How to MC Stand-up Comedy with Brad Oakes

Designed for comedy hosts, comperes and corporate MCs, this practical course teaches participants how to take control of a room and create the conditions for audiences and performers to succeed.
A great MC does far more than announce names. They must:
- Turn a collection of strangers into an audience
- Establish the mood and create permission to laugh
- Build energy and maintain momentum
- Introduce performers professionally and without error
- Deliver housekeeping without killing the mood
- Protect struggling acts
- Fix problems without drawing attention
- Make unexpected moments appear planned
MCing is also one of the fastest ways to improve as a performer. It provides more stage time, direct audience interaction and regular opportunities to deal with the unpredictable.
The workshop uses the Hard Knock Knocks teaching model:
The Theory → In Action → Your Turn → Feedback
By the end of the course, participants should be able to:
- Open and warm a room confidently
- Read an audience and adjust their approach
- Turn individuals into one connected audience
- Use rhetorical, interactive and faux crowd work
- Introduce acts clearly and professionally
- Create links and callbacks throughout an event
- Control timing, energy and show momentum
- Work effectively with sound, lighting and venue staff
- Respond to hecklers, drunks and interruptions
- Recover from silence, mistakes and technical problems
- Hold an audience during unexpected delays
- Adapt comedy MC skills to corporate events
The skills developed apply to comedy rooms, live events, conferences and corporate functions.
Most importantly, participants will develop the judgement to understand:
- When to speak
- When to intervene
- When to change direction
- When to get out of the way
- And, more importantly, when to shut up
The result is a more confident, adaptable and dependable MC who can lead the room when everything is going well and recover when it is not.