Standing Up

I’ve just been on the comedy site Chortle where Billy Connelly has been on slagging off “stand ups”, not viciously really but the implication is that if you are a natural patter merchant who does stuff off the cuff, it’s better for an audience than prepared material.

I can see his point.

There’s nothing like a Raymond Mearns or a Billy Connelly on top form, and the freshness in the way the stuff comes out is better than it is with prepared material, there is no barrier between performer and audience.

I’ve encountered this problem – occasionally people have interrupted my act, trying to join in and help really, and I’ve had to break the flow of what I was saying to respond.

Afterwards I’ve had to try to remember what it was I was saying. It breaks the flow, makes the act seem stilted and it does give the impression to an audience that I’m talking at them rather than to them.

So I take the point.

The only problem is it applies only to the guys who are good patter merchants. Unfortunately the comedy scene is cluttered with gibbering fannies who spend 10, 15 and even 20 minutes spouting utter pish.

Not naming any names, but I have worked with a few.

I would much rather watch someone with some well thought out, prepared material that some guy gibbering on about his holiday in Spain with his mates for ten minutes at the climax of which he fails to tell a joke.

I can’t ad lib, or don’t very well at least. So what’s wrong with putting a bit of work in?

And it is work. You write it, you change it, you learn it and you learn to perform it. It’s not a doddle. And all the best guys in my book do it that way. Maybe it’s a British thing. Most of the comedians I admire are American, Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock etc. Don’t tell me they don’t have prepared material.

I have been told by Raymond Mearns that I am “not a comedian”, although he did say he liked my stuff and Connelly is spot on when he says that most stand ups really want to be writers, not comedians. That’s certainly true for me.

But I don’t waste people’s time while I’m on stage talking a lot of unfunny pish and I don’t hassle folk in the audience with that “Where ye fae? Wishaw? Wishaw’s a hole, you must be a pure plum!” rubbish you get from so many of these so called patter merchants.

At the end of the day, if you can make a room full of people laugh, who cares how you do it?