Exercise 1

Read the following job description. What job does it describe?

We are searching for a self-aware Responsibilities:

person to execute side-splitting acts. • Researching current topics,
They will be required to research audience interests, and trends
relatable phenomena, write engaging in comedy.
material, and then deliver hilarious • Writing witty, captivating, and
performances. In this process, you memorable comedic content.
should harness the audience's • Memorising your written and
experiences to ensure memorability. choreographed content.
• Testing audiovisual devices
To ensure success, you should before every show.
maintain an amicable, accessible • Performing lightly and heavily
relationship with viewers. Ultimately, scripted plus improvisational
a superb candidate will be able to content.
laugh at and draw on their own • Conversing with viewers after
experiences. your comedic performances.



Exercise 2
Work in pairs and discuss the questions.

1. Do you like stand-up comedy? Why?

2. Do you have a favourite stand-up

comedian?

3. What is the secret of stand-up comedy

in your opinion? Why is it so popular?

Exercise 3
Read a couple of statements about stand-up
comedians.
Are they true or false in your opinion?

1. You need to have a degree to become

a comedian. - _______

2. There is a high chance of becoming a successful stand-up

comedian at the moment. - _______

3. Comedians don’t usually have a big team working for them and
earn a lot of money. - _______

4. Comedians spend most of their time on the road. - _______

Exercise 4
Read the article and check if your answers in Exercise 3 are correct.

The Fascinating Life of Comedians

Comedians come in all forms and shapes.
There is no formal education or speci c
course work you need to take in order to
become a comedian, and I have met
comedians that were high school dropouts
on one hand, and others that hold a PhD
degree on the other. Their level of formal
education tells us nothing about how good
they are as comedians.

Many people want to become a comedian,

but very few succeed or have the endurance
to overcome failures. Stand-up comedy is a
very competitive eld with little job security.
You might be considered a great comedian
today, but nothing guarantees that the
audience will love you tomorrow. Or next
month. Each performance on stage is unique
with its own interaction with the crowd. Jokes that put the audience on the oor
one night, may not work the next night at the same club.

There are di erent levels of comedians. If you are an aspiring comedian you
might want to submit a video of your act to a local comedy club. Most clubs hold
amateur nights where basically anyone can come and perform on stage for 2-3
minutes. If you are good, you might be invited to become an opener for a show.
An opener performs the rst act that usually lasts between 10-15 minutes. He or
she also serves as the emcee for the evening. These are comedians in the early
stages of their career, and they usually receive very little compensation, if any. If
you are good as an opener (and that might take several years to master), you
could advance to the next level and become the feature guy. These are
experienced comedians that have been in the business for several years, and
their act is usually about half an hour. The next level is the headliner, the guy that
is advertised in all the billboards by the club prior to the show. He or she
performs between an hour to an hour and a half. It might take 15-20 years to
become a headliner, and most comedians will not reach that level of success. But
if you become one, you are at the pinnacle of the comedy profession (as far as
comedy clubs, at least).



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sapiens/201306/the-fascinating-life-comedians
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 This is a typical setting for a comedy club. Of course, if you are Chris Rock or
Ricky Gervais, you often perform in huge venues, and then there is usually just an
opener before you go on stage. Nonetheless, even very successful comedians
such as Jerry Seinfeld, cannot come up with an hour of material without testing it
on smaller crowds. They will often go and perform short acts of new material in
small comedy clubs, many times without any advertisement for their appearance
as they build their way into a full act (you can see how it unfolds with Seinfeld in
the movie “Comedian”).

Besides the grueling career that is awaiting the comedians, their everyday is not
easy, either. Most comedians do not have agents to manage their career and
have to do everything by themselves. That means that they have to promote
themselves, book their shows with the club managers, write and practice their
materials, all of this while getting relatively low pay and often have to work at
another job. It might take an average of 10-15 years for a comedian to be able to
live o of comedy alone. And they have to do all of this without union support, as
there is no guild for comedians. Heck, there isn’t even a list of all clubs and
comedians that allows managers and comedians to connect with each other.
Reputation is key, and if you are a good comedian, club managers will spread the
word about you to other managers, who will then invite you to perform in their
clubs.

