Contradictions, Extremes & Likeability in Your Stand-up Persona
- Chris Head
- Feb 6
- 4 min read
Updated: 4 days ago
I have a two part comedy class on Zoom where I work with stand-ups on identifying and developing their persona (next dates February 23rd/ March 2nd). In the above video you can see the class in action where a group of fellow comedians analyse a stand-ups persona in the online session.
Here are some of the key takeaways around complexity, extremes, likeability and layers in your comic persona:
What is your stand-up persona? Your stand-up persona is likely to be heightened, exaggerated version of yourself, rather than a completely fictional character (but see below for adopting a character act!). A strong persona has layers and is not one-note. It's about combining seemingly contradictory traits, such as being serious with the silly or presenting as a grown-up with a deep childishness underneath. The goal is to find the range and different registers within your character and avoid staying in one attitude or one emotion all the way through.
How does knowing my stand-up persona help with writing? The more clearly you understand your stage persona, the better you will be able to write material for yourself. Even if the persona is a version of you, you have a character you are writing for. This provides a useful detachment when crafting jokes, allowing you to consider, "How would my persona react to this topic?" A clearly defined persona helps the audience get what the game is—understanding the specific comedic lens through which you view the world.
How does the audience experience my persona? A clear persona helps the audience get what the game is that you’re playing; what extremes you’re pushing, what you’re satirising or sending up (about yourself and others) or what incongruous or extreme positions you’re taking. A persona is revealed through attitude, physicality, tone of voice. It can also be revealed through a playfulness with language: a nice use of language, and a surprising turn of phrase. Even a very tight one-liner joke can be highly revealing of persona, demonstrating that the audience will be reading you on the level of persona, joke by joke, from the moment you step on stage.
What parts of myself can I bring to my persona? You can find comedy in exaggerating the "unskilful or unattractive parts" of yourself (e.g., being awkward, angry, or shameless). Struggle can also be a big part of your persona. I often find that the things a comedian is personally struggling with off-stage (recent examples include "negative self-talk" or a frustration with feeling compelled to be rude) can become the funny thing on stage. The struggle can be a really big part of the persona.
What about likeability? You can play against likeability; setting yourself up as deliberately dislikeable. But ironically the audience will need to like that if they are to laugh! More commonly the positive aspects of your persona will be why the audience like you and the negatives why they find you funny. Identifying and switching between clear positive and negative emotional or attitudinal extremes (e.g., likeable and indignant, sweet and dark/sarcastic) is a powerful tool for comedy writing and performance. The positive side is in effect misdirection which is undercut when the negative hits.
How can knowing these extremes help create funny moments? Once the extremes are established (e.g., sweet and innocent vs. crude and cutting), the key is to continually play with those extremes throughout the act by "flipping to the opposite." For example, starting from a "warm and pleasant" or "appropriate and thoughtful" place, which switches to a "darker or more unpleasant" extreme is a naturally funny rhythm while also demonstrating the different sides of your persona. This "rug pull" or misdirection, is the act of making the audience believe your attitude is warm or positive, but then revealing that your attitude is the opposite of the initial impression.
How do I set up my persona/ character with the audience? I had the pleasure of working with Simon McBurney recently and he talked about the start of the show “planting bombs". It is essential to demonstrate these extremes to the audience within the opening 30 seconds of your set. Showing a glimpse of an extreme early on, plants a bomb" that can detonate later. For example, if your persona is generally friendly but you have dark or shocking material, you must still establish both the friendly and dark extremes early on. (On a side note, if you’re dark material doesn’t sit well with your warm persona, you can attribute the crude/dark comments to a fictitious third party, like a friend or relative, so your own persona can react to them.)
What if I perform stand-up in character? All of the above still applies, but to the character. And even fictional characters often include something of the comic themselves they're bringing to the character. There are two distinct ways to perform a character: Firstly, the character can be performed in a heightened way that so the audience knows it can't be anything else but a character, like Joe Kent-Walters as Frankie Monroe or (in a more naturalistic style) Rosie Holt as a Tory MP. Alternatively, the act can be performed in a way where the audience often aren’t aware it’s a character on stage, like Simon Brodkin as Lee Nelson.
The key takeaways for developing a stand-up comedy persona that we explore in the sessions, based revolve around defining the character's extremes and playing with those contrasts to create surprise and depth.
Next dates of the Zoom classes are February 23rd/ March 2nd 2026
