Geek comedy 101: the comedy lecture
There are plenty of kinds of comedy geekery, and I hope to chronicle them all, but let’s start with a classic: the comedy lecture. It’s been used by Andy McClelland, Lawrence Leung, even James Pratt’s grotesque character Sebastian Flange. Comedy lectures are about something. Their core audiences are people interested in the topic, and so that topic takes centre stage alongside the performers. This sets comedy lectures apart from shows which are “about” something, but deliver maybe five minutes of material on the subject.
Let’s get nerdily analytical, and using as our case study an example from this year’s festival: Miss Kat and Miss Jane’s A Stitch in Time: A History of Frocking Up. Comedy lectures generally have the following characteristics:
- One subject – comedy lectures are focussed. That focus may be fairly broad, but you never have to use the word ‘and’ to describe what they’re about. A Stitch in Time is about the history of fashion.
- Enthusiasm – you have to love the subject. This is usually a given; no-one writes an hour long show about something they’re not mad keen on. Kat and Jane have this in spades.
- Accuracy – lectures come inherent with the convention that you know what you’re talking about. You can’t make stuff up – except, perhaps, if the whole thing is entirely fallacious. I don’t know much about fashion, but I reckon Kat and Jane did their homework. Note that this is a constraint, and one many comedians chafe under; for my money though, it forces innovation and experimentation.
- Visual aids, not “big props” – comedy lectures may use a little or a lot of stuff, but they’re (mostly) relevant objects. Kat and Jane have projected images, a paper doll, and of course lots of clothes.
Comedy lectures have a benefit to the comedian, too: they’re easy to market as niche. If they have a failing, it’s that can often err on the side of interesting rather than funny (much like today’s column). I know that’s something I’ve struggled with in my own shows.
Have you seen any good comedy lectures? Let me know in the comments below! Perhaps you have a style of geek comedy you’d like me to investigate, or a question about it all? Let me know that too!
Can you give us some more examples of comedy lectures other than just the one case study?
Absolutely I can. In this year’s festival I can think of three off the top of my head, though I’ve not seen these yet so I don’t know how closely they follow my “rules” above.
Mark Butler’s Let’s Talk About Sex is cast as a high school sex ed class; he’s wearing a lab coat and standing next to a blackboard in the poster, and uses the word “comeducation” in the blurb, though the same blurb suggests it’s not entirely factual (and see my upcoming post). Alexis Dubus’ A Bl**dy Brief History of Swearing also seems to fit the bill; he also has a blackboard in the poster, and his blurb promises a lot of sweary facts. Deborah Frances-White’s How Almost Anyone Can Become an Overnight Celebrity is along similar lines to a comedy lecture; like her previous show How to Get Almost Anyone to Want to Sleep With You it’s a how-to seminar more than a lecture, and the “facts” probably stem from her own research.
The best classic example of a comedy lecture is Andrew McClelland’s Somewhat Accurate History Of Pirates (1550-2017), recently revived for last year’s Melbourne Fringe. Lawrence Leung’s second show, Skeptic, mostly fits the bill. Several years ago Paul McDermott presented a lecture about comedy, though I can’t remember the title; admittedly there were a lot more gags than gags about gags.
Finally I’ll just mention that most of my own solo shows have been comedy science lectures, with different mixes of the above ingredients. The most “true” to the format were Evolutionary and A Brief History of A Brief History of Time.
Chris Addison is also well known (& probably the catalyst for shows like McClellands) for doing comedy lectures, The Ape That Got Lucky (I think) & there was another I can’t remember the name of. McDermott’s was called Comedyoscopy and no, it wasn’t funny.
I saw the Pirate show and it was really good, but some of the other examples sound like they would be kind of missing the comedy.
[...] ‘cash in’ on the anniversary of Origin of Species with a faux comedy lecture (see Geek Comedy 101: the comedy lecture), you should do your homework, and Nina gets a few things [...]
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