’s, how would I communicate to the world that I give up. Because if you’re over the age of 10, and you’re eating McDonald’s, you’ve given up a little bit."

  I really liked this stand up routine because it suited my humour, and I found it funny myself so I thought that others would too. This routine inspired my final performance in the way that it was spoken because it was so quick whitted and I wanted to use that myself. When doing my stand up comedy performance, I used this style in how I presented myself. I left gaps, I used a common topic, and I engaged in the audience as I tested this out previously and found that it worked so I kept it.

(notes from lesson with Gav)

Observational comedy= realising little things that you do or have seen people do.

"Two real laughs are better than a room full of pity laughs."

"Take risks but don't be risky."

Podcast channel: 'Funny looking'.

*Different types of comedy; one liners, story telling, puns, gags, etc.* I would say that in the lesson, I learnt what style of comedy I was best at and in my opinion it is story telling. I tried this technique out and it worked better than if I tried to do a one liner instead.