stand up comedy course
An 8 week stand up comedy course on writing and performing stand up, culminating in a live showcase performance in front of a friendly audience at our comedy club.
No previous experience needed, complete beginners are welcome. No previous experience in stand up, writing or comedy are needed to do this course.
Wednesdays in King's Cross:
Every Wednesday for 8 weeks from Wednesday 25th March, plus show on Wednesday 20th May 2020. BOOK NOW
Time: 7pm – 9:30pm.
Price: £240. Either payable all at once or with an initial payment of £100 followed by the remaining £140 at the start of the course.
Venue: KCBC, Vernon Square, King’s Cross, London, WC1X 9EW.
Tube: King’s Cross.
Tuesdays in Liverpool Street:
Every Tuesday for 8 weeks from Tuesday 31st March 2020, plus show on Tuesday 26th May 2020. BOOK NOW
Time: 7pm – 9:30pm.
Price: £240. Either payable all at once or with an initial payment of £100 followed by the remaining £140 at the start of the course.
Venue: Kobi Nazrul Centre, 30 Hanbury Street, London, E1 6QR.
Tube: Liverpool Street or Shoreditch High Street.
who runs the course
Nick Hall is a stand-up, improviser and writer. He has written and performed for BBC2, BBC3, and BBC Radio 4.
Nick has taken six solo shows to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, as well as performing at the Brighton Fringe, Latitude Festival, Soho Theatre, Princes Trust, and Bloomsbury Theatre.
Nick started his comedy career by beating the Gong at The Comedy Store, beating the Blackout at Up the Creek, and winning the New Act Night at the Comedy Café. He has now performed over 500 gigs across the UK and Europe.
Nick comperes a variety of live events, including cult movie night Hot Tub Cinema and hit football show Comedy Commentary. He also performs with The Committee, one of London’s hottest improvised comedy groups, and has appeared on Sky News, The Times Red Box podcast and written articles for The Independent.
“Crackingly original” ★★★★ The List
“Side splittingly funny” ★★★★★ ThreeWeeks
“Mad cap energy” ★★★★★ British Comedy Guide
“One not to miss” ★★★★ The Skinny
“Genuinely hilarious” ★★★★ Fringe Review
what's included
Our stand up comedy course is about giving you the skills to produce great work over the long-term. All students will leave equipped with the techniques and philosophies required to be more creative.
We aim to help you express what is uniquely funny about you. We will instil in you a passion for comedy, and a feeling that you are enlarged by the whole experience.
Suitable for all, from complete beginners to people who’ve already done some gigs. We adapt to each person so everyone is welcome.
We will provide a safe environment for our students to perform a short set every week. We don’t think you can learn comedy from a book: you need to learn by doing it and finding out what is uniquely funny about you.
You will learn how to write hilarious material, and also how to perform it with charisma and skill. Furthermore, you will be given an insider’s view of the circuit to avoid the common pitfalls of beginners.
Our coach is a working professional stand-up. They have been there and done it, so they know all about the journey from beginner to professional. They have unique insight into what it takes, and what has helped them make the jump.
No previous experience needed, complete beginners are welcome. No previous experience in stand up, writing or comedy is needed to do this course.
Topics Covered
An introduction to jokes:
We will look at the nuts and bolts of joke writing, common pitfalls, and basic “rules”. For example:Rule of three
- Pull back and reveal
- Cutting the fat: being lean
- Call-backs
- Toppers
- Set-ups: building tension and using misdirection
- Joke structures and storytelling
We will also look at some techniques to help generate material, including:
- Joke webs/spider diagrams
- Categories and sub-categories
- Emotion quadrants
- The surrealist inquisition sheet
Observation/recognition based material:
The course will focus on the laughter of recognition, and the importance of being relatable with your material. Through truth you’ll find the funny, specifically your own truth. We will work on the students confessing to their own minutiae as that is what audiences connect most to.
Character as one of the crucial parts of good comedy:
Through teaching and group discussion we will look at the importance of character, and stand-ups with a distinctive “attitude” or “point of view” i.e. the character a stand-up uses onstage.
Alongside character, we will look at the importance of exaggeration in comedy: through exaggeration comes truth. The aim of this part of the course is to help the students identify the funniest part of their personality and turn it up to 11. Through this process the students will build their clown, their own distinctive comic character on the stage.
We’ll also look at the vital importance of conviction in both the writing and performance of material.
Performance Skills:
One of the biggest objectives of the course is for the students to build their confidence, charisma, energy and presence. We will teach techniques and specific exercises to build skills, including:
- Body language
- Making everything BIG!
- Energy: physical, vocal and emotional
- Breaking the 4th wall and connecting with an audience
Stories:
We’ll look at building stories. How to take the cornel of a story and build it into a longer “bit”: full of jokes and amusing imagery. We teach people that stories are made, not born, and we will focus on the craft of building routines.
Final Preparations for the Performance:
Including mic technique, psychological warm-up planning to help prevent stage-fright, the ordering and linking of material (segues), easy errors to avoid.