Gurus of Comedy

Alfie runs the We Are Funny Project, which provides comprehensive online courses and 1-to-1 coaching sessions for stand-up comedians at all levels of experience.

And content can also be found on their YouTube channel.

Alfie was on previously to discuss open mics

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Delighted to welcome to the show, Lu Williams. Lu is a Londoner who now calls Chester in the Noth of England home and it is also where she performs and runs a room or two through CSHQ, which organises rooms in the Machester/Wales area.

Lu gives her experiences of how comedy works in the UK and how she finds performing up North instead of her native London. Unlike Ireland, performing rooms have reopened in the UK and people there are making their tentative steps back into the small, intimate rooms where comedy roars! Dave tries to blag a gig, as usual!

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This episode we have guest, Adam Freeman, President of Creative at Thinkfactory Media, to discuss his experiences producing unscripted TV for MTV. What is unscripted TV, well we get into it! Adam helped produce TV shows including Total Request Live, Mama June: From Not to Hot and Gene Simmons Family Jewels.

Adam is also a standup and is venturing out back into the world of live performing … Indoors!

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This episodes we welcome back to the show Mark Williamson. We discuss Australian sketch shows which were responsible for launching the likes of Eric Bana and Kath and Kim.

Dave and Mark get distracted by Sydney property prices, it just happens!

Mark can be found twitter and his satirical news site, The (un)Australian.

• Fast Forward
• Full Frontal
• Big Girls Blouse
• Rosehaven
• Bondi Hipsters
• Mr Black

The post Australian Sketch Comedy appeared first on Gurus of Comedy.

This week we welcome Floridian Derek Taylor Shayne.

Derek discusses the slapstick movies that he produces and releases online from his website DTS Entertainment. Or as Dave calls them Fil-lims!

We get into the genius behind Rowan Atkinson and Mr Bean and how Dereks production technique was lockdown ready long before the word lockdown became an everyday word.

If you want to checkout Derek’s work you can find it where you find Roku, just type DTS.

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This episode we are joined by London based stand-up comedy MC and room runner  Alfie Noakes.

We discuss what is an Open Mic in the comedy world, from the beginners starting out to the training ground of the big comics.  Why it is a controversial, but also a very important space.  Both Alfie and Dave have spent many years plugging their trade around the open mic scene and bring some fascinating insight into that world, every lesson learnt the hard way, a room full of people staring back blankly when what was supposed to be funny, wasn’t!

Alfie also runs the We Are Funny Project, which provides comprehensive online courses and 1-to-1 coaching sessions for stand-up comedians at all levels of experience.

And content can also be found on their YouTube channel.

Alfie has just released a teaser of his new course “How to be a Brilliant Stand-Up Comedy MC” on his channel, until May 4th. It will be available again later in the year with the course for aspiring or new comedians with a £60 discount for the bundle.

Alfie has also promised to release a long lost Bill Hicks interview when the channel reaches 1000 subscribers, lets get subscribing.

You can also find some Chortle articles written by Alfie here:

Comedy must be diverse to counter Trump’s divisions

Feminist backlash shuts down ‘free speech’ gig

Enough with the faux outrage

The post Open Mic Comedy appeared first on Gurus of Comedy.

In this episode we welcome to the show New York based stand-up Shaun Eli.

Shaun tells us about the New York stand up scene both pre and post covid.  He also discusses writing for Jay Leno opening monologues back in the 90s, performing in 5 continents (not 7, yet), the ripeness of Netflix specials, auditioning for the first Last Comics Standing, Woke/Cancel Culture and his views on the Simpsons recasting.

We also consult with Shaun on his Irish sounding name, at least it is not Declan and you can find him on his website, BrainChampagne.com.

The post New York Comedy Scene appeared first on Gurus of Comedy.

This episode we go old school, literally.  We are joined by comic Mabel Slattery to discuss medieval comedy and Mikhail Bakhtin and his Carnival Theory, we get into some interesting ideas like Humour Theory, Robin Hood, Sumptuary Laws, Secular Lyrics of the XIVth and XVth Centuries,  Richard Hill Commonplace Book, Chaucer’s Knight Tale and just having a bit of craic!

And here is a snip from the poem Mabel quoted, is it an medieval MC? you decide!

Sir, what say ye with your fat face?

And some Monty Python

The post Medieval Comedy and Bakhtin’s Carnival Theory appeared first on Gurus of Comedy.

After a hiatus WE’RE BACK!

In this episode we are delighted to welcome back to the show Russian comic, Denis Nikolin.

With pandemic lockdowns and worldwide vaccination drives, it is even crazier in Russia, where there are protest and people being detained over the handling of opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

Denis discusses how it is getting harder to write comedy when the world decides it wants to get crazier than the punchlines he’s writing.

Denis is also working on some comedy videos released online, you can find him at “Buttfuck Russia“, careful googling that, I wasn’t!

Denis previously featured on the Russian Comedy episode, check it out here!

The post Russian Protests appeared first on Gurus of Comedy.

On this episode we got two Icelandic comedians, Eyvindur Karlsson and Þórhallur Þórhallsson, also just known as Thor as Dave was too confused by the first one. The guys come on an explain how a country as small of Iceland can have a volcano that no one else on the planet can pronounce.  They also discuss the state of comedy in Iceland and explain to Dave what a Belly Brother in Law is …

From Wikipeida, so they must be right!

Eyjafjallajökull

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