A comedian's stage persona is often very different from how they are in "real life". I know one comedian who is really vivacious and friendly, but his comedy style is deadpan and on stage he portrays himself as a neurotic intravert. Another guy I know is the opposite - intense and serious off-stage, carefree and whimsical on-stage.
An identifiable stage character will create the right context for my material. For instance, Jimmy Carr's character is an impeccably well-dressed, well-spoken, slightly superior, middle-class Englishman. In real life Jimmy has a strong Glaswegian accent and his father was a docker.
OK I made that last bit up, but Jimmy isn't as posh as he makes out - it just allows him to tell jokes like: I'm middle class, but I'm hard. Al dente, you might say.
OK I made that last bit up, but Jimmy isn't as posh as he makes out - it just allows him to tell jokes like: I'm middle class, but I'm hard. Al dente, you might say.
As Tony Cannelloni, I had this sorted. Character comedy allows you to very quickly establish your character's angle and let's the audience know where you're coming from. When Tony says he has sung in all the great venues, you know he probably means the Labour Club and the Britsh Legion. But doing it without the wig and the medallion is a bit more tricky. I don't really know who Sam Brady is yet, and this makes it more difficult to write material.
Anyway, to get to the point... I went around Oxford yesterday looking in charity shops for clothes, asking myself, how does Sam the stand-up dress? Who is this guy?
I was getting nowhere really and then I passed a Specsavers. I went in and tried on some glasses. And I think it worked. Suddenly a new Sam was peering back at me in the mirror.
I said to the bemused assistant, "If you have perfect vision but you still want glasses, does it make them cheaper?" Eventually we established that it doesn't.
I'm not sure about the glasses or anything else yet. But I feel a new Sam is about to emerge soon, like an alien from the belly of a space station engineer.
If you have any thoughts about who Sam is, let me know.
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3 comments:
Sam, I have thought about this a lot since I first read it. A hellavalot. I have lots of ideas of about who Sam is. They are not worth shit because they are about me being Sam and not you.
You know who Sam is. He isn't designed by committee - he is your creation and yours alone. For me to to suggest some crap would be to dilute who Sam is (glasses or not!).
Right or wrong, commercial success or failure, he is your creation and I (for one) am looking forward to seeing what emerges from the station engineer's belly (so long as it is funny!!!).
Here is the thing: it doesn't matter (to quote Kurt Vonnegut) a flying fuck at a rolling doughnut whether you become a comedy legend or not - its the journey what matters and I for one am along or the ride. Just go for it, do what you think is funny and let the stupid arses in the audience wank themselves in to a frenzy or not - so long as you are doing what you think is worth doing.
Er, excuse me, guys, I AM the original SAM BRADY, the ORACLE TV critic from the 1990s and '90s. So, dear Sam the comedian, were you aware of my existence when you chose to launch a stand-up career as Sam Brady (with or without glasses!). I really don't mind if you did, and I wish you well with your comedy stuff, but as I also occasionally appear in comedy clubs as Sam Brady, it could get confusing!
Hi Sam
No I wasn't aware of your existence until now.
I'm not that surprised as its a fairly common name.
It hasn't been a problem for either of us so far so I don't see why it has to be a big deal.
You say you used to be a TV critic, what you up to these days?
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