Page 111 - The Language of Humour

98 STAND-UP COMEDY

I went to this club, right, and the bouncer on the door was typical,
you know, big guy—he had ‘hate’ tattooed on one fist and ‘fist’
tattooed on the other fist. I walked towards him, I knew no fear, you
know what I mean?—‘cos I’m from the Brixton posse, right? My hair
was slicked back—my hair was so slick there was guys surfin’ on it,
you know what I mean? That’s how slick my hair was, guy—I was
feelin’ mean—I was feelin’ so mean I was refusing to lend money to
myself. That’s how mean I was feelin’, guy. So I walked up to this
geezer on the door, right, I said ‘Step aside, Quasimodo—Delbert
Wilkins has arrived!’ And when I came to, this policeman was standin’
over me saying, ‘You’re nicked, sonny.’ And that’s what we have to
put up with in Brixton, all the time, right? Complete and utter hassle
from the police, every single day.

Commentary

These are some of the features you should have picked out. (You may
have classified ‘right’ and ‘you know’ as either fillers or sympathetic
circularity.) Colloquialisms: ‘hassle’, ‘So’, ‘this geezer’, ‘there was
guys surfin’ on it’. Fillers: ‘right’, ‘you know’, ‘so’. Ellipsis: “cos’,
‘feelin”. Redundancy: ‘guy—I was feelin’ mean’, ‘complete and utter’,
‘every single’, ‘That’s how mean I was feelin”. Sympathetic circularity:
‘right’, ‘you know’, ‘you know what I mean?’

Effects of a live audience

Apart from these—possibly scripted and rehearsed—features of
spontaneous speech, any live act has to alter the text on the
spot, depending on how well it is being received: material can be
inserted or removed; the order can be changed; timing can be speeded
up or vice versa. Even when comedians take an act on tour, it is never
exactly the same act. Some stick quite closely to the polished act,
whereas others excel at the improvised material. It is, however, difficult
to assess whether material is improvised on the spot, or simply appears
to be.
There will also be features of conversation, because of the audience
factor. Although comedy shows often take place before a studio
audience, the cameras are the focus of the performance and the intended
audience is removed in time and space. There is occasionally interaction
with the studio audience, but heckling is virtually unknown—the
audience seem to acknowledge their role as privileged to be invited