I thought I'd dip my toes into the murky pool of stand-up comedy. This is what a cobbled together last night...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwGLmg6EccY&feature=youtu.be
I have no plans to give up the day job :D
Quick links: NewsBiscuit Home • Chat Room • Writers' Room • Top Ten
Never put your daughter on the stage...
(30 posts) (25 voices)
-
Good man!
You've got great stage presence.
I know how hard it is, from personal experience, but you look like you know what you're doing.
Audiences are like hyenas. If they smell your fear, one will have a nip at you, and if you don't savage it immediately, the rest will be encouraged by your injury and before you know it you're dead. You want to keep them at a distance and laughing fearfully.
Posted 4 years ago # -
Yes, enjoyed it a lot, takes balls to do that
If I could offer a little objective & constructive comment (not from experience obviously): you could have lost it in the first 20 seconds because it didn't quite kick off spontaneously; as an observer, it seemed to me that you pulled it back well after a small struggle
Remedy: as with NB submissions (or professional presentations for that matter), get going quickly & do a quick ice-breaker - then, they're fully on your side, and you can enjoy yourself more
But don't do the joke about a fat penguin as an ice-breaker
Posted 4 years ago # -
Bloody well done you. A for presence and delivery, B for material. Interestingly, the content was very different to your newsbiscuit writing style, and without knowing the link between the performer and the writer as one I wouldn't have guessed it.
Other than some lovely verbal touches like the word 'frugal' making an appearance, I wouldn't have expected a Hunt/rhyming slang or a Trump/cat/pussy grabbing gag from the online writer Wrenfoe.Did you consciously change your material style to match the stand-up situation?
Oh, and nice touch on the individual crem fees by the way. Extortionate.
Posted 4 years ago # -
Yup - good audience involvement right from the start.
I respect anyone who's got the courage to get up and do it like that.
And, like robopop, I'm glad you've got a proper hairstyle - just like mine.
And not a case of "They all laughed when I said I was going to be a comedian - well they're not laughing now!"
Posted 4 years ago # -
Amazing. Absolutely no sign of fear. Have you been on one of those 'how to be a stand-up' courses?
I wrote a script for a stand-up and got a list of dos and don'ts before I started it. One of the don'ts was don't do gags about cats because half the audience will think they are shit because they prefer dogs! But yours worked and I could identify with it, because my cat was returned to me in a nice little urn that I got charged a fortune for: I only said I'd take the furry bastard's ashes because I didn't want to appear callous to the vet. Something else I was told was to include an early gag about the thing about you the audience could target, to defuse it. Something about being a bald Jeremy Hunt mebbe...
But you don't need help. The fact you're up there, looking confident and delivering your material with no visible wetness, and interacting with the rabble when necessary, says to me you've got much of what it takes already. Just get out there and do it, there's no substitute for experience (apart from lying on your CV). I know I couldn't do it. Much easier to be a keyboard warrior. Just ask any scriptwriter... or Jools 'Ugh' Holland.
Posted 4 years ago # -
Gosh!
You looked just like a proper comedian.
I was very impressed.
I think most of us think we could do it (especially when we are pissed) but the reality is that we couldn't.
Well done you.Posted 4 years ago # -
Yep, I am impressed too. As Ironduke said, I'd never have guessed it was you from your material. That's a compliment to the adaptability in your writing by the way.
Having said that, I wrote for a football fanzine for several years and only one of my mates guessed it was me; even Mrs Diamond didn't and she read every fanzine from cover to cover. She wasn't happy when I confessed after about six articles! How you speak and how you write can be very different without you knowing.
Congratulations and we look forward to the next instalment.
Posted 4 years ago # -
Great confidence and performance - the more confident the performer is, the more relaxed the audience. You didn't bat and eyelid that someone came in with the last punchline.
I'd agree strongly with those commenting on the disparity between Biscuiteer Wrenfoe and stand-up Wrenfoe - there's no controversy that you're the best writer here in terms of both quality and quantity, and with such unique eye on modern life and backlog of great topical and non-topical gems I would have assumed one could be set up for life without having to start on the Hunt rhyming slang, phallus and Trump funnies (I'm not sure anyone's cracked Trump satire as where can you take it where he hasn't been?). It seems dumbed down for the punters... perhaps you've found through experience it has to be tailored for the audience. If not, perhaps there's a lot further you can go into the realm of the imagination and the surreal, especially when you clearly have the natural audacity required for the job. Jump - the net will be there!
Posted 4 years ago # -
That was refreshing. Really interesting to see people here as they are in real life. You are not how I imagined you to be-thought you'd be far less gregarious, a bit dry and introverted. You've no hair, either (!) I thought that your delivery was-overall-excellent with only a few stumbles.
Posted 4 years ago # -
Ok. I foolishly came back for more. (Apologies for the white face - I think they were using a prison spotlight)
Posted 3 years ago #
Reply
You must log in to post.