Seasoned comedian Drew McCreadie on why stand-up comedy isn’t just a solo act
| EVEN with the abundant high-tech entertainment options available to the modern amusement-seeker, from streaming live sporting events originating anywhere in the world and concerning any activity involving chasing around some sort of ball, to 3D IMAX films featuring items unnecessarily flying out toward you, to interactive video-games where you garner points for destroying as many things and slaughtering as many people as possible, to guessing if your Tinder date match-up will look anything like their photo, there still exists a demand for live entertainment, and in particular live comedy. The existence throughout the world of innumerable comedy clubs attests to the fact that live comedy can still attract an audience, however drunk and ill-behaved. The opening of The Comedy Club Bangkok in Bangkok, Thailand, and its continued and growing success throughout its proud year-and-a-half history, stands as proof of the draw of western-style comedy even in the far reaches of exotic, colourful, and ultimately baffling Southeast Asia. |  |
The importance of the audience to live comedy is well established as a co-manufacturer of comedy – the comedian feeding the audience’s hunger for humour and insight, and the audience feeding the comedian’s hunger for praise, approval, acceptance, and a bunch of other psychological needs his/her parents were unable to fulfil. In fact, it is arguable (and has been argued) that comedy is only comedy when it is recognized and appreciated as such by the audience; if a joke is told in the forest, and there is no one there to laugh, is it funny? Some might say, “no.” While a dancer can perform to an empty room, and it is still a dance, a joke told to no one, is not a joke. A joke needs an audience, even if it is just your mom.
Not only does the audience exist for live comedy, the existence of the audience makes the very existence of live comedy possible. And, if you really want to blow your mind, as Alice Rayner (an academic who studies comedy at Stanford University) would suggest in her article Creating The Audience: It’s All in the Timing, the joke creates the audience: “the joke makes the audience, if only at the mundane level at which those who do not ‘get’ the joke are not the audience for the joke. To put it another way, […] the joke itself is a generative tool for creating an audience.” Audience and live comedy need and create each other. Trippy!
This is never truer than it is for improv comedy. The use of the audience is integral to improv in a way that goes beyond the positive or negative feedback (cheering and laughing, booing and silence) one might expect from other forms of entertainment, be it a mindless opiate for the masses such as a sporting event, or a glorious mind-expanding phenomenon such as theatre, and as such, creates a unique relationship between performer and spectator. In improv the audience is actually involved in the show, either as the source of topics for scenes, or in some cases audience members are brought up onto the stage and are used within the scene in some way.
If you haven’t felt special in a relationship lately, why not check out an improv show and be part of the audience/performer relationship? Feel the power of co-creation: help create the humour, and let it help create you!
Not only does the audience exist for live comedy, the existence of the audience makes the very existence of live comedy possible. And, if you really want to blow your mind, as Alice Rayner (an academic who studies comedy at Stanford University) would suggest in her article Creating The Audience: It’s All in the Timing, the joke creates the audience: “the joke makes the audience, if only at the mundane level at which those who do not ‘get’ the joke are not the audience for the joke. To put it another way, […] the joke itself is a generative tool for creating an audience.” Audience and live comedy need and create each other. Trippy!
This is never truer than it is for improv comedy. The use of the audience is integral to improv in a way that goes beyond the positive or negative feedback (cheering and laughing, booing and silence) one might expect from other forms of entertainment, be it a mindless opiate for the masses such as a sporting event, or a glorious mind-expanding phenomenon such as theatre, and as such, creates a unique relationship between performer and spectator. In improv the audience is actually involved in the show, either as the source of topics for scenes, or in some cases audience members are brought up onto the stage and are used within the scene in some way.
If you haven’t felt special in a relationship lately, why not check out an improv show and be part of the audience/performer relationship? Feel the power of co-creation: help create the humour, and let it help create you!
This month at The Comedy Club Bangkok
• Stand-Up Comedy with Darren Sanders! Aussie comedian and TV chat show host Darren Sanders is coming to Thailand to perform for the first time. A veteran of over 20 years, he is known for his relaxed, confident, conversational style that have audiences at complete ease and in hysterics. Fri June 10 at 8pm. B500 in advance. B750 at the door. Includes a drink and drinks specials.
• Stand-Up Comedy Open Mic with international special guests. Stand-up comedy open mic returns with a seasoned headliner alongside newcomers and Bangkok’s local comics. Fri June 17 at 8pm. B250 in advance. B350 at the door. Includes a drink and drinks specials.
• Stand-Up Comedy with Darren Sanders! Aussie comedian and TV chat show host Darren Sanders is coming to Thailand to perform for the first time. A veteran of over 20 years, he is known for his relaxed, confident, conversational style that have audiences at complete ease and in hysterics. Fri June 10 at 8pm. B500 in advance. B750 at the door. Includes a drink and drinks specials.
• Stand-Up Comedy Open Mic with international special guests. Stand-up comedy open mic returns with a seasoned headliner alongside newcomers and Bangkok’s local comics. Fri June 17 at 8pm. B250 in advance. B350 at the door. Includes a drink and drinks specials.
• Stand-Up Comedy Open Mic with international special guests. Stand-up comedy open mic returns with a seasoned headliner alongside newcomers and Bangkok’s local comics. Fri June 24 at 8pm. B250 in advance. B350 at the door. Includes a drink and drinks specials.
The Comedy Club Bangkok, Sukhumvit 33/1 above The Royal Oak Pub (Phrom Phong BTS)
www.comedyclubbangkok.com
The Comedy Club Bangkok, Sukhumvit 33/1 above The Royal Oak Pub (Phrom Phong BTS)
www.comedyclubbangkok.com
