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
- Select Bibliography
- Index
- References
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
- Part II Interpretation and Meaning
- Part III Performance Dynamics
- Select Bibliography
- Index
- References
Information
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge Companion to Stand-Up Comedy , pp. 21 - 104Publisher: 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
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).CrossRefGoogle 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.CrossRefGoogle 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
Further Reading
Auslander, Philip, Liveness: Performance in a Mediatized Culture, 2nd ed. (Abingdon and New York: Routledge, 2008).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Edgerton, Gary R., The Columbia History of American Television (New York: Columbia University Press, 2007).Google Scholar
Limon, John, Stand-Up Comedy in Theory, or, Abjection in America (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2000).Google Scholar
Paterson, Richard, ‘Drama and Entertainment’, in Smith, Anthony (ed.), Television: An International History, 2nd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), pp. 57–68.Google 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.