2002-11-09 A Stand-up Comedy Bible

I picked up "Comic Insights" because they're aren't any good books on comedy by British authors and I was a fan of Jerry Seinfeld, Roseanne, Chris Rock, Garry Shandling, and Ellen DeGeneres--the only American comedians in the book I knew. Comic Insights is clearly aimed as a manual for the aspiring stand-up, and the aspiring American stand-up at that. Given the indefinable nature of comedy, Ajaye sensibly steers well clear of providing advice on how to be funny, concentrating instead on how to be more funny.

It's a book of three unequal thirds, starting with a definitive 'how to' guide for the would-be stand-up. This section is jam-packed with invaluable pearls of wisdom about the mechanics of the craft. These basic tips are often common sense, and are generally regarded as universal truths among performers, but they do need to be said, especially for the rookie.

Mostly, the key is self-awareness: knowing what makes your voice and persona uniquely funny; knowing how your delivery, stage presence and timing went,; and knowing how that affected the laughs you get.

Sensibly, Ajaye recommends aspiring stand-ups study their comedy idols to find out what makes them funny (though definitely not trying to blindly emulate them) and suggests you always record your faltering efforts on stage to analyse what went wrong - or right.

The book's crammed full of such fundamental tips, which no rookie should take to the stage without knowing.

Occasionally the language veers into the unfortunate buzzwords of the training industry, but there's no diluting the rock-solid advice at the heart of it.

The book is very incisive and has a wealth of good information that can help anybody starting out as a comic now matter what country they live in. The experiences and the insights on performing by all the comics in the book were extremely valuable, and their philosophies about comedy and life were interesting and very revealing. I found myself just as interested in the comics I didn't know as well as those I did. I heartily recommend this book to anyone who is thinking about being a comedian. You can't go wrong.