Don’t Be Scared

Seen In: All of them...

The Movies: One thing categorises all stand-up movie heroes – they’re all brave beyond belief.

Whether they’re confronting serious illness (Funny People, Man On The Moon), fighting the system (Lenny) or simply going after their deranged dreams (The King Of Comedy), movie stand-ups generally have guts to spare.

And you’ll need to be brave too if you’re going to make that Bill Hicks biopic you’ve always dreamed about.

Stand-up flicks are few and far between.  Great stand-up flicks are even rarer.

But get it right, and you’ll win the respect and admiration of your friends, family and, with a bit of luck, the Academy.

Real Life: Jimmy Carr’s book on comedy, The Naked Jape, puts it best:

“Being on stage at a comedy club is a nightmarish amplification of that moment  at a dinner party when you’ve just launched into a spicy little anecdote and you suddenly realise the whole room has gone quiet. Everyone else is not only listening to you, but judging you too and you have no choice but to plough wildly on with your story.”

Performing stand-up comedy is an absolutely terrifying experience. But it’s one we’ll never forget. Not least because we ended up winning the clapometer contest.

Yep, your resident Total Film internet comedian took home the top prize. A couple of days later, on BBC 6Music, we were labelled a ‘Deadpan genius.’

But then, on the same radio show, our mentor Micky Flanagan also said: “I knew he’d do well because he looked funny and he had a funny way about him.”

So, stand-up comedy. Do it, and you’ll get laughs, public acclaim and, eventually, you might even get called a weirdo on national radio.

One thing's for sure, you'll have fun doing it.

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