A Fathomless Submersion into Stand-up (Plus Men Acting Like Pigeons)
- Chris Head
- 13 hours ago
- 4 min read
My August 2026 newsletter
Hi all,
My desire not to avoid the overused phrase "deep dive" led to me coining "profound plunge" which I debuted in my new book The Complete Comedy Script Toolkit. (Just one place left by the way on my upcoming live Zoom couse where you will Write Your TV Comedy Script in six weeks. And I do one-to-one script coaching too)
I do like 'profound plunge' but, for this newsletter I wanted to debut a new phrase to describe the depths I'm going to in my analysis of stand-up in my new FREE weekly Substack.
With the help of Thesarus dot com, I hereby announce that I am taking fathomless submersion into stand-up every week. See the image above for the growing library of stand-up techniques and inspiration I'm setting out for you. Read it all here.
If anything, however, 'fathomless submersion' sounds a bit terrifying so I don't think I'll be making a habit of using it. Anyone got any better ideas for an alternative to 'deep dive?' Subterranean belly flop?
ZOOM STAND-UP COMEDY WRITING GENERATION GROUP
To furnish me with stuff to write about each week, I take a subterranean belly flop into the now big archive on my hard drive of all the online stand-up comdy writing sessions I've done with comics from all over the place on Zoom.
Every class is different you see so I've got a lot to draw on now. I'm looking forward to finding out what we'll be exploring this time as the clips are selected by the group. And we also analyse and discuss clips of YOU doing stand-up, as well as working on your writing each week.
5 x 2 hour sessions on Zoom, 7pm-9pm UK time
Monday 14th September 2026 - 12th October 2026
£135 (repeat fee £125)
TAKE YOUR STAND-UP TO THE NEXT LEVEL
Plus applications are open now for gigging comics to apply for this new online and live in London course to take your act to the next level! The course doesn't end in a showcase.... it ends in a PAID GIG.
Aisling Bea talks about Irish Flirting
An excerpt from last Monday's Substack
Aisling Bea discusses flirting and dating in her native Ireland. The comedy comes from noting that Irish-style flirting often has a mocking, banter aspect to it - and really exaggerating that. She says:
“In Ireland we practice this ancient mating ritual - called sneering each other”.
This opening line has some nice misdirection:
“In Ireland we practice this ancient mating ritual…”
That’s the set-up. It sounds like anthropology. It’s then undercut with by the end of the line: "...called sneering each other.” Which undercuts the highfalutin opening. (I note on the Netflix video that this line doesn’t get a laugh from the US audience but this is definitely a strong line that I imagine usually gets a good response.)
She goes on to explain how it’s very hard to tell if someone Irish is flirting with you or just being genuinely abusive. (Which is a vivid way of putting it). She promises to the answer this conundrum, but this is again misdirection as she then abruptly reveals “YOU CAN’T!”
Bea then goes on to imagine an exchange where one Irish women is telling another about a date she’d had. She says that on her date with an Irish man, he’d said that…
“…I was probably barren because I’d been ridden around the town that many times. I was like the village bicycle. And instead of eggs, I had like tumbleweeds tumbling through my womb.”
The friend asks how she responded and she says:
“Well, I said to him that his penis is so small that condoms won’t actually fit over it. So instead, what you have to do is you have to take a vitamin E capsule and cut it in half and then squeeze out all the oil out of that vitamin E capsule and then put that over his penis. And even then you’d still be able to fit your pinky around the circumference of it”.
Here Bea is conjuring strong comic visual images. The friend responds:
“Oh my god and so what’s happening?”
The appalled ‘oh my god’ helps make the following line more suprising (and so more funny) when the friend responds:
“We’re moving in together. I really really like him.”
Coming on Monday - Billy Connolly's beloved 'toboggan' bit - includes video anaylsis!
SKETCH COMEDY COURSE IN STROUD! (AND IN LONDON - BUT IN THE PAST)
From 2015 I think this is Hector, Jason and Lawrence (sorry if my memory is faulty 11 years on) acting as pigeons in a sketch at the Hen & Chickens in London at the end of my comedy sketch show course!
They called it "That Show Thing". As you can see I've just found some photos from that show. It's quite clear what's happening in the following one featuring I think Andrea, Jenny and Lawrence... (Jason? Sorry it's been a while). Whoever he is, the man is evidently not happy. If you are in Stroud (or can get there) I'm doing another live sketch show course 11 years on this autumn!
I've got no idea what was happening in this sketch! Anyone got any ideas?
STROUD SKETCH SHOW COURSE
If you are in Stroud (or can get here easily enough on a Wednesday night) and you fancy a laugh putting together a bunch of comedy sketches to share in a rehearsed reading, check out the details below. You might even get to play a pigeon. 7pm-9pm, Wednesday nights, 9th Sept 2026 - 7th Oct 2026
£97.50
HOW COMEDY SKETCHES WORK
If you can't make the course but want a subaqueous dip into comedy sketch writing check out my How Comedy Sketches Work blog from 2016 (recently tweaked).
ZOOM ONE-TO-ONE COACHING SESSIONS
A couple of times lately on Zoom, I’ve coached stand-up comics who felt they were being too nice to really get a big laugh. The audience DO have to like you to laugh, but that doesn’t mean you have to be straightforwardly nice. Instead be nice… not nice… nice…. For example:
* Start off friendly.
* Pivot to something aggressive.
* Snap back to friendly.
* Drop something dark. etc…
THE 'BUTTON' BUTTON
And finally, below is the return of the 'Button' button. What will it take you to?
chris@chrishead.com 07814962687
