Book contents
- The Cambridge Companion to Stand-Up Comedy
- Cambridge Companions to Theatre and Performance
- The Cambridge Companion to Stand-Up Comedy
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Introduction
- Comedians’ Insights What Do You Do to Prepare to Go Onstage?
- Part I Time and Place
- Chapter 1 Stand-Up in the United Kingdom
- Chapter 2 Comics, Minstrels, Satirists, and Hacks
- Comedians’ Insights The Audience You Attract
- Chapter 3 Where Stand-Up Happens
- Chapter 4 Recorded Stand-Up from Radio to Netflix
- Comedians’ Insights A Particular Performance Technique You Use in Your Act
- Part II Interpretation and Meaning
- Part III Performance Dynamics
- Select Bibliography
- Index
- References
Chapter 3 - Where Stand-Up Happens
from Part I - Time and Place
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 August 2025
Edited by
Book contents
- The Cambridge Companion to Stand-Up Comedy
- Cambridge Companions to Theatre and Performance
- The Cambridge Companion to Stand-Up Comedy
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Introduction
- Comedians’ Insights What Do You Do to Prepare to Go Onstage?
- Part I Time and Place
- Chapter 1 Stand-Up in the United Kingdom
- Chapter 2 Comics, Minstrels, Satirists, and Hacks
- Comedians’ Insights The Audience You Attract
- Chapter 3 Where Stand-Up Happens
- Chapter 4 Recorded Stand-Up from Radio to Netflix
- Comedians’ Insights A Particular Performance Technique You Use in Your Act
- Part II Interpretation and Meaning
- Part III Performance Dynamics
- Select Bibliography
- Index
- References
Summary
This chapter examines the locations – performance venues, physical spaces, virtual outlets – in which stand-up comedy in the USA takes place. It opens with a discussion of the different types of venues in which stand-up has existed historically -theatres, nightclubs, bars, clubs, music venues, arenas, etc. – before moving on to explore contemporary comedy clubs in New York City. Throughout the chapter, particular emphasis is given to the organisation of the venues and shows, the performance conventions they incorporate, and how their spatial and aesthetic properties as venues shape the work of the comics who play them. The chapter is based on the author’s extensive ethnographic research carried out on the New York comedy scene among up-and-coming local comics at both the comedy club and in the so-called alternative comedy scene.
Keywords
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- The Cambridge Companion to Stand-Up Comedy , pp. 67 - 82Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2025
References
Further Reading
Auslander, Philip, Liveness: Performance in a Mediatized Culture, 2nd ed. (Abingdon and New York: Routledge, 2008).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brodie, Ian, A Vulgar Art: A New Approach to Stand-Up Comedy (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2014).10.14325/mississippi/9781628461824.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Double, Oliver, Getting the Joke: The Inner Workings of Stand-Up Comedy, 2nd ed. (London: Methuen, 2014).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Friedman, Budd, The Improv: An Oral History of the Comedy Club That Revolutionized Stand-Up (Dallas: BenBella Books, 2017).Google Scholar
Lockyer, Sharon, ‘Performance, Expectation, Interaction, and Intimacy: On the Opportunities and Limitations of Arena Stand-Up Comedy for Comedians and Audiences’, The Journal of Popular Culture, Vol. 48, No. 3, 2015: pp. 586–603.10.1111/jpcu.12285CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mintz, Lawrence E., ‘Standup Comedy as Social and Cultural Mediation’, American Quarterly, Vol. 37, No. 1, 1985: pp. 71–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rutter, Jason, ‘Rhetoric in Stand-Up Comedy: Exploring Performer–Audience Interaction’, Stylistyka, Vol. 10, 2001: pp. 307–325.Google Scholar
Wenzel, John, Mock Stars: Indie Comedy and the Dangerously Funny (Golden, CO: Speck Press, 2008).Google Scholar
Zoglin, Richard, Comedy at the Edge: How Stand-Up in the 1970s Changed America (New York: Bloomsbury, 2008).Google Scholar
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