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Standup Comedy


iamthedoctor

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1 hour ago, Dead Mike said:

Kat Williams falls into that category of being clearly very charismatic but just not for me.

That's how I felt about Jamie Foxx' standup. Superb actor, but something about his standup delivery just didn't work - even then, he seemed more like a movie star than a comedian to me.

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1 hour ago, Dead Mike said:

Kat Williams falls into that category of being clearly very charismatic but just not for me.

I've always been interested in the crossover with US & UK comedy and those acts on both sides that successfully crossover & the ones that just don't. I can't imagine what a 'Larry The Cable Guy' British audience would be like while he's playing 70k stadiums at home. Just look at this!!

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On a bit of a tangent, big venue comedy just seems so odd to me. Comedy just doesn't feel right with huge audience like that to me. 

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6 minutes ago, Chest Rockwell said:

On a bit of a tangent, big venue comedy just seems so odd to me. Comedy just doesn't feel right with huge audience like that to me. 

I saw Rob Newman workshop a show at a small venue a while back, and chatting to him afterwards he said he hated all the stadium show "comedy is the new rock and roll" stuff, because he doesn't think it's how comedy should work. If the conceit of stand-up is that the performer is in conversation with the audience, that doesn't work at all on a show of that scale. I'd have no interest in going to a comedy show with more than a couple of hundred people at the absolute most.

In the same conversation, Newman was asking us whereabouts in the room we had been sat, because he wanted to ensure that all the jokes - especially those that relied on a bit of physical comedy - resonated with everyone, weren't obscured if you were sat at the "wrong" side or anything like that, and I was really impressed with that granular level of work going into the show. But imagine trying to figure that out for a stadium show. Not worth the hassle.

 

Something I've been thinking from catching odd bits of stand-up on TV, and from the Mock The Week crowd - I first noticed it with Tom Allen every time he's on Mock The Week, but now can't stop noticing it from just about every young comedian I see; everyone seems to do routines about primary school. It's so bizarre seeing blokes in their 30s talking about school trips and dinnerladies and so on all the time. I can only assume that some comedy school is teaching them that it's a universal experience guaranteed to resonate with the greatest number of people in the audience, before they go off on divergent paths in life, while remaining pretty much uncontroversial. But it just makes half the stand-ups in the comedy look like weird stunted man-children.

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39 minutes ago, Chest Rockwell said:

On a bit of a tangent, big venue comedy just seems so odd to me. Comedy just doesn't feel right with huge audience like that to me. 

Same. Distraction is the enemy of live comedy so having that number of people getting up, fiddling with their phones & chatting etc is a nightmare scenario for me. I won't attend large theatre shows unless I can get near the front & am oblivious to the people behind me.

 

28 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

I can only assume that some comedy school is teaching them that it's a universal experience guaranteed to resonate with the greatest number of people in the audience, before they go off on divergent paths in life, while remaining pretty much uncontroversial. But it just makes half the stand-ups in the comedy look like weird stunted man-children.

Nah, its much simpler than that. It's simply the material that the producers instructed that act to do on the show. 

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I've seen a few stadium comedy gigs and the only one that ever worked was Peter Kay (I know, I know) It was mainly due to the energy on that stage but he seemed to have complete control of it. He timed the rolling laughs etc. perfectly. Maybe as he's experienced with them now he knew how to work it.

Other than that, they've always been rather barren affairs. I saw Seinfeld and you might as well have just watched it at home.

Bill Burr at the Albert Hall was the perfect 'larger' venue where it worked that I was at. Fantastic show.

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9 minutes ago, Keith Houchen said:

Or is it a case of no matter the size of the room, he has an adept skill of connecting with the audience? 

That’s a fair comment. He’s certainly not my cup of tea as far as his stand up goes but if his success was purely down to his shouting out catchphrases then all the other ‘who remembers when/me brass hand’ comedians would be doing huge stadium shows. 

If he was working a long form story based comedic style where the last line is the punchline to his first line I don’t think he’d be selling out stadiums based on his audience connection though.

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20 minutes ago, Mr_Danger said:

That’s a fair comment. He’s certainly not my cup of tea as far as his stand up goes but if his success was purely down to his shouting out catchphrases then all the other ‘who remembers when/me brass hand’ comedians would be doing huge stadium shows. 

If he was working a long form story based comedic style where the last line is the punchline to his first line I don’t think he’d be selling out stadiums based on his audience connection though.

Yeah his (or is it really his?) style of comedy really isn’t for me but the one thing that’s undeniable is the connection. Same goes for McIntyre. I remember @Dead Mikesaying how Micky Flanagan is one of the best when it comes to connecting with an audience. And in my opinion a lot of the time a connection can be more important than the jokes when it comes to a show being a success. 

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Yeah Flanagan was an odd one as he smashed it live but then posed a problem for TV execs as they tried a number of different vehicles/formats for him but none of them really managed to capture the spark of what got him there in the first place. Not that I imagine he's losing any sleep over it after making £m's from DVD sales & arena tours. 

Maybe better suited to the documentary thread...I recently watched the new Patrice O'Neal documentary 'Killing Is Easy', highly recommended even if you weren't a fan. A really interesting insight into self sabotage & depression. He was lauded as a 'comedians comedian' & I can see why (his disdain for the audience & desire to be more than a just a joker). I liked him a lot more when I was younger, these days I'm more turned off by edgy comics dropping 'truth bombs' than I was in my twenties but it captures the reality of the struggling artist cliché really well. I think it was on Showtime in the US so it's available via dodgy stream.

 

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1 hour ago, Keith Houchen said:

Or is it a case of no matter the size of the room, he has an adept skill of connecting with the audience? 

It was certainly this. I'm not his core audience and I thought it was a great show. It was certainly someone who had real skill and command of what he was doing. Was quite a sight to behold really now I think back on it.

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This is command of an arena. In the rain. With toys.

First time I saw this, the only Steve Martin I knew was the goofball from 80s movies and the bloated botoxed dad from the Cheaper films. On first watch I thought it was utter shit, but then something clicked. I'm not sure if it's genius or idiocy. Musical interludes and long form prop gags with a guy who looks like a game show host but sounds like an overconfident teen dweeb. It's magnificent.

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48 minutes ago, Dead Mike said:

Yeah Flanagan was an odd one as he smashed it live

One of the funniest things I've ever seen live is when he took the piss out of some poor lad wearing a Ralph Lauren shirt with the massive logo and just kept coming back to him through out the show.

Was brutal.

I echo the "connection" thing. I've seen McIntyre, Kay and Lee Evans live a few times. Not massively my cup of tea but all of them were absolutely superb shows.

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