James Acaster joins me this week to talk about writing stand-up comedy. James has filmed five stand-up specials – the first four make up the series Repertoire, available on Netflix, while the most recent, Cold Lasagne Hate Myself 1999, arrived on Vimeo earlier this month. He was also nominated a record-breaking five years in a row for Best Comedy Show at the Edinburgh Fringe, from 2012 to 2016. He talks me through how he writes a set; the structure of stand-up, and the art of a well-placed callback; and how he reconciles the inherently stressful dynamic of his job with his efforts to protect his mental health.

James also wrote the bestselling books James Acaster's Classic Scrapes and Perfect Sound Whatever, which can be found alongside other books by guests of the podcast here: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/in-writing

I'd also recommend Steve Martin's Born Standing Up for anyone interested in the construction of stand-up comedy (even though James has been given three copies of it and still hasn't made it to the end). I can't find it on Bookshop.org so here it is at Waterstones: https://www.waterstones.com/book/born-standing-up/steve-martin/9781847391483

Watch Cold Lasagne Hate Myself 1999 here: https://www.jamesacaster.com/cold-lasagne/

And listen to James's podcasts here:

James Acaster's Perfect Sounds: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p089rgkp

Off Menu with Ed Gamble and James Acaster:

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/off-menu-with-ed-gamble-and-james-acaster/id1442950743?mt=2