Making people laugh is not an easy task. Even for people with a great sense of humor, speaking to a live audience is always a difficult process. In the stand-up, the comedian’s originality and originality are most valued, and the spectator is the only judge in the performance.
Standup Comedy is literally translated from English as “standing humor”. That is, a stand-up is a performance in front of the public of one person in the colloquial genre, the essence of which is to amuse the audience with their stories on various topics.
Today, the stand-up is a dynamically developing style of a humorous show, where the comedian performs with a pre-prepared text, but does not read it, but tells.
Basic concepts from the stand-up genre
- Stand-up club - stand-up community, party, association of individual comedians. They organize comedy events in any one place or in different places.
- Stand-up scene - a community of stand-up clubs, events, comedians of a given genre and, in general, stand-up in a country, a separate region or city. The most famous largest stand-up scenes in the world - New York, Los Angeles, London. Among the Russian-speaking stand-up scenes can be distinguished - Moscow, St. Petersburg, Minsk and Kiev. Stand-up scenes from Yekaterinburg, Voronezh, Samara (Tolyatti), Kazan are growing in popularity in the country.
- Stand-up comedians are a comedian directly speaking to the public. Most Western professionals in the comedy genre (actors, directors, screenwriters, producers) are engaged or have previously been engaged in stand-up.
Beginner comedians are usually given 4-5 minutes to perform. With the growth of skill, the stand-up artist increases his time on stage. A recital full-length concert is considered the pinnacle of the comedian. Also, concerts of popular comedians or entire stand-up clubs are issued on video or audio media, they are called stand-up specials.
The history of stand-up as a genre
The homeland of the stand-up is Great Britain. The beginning of this genre can be traced back to the 18th-19th centuries, when the audience was entertained by musicians in the music halls. However, since the middle of the last century, the tradition of musical accompaniment has become obsolete, in its place came the solo performance of a comedian.
To promote stand-up as a genre, television and radio helped. Thanks to the audience’s awareness, comedians had to constantly write new jokes, revealing new questions and problems. The fastest and most active genre of steadap comedy developed in the United States, where it gained great popularity with the viewer. The number of comedy clubs grew, and almost everyone who knew how to speak in public tried to do stand-up, so this genre became the leading trend in the humor of the twentieth century.
It is in the manner that was laid down in the United States, and to this day comedian artists all over the world. It is known that many Hollywood stars began their career with stand-up performances in clubs, in particular Eddie Murphy and Robin Williams - representatives of a new generation of stand-up comedians.
In Russia, this humorous genre appeared recently, and the monopoly in the stand-up industry has been at the disposal of the TNT channel for several years. He gave way to the life of most comedians popular on television today. Programs such as Comedy Club, ComedyWoman, Comedy Battle, Laughter Without Rules, Slaughter League, were the first projects in the stand-up.
Later, a project under the simple name StandUp was also launched and is actively developing at TNT, whose comedians have become known throughout the country and successfully tour with their performances.
Among the Russian stand-ups, one can distinguish Pavel Volya, Ruslan Bely, Ivan Abramov, Nurlan Saburov, Viktor Komarov, Timur Karginov, Yulia Akhmedova, Slava Komisarenko and a number of other comedians.
Features stand-up performance
This style is characterized by several features, without which a stand-up cannot exist as a genre:
- Stand-up comedy is based on one very important rule: there must be one comedian on stage.
- A comedian can do and use anything in his speech. There are no options for how to perform correctly, and there are no restrictions. Everything that can make the audience laugh is used. Often, stand-upers use improvised tools, such as whiteboards with a marker, to portray or write something. Unprofessional and newcomers to the stand-up abuse the stage by simply misbehaving, but this is not prohibited. Since the only judge of the performance is the audience, if there is laughter, it means that the comedian succeeds in comedy.
- Traditionally, stand-up performances are held in small bars or chamber audiences. This happened historically, but the tradition is also supported by the fact that most stand-upers are newcomers or not very experienced comedians who find it difficult to interact with a large audience. Only a few of the world famous stand-upers can assemble large concert halls for their performance.
- In a modern stand-up, the use of profanity in the artist’s performance is not prohibited or prohibited. However, when broadcasting on radio and television, such places are drowned out by a special sound, so the leading comedians of the country practically do not use obscene words in their speech.
- There are several popular and most commonly used joke options. However, any comedian can offer his own individual version. This humor can be based both on the actor’s game and on visual, sound effects.
How can a stand-up performance take place
Open microphone. This format involves the performance of everyone who previously signed up. In turn, participants are called onto the stage, and their time is usually limited to 3-5 minutes. However, if the audience does not respond to humor and there is no laughter, the lights turn off on the stage or the music turns on, which is a signal to change the speaker. This form of organization of the performance is perfect for watching stand-up newcomers who want to test themselves in this matter, and gaining invaluable public speaking experience.
Set-list is not an option for beginners, but it’s more interesting: viewers ask the comedian a topic on which he should improvise right this minute and it should be funny.
Recital. The best jokes of the famous comedian, filed in a large amount of time.
One-man show - a comedian on stage is in the image and represents a dramatic plot, invented by the scriptwriter. During the speech, the conflict and plot are clearly traced.
Spoken word (art recitation) - comedian’s speech with any social or political criticism.
One man show is a cross between a one-man show and a creative meeting with the audience.
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Timur Karginov: biography and personal life
