Page 112 - The Language of Humour

STAND-UP COMEDY 99
guests. Every stand-up comedian has to take into account the possibility
of heckling and be ready with ‘put-downs’: ‘You’re a good example of
why some animals eat their young.’ Even established, successful acts
need to respond to positive audience reactions, and some actually rely
on interaction with the audience to create some of their show.
Unlike other performances on a stage, the audience are not just the
‘fourth wall’—present, but not acknowledged as present, in drama, for
example. The solo stand-up comedian is addressing the audience, not
other performers on the stage, and needs to build a rapport. This means
that there may be conversational features as in one-to-one dialogue. The
status relationship between the participants is different, however: the
audience are generally addressed en masse and do not have an equal
opportunity to take part. It is, in effect, a monologue, but with an
implied, if silent, partner. Because the comedians are not usually
creating a fictional context, they also have to respond to actual
circumstances unexpected noises like sirens or mobile phones.

Extension

Make a transcript of a piece of stand-up comedy on video and analyse it
for features of spontaneous spoken language. Which of these could have
been scripted in and rehearsed?

Confrontation with the audience

The ‘naked’ confrontation with an audience makes stand-up more
dynamic, but is risky for the performer. The situation changes slightly if
it is a double act: in this case, the comedians are interacting with
each other primarily. There are relatively few female stand-up
comedians. There are many factors around language and gender to be
discussed—not least the myth that women have no sense of humour—
but it is interesting to see how many women comedians prefer the
double act format French and Saunders, for example.
Other factors reduce the naked confrontation with the audience.
Victoria Wood built her act around songs, and extended the sections of
direct talk only when she was established, so that the songs became the
filler, rather than the other way around. There is something reassuring
about focusing attention on props, whether it is a piano or a book of
poems. It is not only women who use props: comedians like John
Hegley do not need to read the poems, but the book is there. (It is
interesting that he refers to his wearing of glasses as a feature of his