Comics have their roots in comedy – the evidence is in the name. From early woodcut manga to the newspaper strips of the 1890s, people have made use of the joke-telling power of combining words and pictures for centuries. Even today, in the age of the graphic novel, where comics explore heartbreaking true stories and gripping dramas – the humorous potential of the medium still draws those who want to make people laugh.
I do! It’s the impulse that brings me to the dingy, beautiful rooms above London’s pubs a non-sensible number of nights per week. I moved to London to perform comedy five years ago, and the highs and lows of that experience have been addictive. Nothing gets your heart racing like holding an audience’s attention – nothing except dying brutally in front of them as joke after joke finds nothing but silence. There is perhaps no activity with a risk/reward ratio for your self-esteem quite so brutal as standup comedy. And the fascinating world of people who get up and embarrass themselves after work night after night is something worth capturing.
