Craft & career: resources for comedians
Step-by-step guides for anyone who wants to make alternative comedy, from a first open mic to a self-released special.
The comedians we write about elsewhere on this site all started the same way: five minutes, a microphone and a room that may not have been listening. This section is for the people who want to be next. These guides are practical, specific and honest about the unglamorous parts: the mic lists, the bad sets, the spreadsheets, the cost of an Edinburgh run and the work of getting a recording onto platforms.
If you're starting from zero, read how to start in alternative comedy, then how to find open mics and the comedy writing techniques toolkit. Further along? Jump to writing a Fringe hour, self-releasing a special or booking a tour.
Getting started
How to Start in Alt Comedy
Your first mic, your first five minutes, your first bomb and what to do the morning after. A practical route into the weirder end of stand-up.
How to Find Comedy Open Mics
Open mic lists go stale within weeks, so instead of a list that will be wrong by spring, here is how comedians actually find mics in any city, where to start in the major alt scenes, and how to behave once you're there.
Alternative Comedy Writing
Breaking the rules is the easy part. The hard part is knowing which rule, and why the audience will thank you for breaking it.
Comedy Writing Techniques
Fourteen named tools that sit under most jokes, sketches and bits, from the rule of three to reverse-world logic, each with an original example and an exercise.
How to Workshop Material
No bit arrives finished. Here's the loop working comedians use to turn a half-idea into something that works every night: try it, record it, change one thing, try it again.
Improv Comedy: History, Forms & Schools
From a social worker's theatre games in 1930s Chicago to Dropout's improv specials: how comedy made up on the spot became one of the most important training grounds in entertainment.
Making and releasing work
How to Write a Fringe Hour
A Fringe hour isn't five club sets glued together. It's one idea, held for fifty-odd minutes, that ends somewhere the audience didn't see coming.
How to Record a Comedy Album
An album is the most forgiving way to release an hour, and the least forgiving of a bad room. Here's how to capture the laughs, edit the takes and get it heard.
How to Self-Release a Special
Netflix isn't calling, and that might be fine. How comedians shoot their own hour, pick a platform and get it in front of people who'll actually watch.
How to Start a Comedy Podcast
The microphone is the easy part. The hard part is a format someone can describe in one sentence and a release schedule you can keep for a year.
Comedy Production Guide
Most alternative comedy is produced by the comedians themselves. A practical guide to the unglamorous skills that make shows feel good: rooms, running orders, microphones, cameras and edits.
How to Book a Comedy Tour
Most comedians' first tours are booked from a spreadsheet and a lot of polite emails. Here's how to do it without losing money, friends or your voice.
Career, business and community
How Comedians Make Money
Almost no comedian lives on one income stream. Here is how the money actually works, from the unpaid open mic to the self-released special, and why owning your audience now matters more than any single deal.
The Economics of Alt Comedy
Alternative comedy has always been subsidised by someone: the bar, the performer, the student, the platform. An analysis of where the money comes from, where it goes, and what that does to the work.
Comedy Writing Opportunities
There's no single front door into comedy writing. Here are the real routes, from studio fellowships and BBC open calls to late-night packets, sketch teams and humor sites, and what each actually asks of you.
The Comedy Festival Guide
Open-access marathon or curated showcase? Industry market or fan party? How the major comedy festivals differ, what they cost, and how to get the most from them as an audience member or a performer.
Alt Comedy Events & Festival Calendar
The best alternative comedy rarely shows up on the big ticket sites' front pages. Here's when the major festivals happen each year, and how to find the weird, brilliant shows happening near you this week.
Why Comedy Partners Work
From Nichols and May to Tim and Eric, much of the best comedy has two or more authors. What great duos, troupes and writing teams have in common, and how to collaborate without falling out.
Find Your Alt Comedy Community
Alternative comedy has always been made by small groups of people who found each other. Whether you want to watch it or make it, here is how to find your people, and what to do if your town doesn't have any yet.
How Comedians Learn
Nobody needs a degree to be funny. But almost every working comedian learned somewhere: in a training centre, a writers' room, a stack of books or a thousand bad open mics. Here is how each route works.
Everything in Craft & Career
- Improv Comedy: History, Forms & SchoolsFrom a social worker's theatre games in 1930s Chicago to Dropout's improv specials: how comedy made up on the spot became one of the most important training grounds in entertainment.
- How Comedians Make MoneyAlmost no comedian lives on one income stream. Here is how the money actually works, from the unpaid open mic to the self-released special, and why owning your audience now matters more than any single deal.
- How to Start in Alt ComedyYour first mic, your first five minutes, your first bomb and what to do the morning after. A practical route into the weirder end of stand-up.
- How to Start a Comedy PodcastThe microphone is the easy part. The hard part is a format someone can describe in one sentence and a release schedule you can keep for a year.
- How to Write a Fringe HourA Fringe hour isn't five club sets glued together. It's one idea, held for fifty-odd minutes, that ends somewhere the audience didn't see coming.
- How Comedians LearnNobody needs a degree to be funny. But almost every working comedian learned somewhere: in a training centre, a writers' room, a stack of books or a thousand bad open mics. Here is how each route works.
- Alt Comedy Events & Festival CalendarThe best alternative comedy rarely shows up on the big ticket sites' front pages. Here's when the major festivals happen each year, and how to find the weird, brilliant shows happening near you this week.
- Alternative Comedy WritingBreaking the rules is the easy part. The hard part is knowing which rule, and why the audience will thank you for breaking it.
- Comedy Production GuideMost alternative comedy is produced by the comedians themselves. A practical guide to the unglamorous skills that make shows feel good: rooms, running orders, microphones, cameras and edits.
- Comedy Writing OpportunitiesThere's no single front door into comedy writing. Here are the real routes, from studio fellowships and BBC open calls to late-night packets, sketch teams and humor sites, and what each actually asks of you.
- Comedy Writing TechniquesFourteen named tools that sit under most jokes, sketches and bits, from the rule of three to reverse-world logic, each with an original example and an exercise.
- Find Your Alt Comedy CommunityAlternative comedy has always been made by small groups of people who found each other. Whether you want to watch it or make it, here is how to find your people, and what to do if your town doesn't have any yet.
- How to Book a Comedy TourMost comedians' first tours are booked from a spreadsheet and a lot of polite emails. Here's how to do it without losing money, friends or your voice.
- How to Find Comedy Open MicsOpen mic lists go stale within weeks, so instead of a list that will be wrong by spring, here is how comedians actually find mics in any city, where to start in the major alt scenes, and how to behave once you're there.
- How to Record a Comedy AlbumAn album is the most forgiving way to release an hour, and the least forgiving of a bad room. Here's how to capture the laughs, edit the takes and get it heard.
- How to Self-Release a SpecialNetflix isn't calling, and that might be fine. How comedians shoot their own hour, pick a platform and get it in front of people who'll actually watch.
- How to Workshop MaterialNo bit arrives finished. Here's the loop working comedians use to turn a half-idea into something that works every night: try it, record it, change one thing, try it again.
- The Comedy Festival GuideOpen-access marathon or curated showcase? Industry market or fan party? How the major comedy festivals differ, what they cost, and how to get the most from them as an audience member or a performer.
- The Economics of Alt ComedyAlternative comedy has always been subsidised by someone: the bar, the performer, the student, the platform. An analysis of where the money comes from, where it goes, and what that does to the work.
- Why Comedy Partners WorkFrom Nichols and May to Tim and Eric, much of the best comedy has two or more authors. What great duos, troupes and writing teams have in common, and how to collaborate without falling out.