Karl Valentin’s Illogical Subversion: issues arising from Karl Valentin’s Das Aquarium and Liesl Karlstadt’s Verein der Katzenfreund

Valentin Ludwig Fey was born on 4 June 1882 in the Munich suburb of Au, effectively the only child of an artisan-class family – his sister and two brothers all died in early childhood before Valentin Ludwig was even six months old. Valentin himself only narrowly survived a childhood encounter with diptheria (all of which, perhaps unsurprisingly, contributed to his ever-increasing hypochondria1), but he went on to become Karl Valentin, arguably the most famous German comedian and cabaret performer of his generation

Karl Valentin’s Illogical Subversion: issues arising from Karl Valentin’s Das Aquarium and Liesl Karlstadt’s Verein der Katzenfreund

Valentin Ludwig Fey was born on 4 June 1882 in the Munich suburb of Au, effectively the only child of an artisan-class family – his sister and two brothers all died in early childhood before Valentin Ludwig was even six months old. Valentin himself only narrowly survived a childhood encounter with diptheria (all of which, perhaps unsurprisingly, contributed to his ever-increasing hypochondria1), but he went on to become Karl Valentin, arguably the most famous German comedian and cabaret performer of his generation

Tragedy Plus Time: Transforming Life Experience into Stand-Up Comedy

In this article, Oliver Double examines the process of turning traumatic personal experience into viable stand-up comedy material by offering a detailed account of the creative process behind his 2015 show Break a Leg. Drawing on Bergson, Brecht, and Noël Carroll, he explores the origins of comic ideas in personal observation, and argues for a two-stage process of joke creation. This is fleshed out in a detailed examination of a particular routine, in which he uses Koestler's concept of bisociation to show how an initial observation was shaped into a series of punchlines. He also discusses authenticating strategies which comedians employ to demonstrate that they are recalling their actual experiences, and ways in which the dialogic qualities of stand-up affect empathy and intimacy. Oliver Double is a former professional comedian who is now a Reader in Drama at the University of Kent. He is the author of Stand-Up! On Being a Comedian (1997), Britain Had Talent: a History of Variety Theatre (2012), and Getting the Joke: the Inner Workings of Stand-Up Comedy (2nd edition, 2014). A film of Break a Leg is available on YouTube, and the related podcast Breaking a Leg is accessible via iTunes

Tragedy Plus Time: Transforming Life Experience into Stand-Up Comedy

In this article, Oliver Double examines the process of turning traumatic personal experience into viable stand-up comedy material by offering a detailed account of the creative process behind his 2015 show Break a Leg. Drawing on Bergson, Brecht, and Noël Carroll, he explores the origins of comic ideas in personal observation, and argues for a two-stage process of joke creation. This is fleshed out in a detailed examination of a particular routine, in which he uses Koestler's concept of bisociation to show how an initial observation was shaped into a series of punchlines. He also discusses authenticating strategies which comedians employ to demonstrate that they are recalling their actual experiences, and ways in which the dialogic qualities of stand-up affect empathy and intimacy. Oliver Double is a former professional comedian who is now a Reader in Drama at the University of Kent. He is the author of Stand-Up! On Being a Comedian (1997), Britain Had Talent: a History of Variety Theatre (2012), and Getting the Joke: the Inner Workings of Stand-Up Comedy (2nd edition, 2014). A film of Break a Leg is available on YouTube, and the related podcast Breaking a Leg is accessible via iTunes

‘[T]his is eating your greens, this is doing your homework’: writing and rehearsing a full-length stand-up show

Until recently, the processes which comedians use to create their performances have been seldom examined. This article draws on materials from the British Stand-Up Comedy Archive (BSUCA) and a recent practice-as-research project in which I documented the creative processes behind my full-length stand-up show Break a Leg, performed at the Gulbenkian Theatre, Canterbury in 2015. In the months leading up to the show, I regularly recorded my reflections on the creative processes in which I was engaged, publishing these in the podcast Breaking a Leg, which is available on iTunes. Using these reflections in conjunction with script notes, set lists and unpublished recordings from the BSUCA, this article articulates what Robin Nelson calls ‘know-what’ – the performer's tacit, experiential knowledge made explicit through critical reflection – to shed light on the processes of writing, structuring and rehearsing stand-up comedy. Matthew Reason has argued that the main motivation for documenting live performance is ‘not the creation of new art but ensuring the documentation of existing art’. Building on recent work by Christopher Molineux, here I argue that this is not the case with stand-up comedy, where the purpose of documentation is very much the creation of new art

The origin of the term ‘stand-up comedy’

The Oxford English Dictionary gives the earliest usage of the term ‘stand-up comic’ as 1966, but in fact it has been in use for much longer. This short article searches newspapers and trade publications like Variety and The Stage to try and find the earliest uses of the related terms ‘stand-up comedy’, ‘stand-up comedian’ and ‘stand-up comic’ in a search for their origin

Twenty-first century fumerist : Bridget Christie and the backlash against feminist comedy

This article engages with the work of comedian Bridget Christie in relation to definitions of feminist and post-feminist comedy. The year 2013 was a highpoint in coverage and acclaim for feminist comedy and this article will explore how, at a time when the majority of female comedians operate from a post-feminist standpoint, Christie’s work seeks to politicise and galvanise her audience. The evolution of Christie’s work is explored in relation to the changes in her delivery style and the implications this has on the accessibility of her material to wider audiences. Additionally, the response of the wider U.K. comedy industry to the higher profile of feminist comedy and the reassertion of patriarchal masculinity in comedy is considered

Positives and negatives: reclaiming the female body and self-deprecation in stand-up comedy

Drawing on existing research into feminist humour, this article argues that many of the functions of self-deprecation within comic performance that have been identified and explored in relation to the American context of the late 90s and early 2000s are still evident on the current UK circuit. Self-deprecation in stand-up comedy by women continues to be understood as both positive (as part of the rise of popular feminisms) and negative (as reinforcing patriarchal norms). These contradictory understandings of self-deprecation in stand-up comedy are always inextricably linked to the identities of the audiences for such humour. I consider how emergent female stand-up performers may rationalise and understand the role self-deprecation plays within their own work in the current British context. I then discuss the work of stand-up comedian Luisa Omielan as an example of the rejection of self-deprecatory address. I make the argument that self-deprecation cannot function simply as positive or negative in the current UK context, but must always be considered (for both audiences and performers) as challenging and reinforcing restrictive patriarchal attitudes towards women simultaneously