WHOSE LAUGHING NOW?

 

"Whether you do stand-up comedy or write a story, you have a duty to deliver. As a comedian, you walk out on stage, and you have a minute to hook them, or they'll start booing." Mark Billingham 

BBC New Comedy Awards is a competition come showcase for new British comedians that features five stand ups performing for the delictation of a non paying audience and three fellow comedian judges, I say "fellow comedians" but they invariably prove to be as funny as a thing that isn't funny at all, like sciatica.

Being a regular and avid atendee at the wonderful Edinburgh festival I have seen an awful lot of stand up over the years (very little of it being awful) and I can honestly say, or rather I can honestly ask "Where do they get this lot from?"

I understand that of all the arts comedy is the most subjective. Some find humour in a cusratd pie in the face, others in a sketch about philosophers playing football; different strokes. But there is a universal truth that some people just don't have funny bones. For some people stand up comedy is not for them, despite what their mates from work say. These people need to take heed that when Tracy from HR and Gavin from marketing crack up at their humourous anecdotes and tell them "OMG, you are hilarious, you should try stand up mate" my advice is, don't listen to them, pause to reflect.

Trying your hand at an open mikes is the best way to see if youve got it, audiences at these events will soon let you know. writing and writing and writing, performing, performing and performing is the best way to hone an act. You know, hard work. even then its a long way to the O2 Arena.

Which brings me back to the BBC New Comedy awards. How did some of these brave/foolhardy contestants get a slot on national television? The only logical explanation is producers.

The modern day Television producer has a degree in media studies and like their burgers smashed they grew up on reruns of Red Dwarf and Father Ted and think that Michael Macintyre is "actually dissentient". These are the arbiters of comedic taste with a healthy slice of  box ticking thrown in for good measure.

Yes we no longer have Bernard Manning on the big screen, which is a good thing but some of his contemporaries were funny, for example a regular face on TV  Frank Carson had funny bones, regardless of changing tastes he was funny. Not everyne is or can be

Now, before you start to think I'm off on one again, there are some funny acts that I have seen from stand ups with genuine talent but, by and large there seems to be an identikit to being one of the other ones, the ones that are there to make up the numbers. The standard operating procedure appears to be-

1. This is something that I am

2. These jokes are all about that something

3. That's it

An abrupt end to this post, but I wanted t give you a flavour of what it's like  watching one of these acts when you are left with the feeling "is that it?