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 1 - Stand-Up in the United Kingdom
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 explores stand-up comedy in the UK arising out of comic song in the music hall. Spoken patter rather than songs became the centre of performances of the front cloth comedians in variety theatres, which continued until the 1950s. Subsequently, stand-ups found other places to perform, notably the working men’s club (WMC), with varied performance styles but a shared canon of jokes. The working-class Londoner is a performer and type existing across the development of stand-up. Alternative comedy arose from 1979 as a critique of the perceived sexism, racism and limited creativity of WMC comedy, and most comedians since have careers within these broad parameters. Despite this, inequalities still exist in the UK stand-up scene, and the consequences of the Covid pandemic were greater for comedians affected by inequalities of class, gender, race, disability, and sexuality who suffered more severe career setbacks, being less able to garner income online.
Keywords
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- The Cambridge Companion to Stand-Up Comedy , pp. 23 - 42Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2025
References
Further Reading
Bailey, Peter, ‘Conspiracies of Meaning: Music-Hall and the Knowingness of Popular Culture’, Past & Present, No. 144, 1994: pp. 138–170.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, Pete, Clubland: How the Working Men’s Club Shaped Britain (Manchester: HarperNorth, 2023).Google Scholar
Cherrington, Ruth, Not Just Beer and Bingo! A Social History of Working Men’s Clubs (Bloomington, IN: Authorhouse, 2012).Google Scholar
Double, Oliver, Alternative Comedy: 1979 and the Reinvention of British Stand-Up (London: Methuen Drama, 2020).Google Scholar
Double, Oliver, Britain Had Talent: A History of Variety Theatre (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kift, Dagmar, The Victorian Music Hall: Culture, Class and Conflict (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996).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.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Washbourne, Neil, ‘Social and National Difference in the High-Speed, Popular Surrealism of Tommy Handley and Ronald Frankau’s Double Acts, 1929–1936’, in Davies, Helen and Ilott, Sarah (eds), Comedy and the Politics of Representation: Mocking the Week (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018), pp. 117–136.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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