Stand up-comedy unit 29 07/01/2015

07/01/2015

Today was our first day back into the new year. New year= new unit. Today we got introduced to our second unit of the year; Stand up comic techniques, unit 29.
Daniel told us about the course, such as when our end of unit performance will be and where, also what the course consists of. He went on to show us some of the different comedy techniques like after telling a joke or finishing a 'bit' if the audience laugh (hopefully they will) to wait until they finish laughing before proceeding onto the next section of the piece. The reason why you wait for the audience to finish laughing is so that they are ready to listen and back paying attention to the next joke and do not miss out on what you say.

"A 'bit' in stand-up comedy is an individual routine on a certain topic; if a comic's set is like a rock album, consider a bit as an individual song. A series of bits add up to a complete set. Also Known As: a routine." http://comedians.about.com/od/glossary/g/bit.htmDaniel also told us some good comic vocabulary and the meanings of the words. Such as a 'bit' (as mentioned above) also shtick. 

A comedian's shtick is something they have which makes them different to other comedians. for example Andi Osho's shtick will be her race and her accent. We watched clips of Andi Osho performing we all enjoyed watching her and the reason to this was because she was obviously funny but also very different to watch because of her shtick Andi has a very strong east London accent with a Nigerian family background. She bases her act around this, around peoples race and nationality; she also bases bits around how she is single and can never find a man. We looked at other comedians and decided what their shticks were also their ways of performance. 

Persona- Your persona is the way you present yourself to the world, the character traits that you let show and the way that people will see you. If you are true to yourself, then your persona should reflect who you actually are. In some cases, however, people present false images or a phony persona. http://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-persona.html
Comic timing- is the use of rhythm, tempo and pausing to enhance comedy and humour. The pacing of the delivery of a joke can have a strong impact on its comedic effect, even altering its meaning; the same can also be true of more physical comedy such as slapstick.A beat is a pause taken for the purposes of comic timing, often to allow the audience time to recognize the joke and react, or to heighten the suspense before delivery of the expected punch line. Pauses, sometimes called "dramatic pauses" in this context, can be used to discern subtext or even unconscious content — that is, what the speaker is really thinking about.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comic_timing