Issue 23 - November 08
Stand Up - A Professional Guide To Comedy Magic
Ian Keable
Available from: www.iankeable.co.uk or by post from
Price: £25.00 + £3.00 P&P
Ever since Ian sent me this book I have been looking forward to reading
it. From the moment you see the actual book, you just know that it's going to be
good. It's hard backed (the extra expense involved in having this style of
binding usually indicates the author feels his work has some serious merit!),
the cover designed by Chris Power is sharp and business-like, and a quick riffle
through the pages reveals plenty of detailed text sub-divided into logical and
well thought out chapters and headings. It's 282 pages in which Ian will attempt
to explain how to be funny when working a stand up act. A tough ask - would his
book be up to it?
Having read it I can categorically answer that with a resounding 'yes'.
This is quite simply a superb piece of writing. Ian has broken comedy down into
a series of manageable pieces and has analysed what it is that makes comedy work
and how you can create that comedy for yourself. Ian has researched his material
extremely thoroughly and so the reader has the benefit of a huge number of
comments and pieces of advice from many of the other top names in world comedy -
Billy McComb, Paul Daniels, Jeff Hobson, The Amazing Jonathan, Mac King, Neal
Austin, Graham Jolley, Mel Mellers, Noel Britten, John Archer plus many, many
more. To have so much information from such an array of genuinely top people
assembled in one book should be enough of an incentive for you to buy this on
its own, but Ian himself also provides a wonderfully organised explanation of
comedy and what makes up a successful stand up act, and therefore no stand up
performer, experienced or otherwise, should be without this book.
The book is organised into a logically progressive series of sections. Ian
starts with establishing what 'stand up' actually is and defining why he feels
that having comedy is essential. He explains the differences between jokes and
lines and puts forward theories of how comedy can be used to enhance and blend
with magic rather than one of the two disciplines negatively affecting the
other. He then goes on to stress the importance of having a performance
'character' and gives many convincing examples of top acts who have successfully
created one. Next he moves on to looking at lines themselves and shows how lines
can be used to forward the plot of a trick as well as make it entertaining. He
gives examples of how to find or create suitable lines and how these can be
integrated into a routine. There is a whole section on handling volunteers and
many ways for getting humour from having helpers up with you. Ian next goes on
to talk about the act itself and suggests many ways to structure the comedy and
the act to the best advantage. The final section of the book deals with a wide
range of other factors to take into consideration when working a professional
act, everything from dealing with MCs to what type of promotional material to
use.
There is a massive amount of accurate, interesting and totally relevant
information in this book. Ian's writing style is easy to read, intelligent and
coherent. The subject matter is covered exhaustively and humorously - if nothing
else there are loads of funny lines quoted in the body of the text which will
have you laughing and reaching for your notebook! Ian has taken a huge amount of
trouble and care in every aspect of the preparation of this work and if this
doesn't become the standard stand-up magicians' bible, I will be very surprised.
ML
What's Hot
: everything from content to book production values
What's Not: can't think of a single thing (that's a first for me!)
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