How I got into Stand Up Comedy
Well a few years ago after some encouragement from comedians who had attended my One Day Intensive Salsa Course including Tony Hawks, I thought I'd have a go at Stand Up. I went on a course run by Kate Smurfwaite and did my first gig.I then went to the Edinburgh Fringe festival 2011 and did a couple more.
Then life happened and I did very little so I went on another course and promised myself to work harder at comedy and do better, which I promptly didn't.
In the run up to year two at Edinburgh I achieved a massive five gigs and my material was sounding old to me.
I was still performing scripts without the confidence and playfulness that I experience every time I teach salsa.
At Edinburgh 2012 I was fascinated by a show called Car Crash. A bunch of topics, one of which was called out of a bucket and a comedian, also picked out of a bucket. Then the Comedian had to talk for five minutes on the topic. If he dried up the audience, who had been instructed and rehearsed, would shout expletives at the comedian until they broke down and slunk off stage. Brutal but fun! On our last night a comedian dried after a minute or two so I led the F*** O** as instructed.
He took exception and as an act of playful revenge placed my name in the bucket. Later my name was picked and I had to be witty on the subject of Angry Birds.
I lasted 4 mins 50 secs. More importantly I lost my fear of loosing the script as there wasn't.
I also realised that there is a trap many comics fall into where they spend months polishing five minutes and not writing and testing new material. I've always liked topical comedy so on the train home I started going through newspapers looking for stories. I've tried to write five mins every week since, not always successfully, but writing has become far easier.
