Own The Stage: Physicality and Stagecraft for Stand Up Comedy

Do you get stuck in your head onstage or feel unsure about your movement? Do you simply want to find new ideas for your stand up sets?

Working on your physicality, movement, and stagecraft can completely transform your performance, making for a more assured and memorable show. This intensive day is a chance to think about what your body is doing while you're doing stand up.

ABOUT THE DAY:

• 5 hour intensive day with an afternoon break
• Learn devising exercises from physical theatre and improv to refine your material and develop your stage presence
• Learn movement techniques and strategies from dance and clowning to do better act outs and add texture to your set
• Get personalised feedback on up to 5 minutes of your own material

IMPORTANT INFO:

• No movement experience is necessary
• Participants should bring 5 minutes of a stand-up set that they want to receive feedback on and develop (while this can be new material, you should have it memorised or feel comfortable working without a notebook)

Feedback from past participants:

“It’s so easy to forget what my body is doing when I’m performing stand up, there’s a lot to think about. Sam has completely elevated my physical performance. ”

— James Barr (Comedian and Host of the podcast 'A Gay and A Non-Gay')

“It really helped to view storytelling through the lens of movement and to see how the body and movement could be part of the communication in a really fun way.”

— Previous Participant

“Your feedback on our sets felt really fresh and good, thank you!”

— Previous Participant

“The whole workshop was great but particularly enjoyed Sam dissecting my routine and tips on improving my routine through physicality!”

— Previous Participant

“The warm up exercises were really useful. The tailored feedback was super useful and definitely gave me lots of things to develop.”

— Previous Participant

About Sam:

Sam is an award winning choreographer and movement director who specialises in working with comedians. They have worked on shows for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival including James Barr and Jay Bennett, and they regularly teach movement for improv at The Free Association, where they perform with their resident Queer team, Summer Camp. They have years of experience teaching movement for everyone from actors, to comedians, to professional dancers. Their work has been shown across the UK and in the US, and their solo show, Crop Tops Make Me Feel Vulnerable won the Best of Anthing Goes Award at the 2018 Houston Fringe Festival.

→ Learn more about Sam

→ What is movement direction for comedy?

IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR ATTENDEES:

• Please wear comfortable clothes that you can move in
• Please bring water
• If you have any specific accommodations that would make the workshop more accessible to you, please send me a message and let me know, and I will do my best to help.

Host or Publisher Sam Burkett Dance