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Dear John

Where do I learn the comedy trade?

First published 8th August 2005

Question:
I am currently nearing the end of being on remand in Wandsworth prison. Before being remanded I appeared at a couple of comedy clubs and on a TV show. Everybody has been telling me that I should pursue doing stand up comedy as a career. The problem is, even though I write my own material and have my own style I think I need to join a comedy course or centre where I can maybe learn the trade, understand the game and gain experience from the up and coming and those who have been and gone. But I don't really know whether these courses exist, which ones are best and what one requires to get on one.

Answer:
To answer your last question first, all one requires to get on most comedy or other performance related courses is usually the money to pay the course fee. The trick is to make sure you're getting value for your money. Just as showbusiness is a business and follows the same rules as any other business, you are entitled to expect a decent level of teaching on comedy or performance related courses, just as you would when pursuing any other course of study. There are some courses where the main aim is for participants to have an experience of doing stand up in the same way they would sample a wine tasting or play paintball. There is nothing wrong with this, if that's what you are looking for but if you are serious about making comedy your career, you'll be looking for a course and tutor who is serious about helping you achieve that goal.

Check out comedy related websites, performance centres and comedy sections of magazines such as Time Out and you'll see a variety of courses advertised, ranging from expensive seminars and weekend workshops to night courses in adult education centres.

Just be aware that the amount of money you are being asked to pay for a course isn't necessarily an indicator of how good the course is.

It certainly helps if the tutor has some success at performing stand up comedy themselves, although bear in mind that someone who is naturally good at something is not necessarily equally good at passing it on to others. Often the best teachers are not the virtuosos but the ones who have had to work a little harder to reach their own success. You'd judge the effectiveness of a driving school by how many people actually pass their test, so if the course you're considering has been running for some time, you might want to find out who some of the 'graduates' are and see how they're doing on the circuit. Relatively few comedy beginners persevere through the early round of open spots - and of course no tutor, no matter how good, can make them keep going - but if you ask around and observe you should be able to identify what they've learned from the course that they wouldn't have picked up simply by getting out and doing it.

For many would-be stand ups, the main benefit of doing a course is just that - it gets them started on the open mike circuit and means that at least for the first few months they have a group of people who are at the same level so they are not venturing alone into what can be scary and lonely territory.

If you have already gone down the self-starting route and are happy to take it up again after you leave remand, you may want something different from a comedy course. It is always worth thinking specifically about what you want to gain from further study before you commit to a class. If it's stagecraft or developing characters it may be that a good acting or improvisation class might be of more benefit to you.

There are a whole range of How To articles on The Stage website, which will get you kick-started in stand up, comedy writing and a whole range of other performance careers. You don't have to pay a course fee and by the time you've put some of the principles into practise you should be in a better position to know what further training you would be prepared to pay for.

There are, of course, some performers who insist that comedy is impossible to teach or learn except by doing it but while I agree that there are no shortcuts to success, the journey is a lot easier if someone can provide you with a few directions and a roadmap.

Ultimately your success at stand up comedy, like any other performance medium, will depend less on what course you pay for and more on how many hours, days and months you are prepared to invest in putting what you learn, from wherever you learn it into operation. Your life experiences to date, both before and in prison, will certainly have given you some interesting and individual material to draw your comedy from, if you chose to, and I wish you every success on the straight and narrow.