In July, I took part in the Black Box Academy's Stand Up Comedy workshops, delivered by Graeme Watson.
It was an intensive 5 day workshop, running from Monday to Friday, with everyone performing their five minute set on the Saturday in the Black Box, so there was a lot to pack in. We had to write original material for performance, and hone it through the week. The fast turnaround meant that perhaps my material wasn't as finely honed as it perhaps could have been, but I always prefer to work in short, sharp bursts.
Graeme has a huge amount of on stage experience, having made his debut way back in 2001, supporting one of my personal favourite stand ups, Ross Noble. He has hosted the Comedy Lab for a number of years, and is passionate about developing stand ups to a professional standard.
The group was a great mix of people I knew from working with them before (Gemma Mae-Halligan, Alice McCullough, Paul Mone), to people I didn't know (Kylah Dittmarr, Mary McKenna, Mairead Kane, Ethan Pollock, Romy McKeever). Everyone's set went down a storm, and if I'm being honest, my set got the quietest laughs (not saying I died on stage, just that everyone got big laughs).
I hope to get back up on stage soon and get more experience with the mic (one of the biggest hurdles I had personally was holding a mic in my hand, even though I have years of stage experience, and hosted a very successful podcast!)
Anyway, here's the set:
It was an intensive 5 day workshop, running from Monday to Friday, with everyone performing their five minute set on the Saturday in the Black Box, so there was a lot to pack in. We had to write original material for performance, and hone it through the week. The fast turnaround meant that perhaps my material wasn't as finely honed as it perhaps could have been, but I always prefer to work in short, sharp bursts.
Graeme has a huge amount of on stage experience, having made his debut way back in 2001, supporting one of my personal favourite stand ups, Ross Noble. He has hosted the Comedy Lab for a number of years, and is passionate about developing stand ups to a professional standard.
The group was a great mix of people I knew from working with them before (Gemma Mae-Halligan, Alice McCullough, Paul Mone), to people I didn't know (Kylah Dittmarr, Mary McKenna, Mairead Kane, Ethan Pollock, Romy McKeever). Everyone's set went down a storm, and if I'm being honest, my set got the quietest laughs (not saying I died on stage, just that everyone got big laughs).
I hope to get back up on stage soon and get more experience with the mic (one of the biggest hurdles I had personally was holding a mic in my hand, even though I have years of stage experience, and hosted a very successful podcast!)
Anyway, here's the set: