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1 results

  • Chapter 1 - Stand-Up in the United Kingdom

  • from Part I - Time and Place
  • Edited by Oliver Double, University of Kent
  • Book:
    The Cambridge Companion to Stand-Up Comedy
    Published online:
    21 August 2025
    Print publication:
    04 September 2025, pp 23-42

  • 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.