Next sessions Monday nights September-November 2024 at Theatre Deli, City of London. Gig on the 28th October, plus follow up session a week later. Full info below.
STAND-UP COMEDY WRITING COURSE
9 x Mondays, 6.30pm - 8.30pm, 9th September - 4th November 2024 New material showcase on 28th October
Weekly sessions @ Theatre Deli, 107 Leadenhall Street, London, EC3A 4AF
A vibrant venue full of creative activity - and a bar!
£250 for the 8 sessions, plus the show
£225 repeat fee (maximum group size = 15) Please note, I can offer instalment payments. Please contact me: chris@chrishead.com
I ran beginners stand-up courses in London for over 15 year and am now running these Stand-up Comedy Writing courses for anyone who wants stand-up writing skills, techniques and inspiration. This feels like a natural progression as I am a comedy writing specialist and work one-to-one on material with all sorts of comics, and students who have attended other stand-up courses often then come to me for a deeper focus on writing.
My Stand-up Comedy Writing Workshops are friendly, supportive and inspiring. The sessions are for you if like to create new material and develop your stand-up writing skills. The course is for:
* Gigging acts,
* stand-up course graduates
* anyone with other kinds of comedy experience
* or anyone who'd like to start stand-up with a real focus on the material. (And is really works for the one or two newbies being amongst people who are gigging already.)
I am a comedy writing specialist and a director so from me you will receive:
* writing techniques, inspiration and a forensic eye on the writing, homing in on how to make material work.
* and a director's perspective on your performance of your material - for the material to really land you need to deliver it well and bring it to life.
For more info read on...
Or contact Chris.
"Hadn't been on stage for a while. Chris's course was a great way to get my creative wheels turning again. Covered a load of ways to create and present your material. Sign up for a Chris Head course NOW. You know you want to." Marco Bellini
Stand-up Comedy Writing Workshops (London)
Across eight Monday evenings you will be guided through a series of inspiring writing exercises and creative prompts. Everyone will get up on the microphone every week, and we'll also look at developing your persona and delivering your material so it works. Plus on the last week you'll do a new material showcase so you can get your work from the course in front of an audience. Then the week after we do a session for feedback on your act and looking ahead to what next for you.
You'll become a sharper, funnier performer, your creativity will be expanded, you'll meet some great people and will have a truly memorable experience.
On the course you will have a weekly forum to try out stuff in front of a friendly and supportive audience of fellow comics who will give you constructive feedback and you will receive notes and direction from leading comedy director and teacher Chris Head. You will explore your comedy persona and develop your voice, in order to inspire material that works for YOU. You'll learn explore fresh angles for coming at material, you'll work with a range of proven techniques for generating ideas and you'll get clear and practical feedback for how to improve your work.
And you can return to the course and do it again as I am always refreshing the content and you will be working on new material.
It's a friendly, supportive space where you'll feel comfortable trying stuff. Each week works like this:
- Everyone gets up on the mic to do an inspiring creative exercise and then later to share material you have been working - so there is no question of being left to just watch (unless you actually wanted to one week).
- often the session begins with a quick writing exercise where you're given a subject, an angle and a technique to play with and you have 5 minutes to write something. Believe it or not, this does produce the beginnings of some good material. Alternatively we do exercises that are more improv in basis that again get you started on ideas.
- then you bring in the material you have been working on outside the class want to share to get feedback from Chris and the group (up to 3 mins each week). There is time to discuss the material with other groups members and Chris writes notes post sessoin.
- then at the end you come up on the mic and do a quick exercise to sow the seeds of new material to work on.
Between the sessions you will be working on a mix of material you started to develop in the sessions and other material you are working on - and as you'll be learning writing techniques you will be drawing on the class even when working on ideas that didn't begin there.
At the end in the showcase, you perform up to 7 minutes of new material.
"Such an excellent stand up course! It's obvious that Chris has been fine tuning it, because the whole thing just works so well. It is very practical, Chris has you on the mic every week, so it's much, much more than just a weekly chat about jokes. A different aspect or style of stand up is covered every week, and the weekly writing homework builds up nicely to the final showcase and the improv games make so much sense! If you're after new material, this course is a brilliant place to turn." Carwyn Blayney
(Carwyn is pictured performing in the end-of-course showcase at the Museum of Comedy)
My style of coaching is particularly suited to enhancing your writing toolkit, inspiring ideas and material, and creating a safe, supportive environment for trying stuff out. (Pictured is student Tallulah Haddon performing at a course showcase gig).
PRESS Note these articles relate to my beginners stand-up class that I ran for over 15 years. The former BBC Arts editor Will Gompertz (then Tate Media director) did my previous beginners stand-up course over 10 years ago and wrote about it in the Guardian and here is an article about the beginners stand-up course and climactic showcase gig from 2019 in the London Evening Standard.
"Just wanted to drop you a note to let you know that following your stand up comedy course - I've gone from “where on earth am I going to get gigs in Peterborough … or anywhere…” to “OMFG!! I’m a semi finalist on ‘So You Think You’re Funny’ at the Edinburgh Fringe …!!??!!#*!" Meena Dhokia
Since the pandemic I have also been running Zoom stand-up writing workshops with comics from all over the world, so I'm delighted to also offer an in person version in London, which runs as a series of sessions leading up to a showcase of the new material produced.
If you are new to my coaching and want a flavour of my approach, I offer stand-up (and other kinds of comedy writing) inspiration on my podcast Q&HA! The Question Tools of Comedy and I occasional make inspiring videos like this one.
Any queries, please contact me.