Comedy is a Literary Art Form

Gender Collective

What happens when a member of the opposite sex recommends a book for you to read? Do you find, more often than not, that the book’s subject matter doesn’t appeal to you or do you find you share their interest in subject matter? I find there’s male subject matter I’m not interested in such as guns, body parts and the annoying little wifey at home.

There will be an equivalent of female subject matter that won’t interest me. Surely there’s a divide in subject matter that interests each gender in literature and in stand-up comedy.

In 2010, I entered the Funny Women stand up competition. I don’t tend to use gender specific subject matter in my material, but differences may be in the approach that a male or female comedian will use to create their material.

Winners

Later that year, 2010, I saw Russell Kane, winner of the Edinburgh Festival Award (whatever it’s called nowadays) and Best Newcomer Roisin Conaty.

I had seen Russell Kane the year before, in 2009, at the Edinburgh Festival when he was convinced I was a reviewer and referred to this constantly during his set. I really enjoyed this set, particularly the part about how Kane had effected his younger brother. This was an interesting and original approach to the subject of sibling rivalry, with Kane turning the knife on himself and blaming himself for his younger brother’s lesser fortunes in life.

A male friend of mine came to this gig and didn’t seem to find Conaty very funny, while I was practically rolling in the aisles.

Well observed 

The part of Conaty’s set I found the funniest (a shared experience which I found very well observed) was one I related to: being at a party when our ‘inner creep’ kicks in and you find yourself boring another guest to tears with something particularly nerdy while pretending to be cool and having a good time. This was acted out with a hilarious sway from hip to hip with a finger click along to the Raggae music playing until the other person inevitably said ‘I’m going to the bar, back in a tic,’ which obviously meant ‘(hope not to) see yer!’.

Stand up Comedy gives the performer the unique chance to reveal quirks in human nature which the audience can relate to. However, how much do men and women share perspectives or experiences? Do we often, or not, share a point of view on things such as parties, jobs, being a sibling, romance etc?

Father Son Relationship

Kane’s 2010 set was predominantly about a father-son relationship, much of which I couldn’t relate to. He is still a very funny, but I preferred his previous set that had more coverage that I had experienced myself.

Do male comedians alienate their female performances? Michael McIntyre seems to stick to topics in his material which is non-specific, however I quickly found it lacked the element of surprise for me. I liked his ‘walking bus’ as in that he had applied pure imagination to a situation any commuter could relate to.

Edgy, Daring and Full of Surprsises

My favourite material is edgy, daring and full of surprises that make me think ‘oh, yes of course’ when the punchline arrives. In the case of Roisin Conaty, I was grateful that she made an experience I often have at parties sound so funny. After this, I never need feel so alone with my inner creep ever again, knowing that a bona fide award winning comedian had also been awkward at parties.

Maybe I can use my disastrous experiences at job interviews (the reason I stared stand up in the first place) for material. However, Miranda Hart has nailed this already in her solo self-named show, when she dreads the moment she will get up and start singing raucous karaoke numbers into her clenched fist.

My next blog will be about how to handle ‘hot potatoes’ in stand-up.