PARKING INSPECTORS AND COMEDIANS have one thing in common – abuse from the general public. No matter how good your jokes, no matter how many friends you have in the audience, one day you will receive a heckle. Hecklers fall into two categories – they criticise your joke, or they get personal, and criticise you. But be warned, regardless of their …
YOU KNOW EACH JOKE BY HEART. You’ve practiced a hundred times. But still, there you are, staring at the sea of faces from the stage, with a metaphorical tumbleweed rolling through your head. Crap! You’ve got an acute case of stage fright. Stand-up comedian and School of Hard Knock Knocks co-founder, Ben Horowitz, knows the feeling. As an ex-boxer that’s been smacked …
THERE’S MANY WAYS TO write a joke. At the School of Hard Knock Knocks stand-up comedy course, we teach three. The one that we’ll share on this blog, is our favourite joke structure – the Normal-Normal-Twist. The Normal-Normal-Twist takes the audience on a familiar journey and then suddenly zigs sideways, with a surprise. And no, we didn’t invent this. It’s been …
THE SHORT ANSWER IS ‘NO’ – unless you have a twin and your dad’s name surname is Nelson. But we weren’t talking literally, were we? We were talking metaphorically – could you be the next hot stand-up comedy act out of Australia? Well, Yes. Possibly. So what do you need to make it big? Well, firstly you don’t need to be …
BUNGEE JUMPING, PARACHUTING and stand-up comedy. These are possibly the three most legally terrifyingly activities that one can do today, and yet, with the Melbourne International Comedy Festival in full swing, the city is crawling with hundreds of comic masochists. So what makes them do it? What makes someone leave a perfectly safe seat, climb onto a stage, grab a microphone …
THERE’S THREE TYPES OF PEOPLE who enrol in a stand-up comedy course, at the School of Hard Knock Knocks here in Melbourne. Those that want to be a stand-up comedian, those that have a bucket list to tick off, and upcoming best man speech givers. It’s not difficult to fill up our stand-up comedy classes with budding comedians. Melbourne, after …
THERE’S A STATUE OF BURKE AND WILLS at the corner of Collins and Swanston Streets, right next to the Melbourne Town Hall – the centre of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Burke and Wills are famous for not only going where no European Australians had travelled before, but for seriously over-packing, and under-preparing. Nineteen men, 23 horses and 26 camels set off …
IF YOU ARE READING THIS, then chances are you like, nay, you love stand-up comedy. You love its rawness, its randomness, combined with the closeness you feel, of having a one-on-one conversation. But this is what you don’t know about this odd profession: 1. It’s old! Stand-up comedy began in the 18th century! We’re in the 21st century now, which means …
JOIN VETERAN COMEDIAN, BEN HOROWITZ on March 20 to 24, at the Limerick Arms Hotel, in South Melbourne for five days of stand-up comedy training that culminates in your very own five-minute stand-up comedy performance. Guest comedians, Chris Franklin and Mr. Alabama will also be joining the course, to share their insights into the comedy career, and show the students exactly …