» The value of original comic material
Victoria Nangle calls out – to thine own voice be true, and make sure it’s an original
The best comedy is the kind that nobody else could think of. It’s worth remembering that when writing new material. Traffic lights may annoy you, but they annoy all the other comics on the circuit too. If you are driven to distraction by the noise the bath water makes when it goes down the plug – but only when the plug is one of those pushy up-y ones that are on a lever instead of a chain – you may find you have a unique perspective. That’s what will make you stand out from the other new acts when you write about it. It may seem like putting your head on the block, simply writing gags that are personal to you, but in baring that part that no one else has you’ll be different in a good way.
“Possibly it’s simply the image of a not too petite me trying to sail away in Argos’s finest packing apparatus”
Sometimes just an enthusiasm for your personal belief can get you a laugh, as the audience simply enjoys your joie de vivre. I’ve got a gag about massive cardboard boxes. It’s not wildly funny but I always say afterwards how great I really feel they are for having adventures in, and I mean it. Possibly it’s simply the image of a not too petite me trying to sail away in Argos’s finest packing apparatus that does it. I like to think the laugh that comes is simply at my personal conviction that most things can be escaped from happily in this flimsy but hardy childhood building material. Whichever, no one else says it on the new act circuit and I get the laugh.
Admittedly it would be better to combine a funnier cardboard box gag with my conviction, but hopefully that will come with time. It does remind me to keep writing stand-up from my own personal experience and reactions though. When I slip over walking underneath the railway bridge down New England Road and inadvertently cover myself in pigeon ‘manure’ I realise the rush hour traffic caught in a jam will enjoy witnessing this one-off spectacle. If I did it every day – or a generic someone did it every half hour – it wouldn’t garner the same amusement. It’s unique to me, and that’s what makes it funny. Luckily stand-up generally doesn’t demand the same cleaning bill. The price of laughter I suppose.
