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Rodney Dangerfield – Comedy is an Old Man’s Game (Part 2)
In the previous article, we learned how Rodney Dangerfield – still at this point known by the stage name Jack Roy – had abandoned his failed stand-up career only to be enticed back to the…
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Rodney Dangerfield – Comedy is an Old Man’s Game (Part 1)
It’s 1967. In an ordinary suburban house somewhere in New Jersey, USA, a middle-aged couple have just decided to take the plunge and invest in some aluminium siding. (It’s a wild opening to the article,…
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Billy Connolly – Share My Pain
The well-worn image of the traumatised comedian – the sad clown whose painted-on smile masks deep wounds – has been trotted out so much that it’s easy to forget how often there’s some truth behind…
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Stand-Up Comedy
Stand-up is about as simple as a comedy performance can get. And yet some surprises lie in wait for the unsuspecting blogger who tries explaining it. Definition The first surprise comes when trying to nail…
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Structure of a Sitcom Episode
In the recent article, I described the basic three-act structure of a sitcom episode. This week I’m going to put some meat on that bone by going through an example of that structure in action.…
A Funny Sort of History
Stories from the history of comedy