Oh, and did I mention the extensive travel involved? To succeed in the business
you must travel a lot. It is one thing to be funny in front of your friends or at a
friendly club where everyone knows you, but it is a di erent thing to go on the
road and perform in front of new crowds that have never heard of you and have a
completely di erent demographic. For example, older and more traditional
audiences can have completely di erent tastes than young and liberal ones.
Great comedians will know to adjust and succeed almost everywhere, but this
takes time and experience. Many comedians will travel between 40-50 weeks a
year, usually performing Thursday to Sunday (staying often at a not so pleasant
condo owned by the club to save money). These half week at home, half week on
the road schedules make it very di cult to sustain a home life or another job. And
imagine how hard it is to maintain a steady relationship with so much traveling.
You sometimes wonder why the hell people want to become a comedian in the
rst place!

Exercise 5
Read the article again and complete the table.

Experience Performance duration

Opener
Feature guy
Headliner

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Exercise 6
Match the sentences and the rules.
A. 1. used when referring to something that
1. You might be considered a great always or usually happens - ______
comedian today, but nothing guarantees
that the audience will love you tomorrow. B. 2. used to refer to what is likely - ______

2. If you are a good comedian, club C. 3. used in conditional sentences with ‚if‘
managers will spread the word - ______
about you to other managers.

3. Many comedians will travel

between 40-50 weeks a year, usually Write 3 more sentences about comedians
performing Thursday to Sunday. using "will" in 3 di erent ways.

Exercise 7
Match the beginning and endings of the phrases.
Check you understand the phrases.

1. Come in all - ___

A. forms and shapes

2. At the pinnacle - ___

B. to overcome failures

3. Sustain - ___
C. the oor

4. Have endurance - ___

D. the next level

5. Advance to - ___
E. level of success

6. Reach the - ___

F. of the career

7. Put on - ___
G. career

8. Spread - ___
H. of comedy

9. Live o - ___
I. the word

10. Gruelling - ___

J. a home life

11. A steady- ___

K. relationship

Exercise 8
Read the information about 3 famous stand-up comedians and
replace the phrases in italics with some phrases from Exercise 7.

Imran Yusuf created 5 solo shows

and levelled up with side-splitting
jokes. His talent is versatile since
he’s not only a comedian but also
works in game design and takes part
in various TV shows.
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 Elon Gold started his career in the
1990s and was determined
enough to handle the failures
and now is considered one of the
most talented comedians.

Trevor Noah is a South African

comedian who makes the
audience laugh at his every
show. He also hosts one of the
best TV shows and lives o of his
TV and comedy career.

Exercise 9
Work in pairs and discuss the following questions.

1. Is it possible to learn a language using stand-up 


shows? If yes, how?

2. Do you think languages are a funny topic to discuss?

What might be funny about languages?

Exercise 10
Read the names of the performances you’re going to watch.
Try to predict the jokes the comedians might use.

Exercise 11
What is the correct pronunciation of these words? Watch Imran Yusuf’s
performance and check if you would pass Imran’s British Citizenship Test.

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Come up with your own British Citizenship Test.

Think of 5 words that are di cult for you to pronounce!
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Exercise 12
Match the beginnings of Trevor’s jokes with their endings.
Then, watch his performance and check your answers.

1. When I speak German, - ____

A. in the world of German anythings.

2. The only hiccup was, - ____

B. Oh, the clown, yeah!

3. I don’t rank that high - ____

C. it turned out I downloaded some of
4. I’m a stand-up comedian. - ____
Hitler’s speeches.

5. I was so happy. She said Hitler - ____ D. sometimes I sound distinctly Hitlerish.

E. but at least she said I was black.

Exercise 13
Watch Elon Gold’s performance and complete the table.

they are strange because…

English accent
Russian accent
Israeli accent
French accent
Spanish accent
Russian language

Japanese language

French language

Exercise 14
Discuss the questions.

• Rank the performances from the best to the worst.

Explain your choice.

• What is your favourite joke from these performances?