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
- Part II Interpretation and Meaning
- Part III Performance Dynamics
- Chapter 12 Audience
- Comedians’ Insights Who Are You Onstage?
- Chapter 13 Persona
- Chapter 14 Stand-Up Comedy and Trauma
- Comedians’ Insights Why Do You Do Stand-Up?
- Select Bibliography
- Index
- References
Chapter 13 - Persona
from Part III - Performance Dynamics
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
- Part II Interpretation and Meaning
- Part III Performance Dynamics
- Chapter 12 Audience
- Comedians’ Insights Who Are You Onstage?
- Chapter 13 Persona
- Chapter 14 Stand-Up Comedy and Trauma
- Comedians’ Insights Why Do You Do Stand-Up?
- Select Bibliography
- Index
- References
Summary
The comic persona lies at the very centre of the art of stand-up, despite being inherently ambiguous. The relationship of the person on display in a performance and the private individual in everyday life is never clearly defined. This chapter starts by using a routine by Mae Martin to show how wafer thin the line between life and art is in stand-up, before examining how comedians inspire affection in their audience, using Sarah Millican’s Outsider as an example. It explores how comedians’ careers can be damaged by revelations about their private lives, using Louis CK and Aziz Ansari as contrasting examples. It then examines the rise of the ‘dead dad show’, in which comedians create full-length shows based on personal trauma, tracing this tendency back to a 1980 routine by Tony Allen. This leads into a case study of Russell Kane’s show Smokescreens and Castles, about his troubled relationship with his father.
Keywords
Information
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge Companion to Stand-Up Comedy , pp. 255 - 272Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2025
References
Further Reading
Double, Oliver, Getting the Joke: The Inner Workings of Stand-Up Comedy, 2nd ed. (London: Methuen, 2014).10.5040/9781408177686CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gilbert, Joanne R., Performing Marginality: Humor, Gender and Cultural Critique (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2004).Google Scholar
Mintz, Lawrence E., ‘Standup Comedy as Social and Cultural Mediation’, American Quarterly, Vol. 37, No. 1, 1985: pp. 71–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Quirk, Sophie, Why Stand-Up Matters: How Comedians Manipulate and Influence (London: Bloomsbury, 2015).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Accessibility standard: WCAG 2.0 A
The PDF of this book
conforms to version 2.0 of the
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
(WCAG), ensuring core accessibility principles are addressed and meets the basic
(A)
level of WCAG compliance, addressing essential accessibility barriers.
Content Navigation
Table of contents navigation
Allows you to navigate directly to chapters, sections, or non‐text items through a linked table of contents, reducing the need for extensive scrolling.
Allows you to navigate directly to chapters, sections, or non‐text items through a linked table of contents, reducing the need for extensive scrolling.
Index navigation
Provides an interactive index, letting you go straight to where a term or subject appears in the text without manual searching.
Provides an interactive index, letting you go straight to where a term or subject appears in the text without manual searching.
Reading Order & Textual Equivalents
Single logical reading order
You will encounter all content (including footnotes, captions, etc.) in a clear, sequential flow, making it easier to follow with assistive tools like screen readers.
You will encounter all content (including footnotes, captions, etc.) in a clear, sequential flow, making it easier to follow with assistive tools like screen readers.
Short alternative textual descriptions
You get concise descriptions (for images, charts, or media clips), ensuring you do not miss crucial information when visual or audio elements are not accessible.
You get concise descriptions (for images, charts, or media clips), ensuring you do not miss crucial information when visual or audio elements are not accessible.
Structural and Technical Features
ARIA roles provided
You gain clarity from ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) roles and attributes, as they help assistive technologies interpret how each part of the content functions.
You gain clarity from ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) roles and attributes, as they help assistive technologies interpret how each part of the content functions.