Doing some Googling about comedy lately I learned about an interesting event in the New Zealand Comedy Festival. It's Stand-Up for Kids.
I found the whole concept surprising because the medium of stand up is such an adult genre in so many ways.
Firstly there's the general incongruity of this world weary genre -- usually performed in smoky bars late at night -- being transplanted to a kid friendly time and environment.
Then there's the fact that so many comics draw a lot of their material from sex and relationships. And if they're more into political satire and observations then they're referring to topical stuff that kids aren't that interested in as a rule. So that severely limits the sheer amount of material the featured comics can draw from to start with.
So if you were one of them you may end up having to write a lot of completely new material. And you wouldn't be able to try it out in advance because the only gigs you'd be doing up to that date would be for adults. Bit of a Catch-22!
Then there's the well established fact that kids can be unruly at the best of times, with much shorter attention spans than adults. Comedian Jamie Bowen describes the challenge:
"It is one of the toughest audiences you can imagine in terms of heckling," he says. "You go out there with the best of intentions to tell a story and it just gets completely derailed. What do you do when you're halfway through a story and it's kind of working, then someone yells out 'you've got poo on your head'?
"If they don't like something, they will tell you straight away. You've got about 30 seconds grace.
You've got to think on your feet."
I'll bet you do!
I found the whole concept surprising because the medium of stand up is such an adult genre in so many ways.
Firstly there's the general incongruity of this world weary genre -- usually performed in smoky bars late at night -- being transplanted to a kid friendly time and environment.
Then there's the fact that so many comics draw a lot of their material from sex and relationships. And if they're more into political satire and observations then they're referring to topical stuff that kids aren't that interested in as a rule. So that severely limits the sheer amount of material the featured comics can draw from to start with.
So if you were one of them you may end up having to write a lot of completely new material. And you wouldn't be able to try it out in advance because the only gigs you'd be doing up to that date would be for adults. Bit of a Catch-22!
Then there's the well established fact that kids can be unruly at the best of times, with much shorter attention spans than adults. Comedian Jamie Bowen describes the challenge:
"It is one of the toughest audiences you can imagine in terms of heckling," he says. "You go out there with the best of intentions to tell a story and it just gets completely derailed. What do you do when you're halfway through a story and it's kind of working, then someone yells out 'you've got poo on your head'?
"If they don't like something, they will tell you straight away. You've got about 30 seconds grace.
You've got to think on your feet."
I'll bet you do!
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