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Caroline Clifford

Articles

  • 1 week ago | authenticcomedy.substack.com | Caroline Clifford

    Useful lists at the end!The first gig I ever did was at the Edinburgh Festival. It was the graduation show of “Absolute & Almost Beginners” comedy class with Logan Murray. I had an enormous 1 gig under my belt, and I was already strutting around the mother-flipping Edinburgh Fringe Festival demanding open spots off people like I was the ghost of Joan Rivers. The jokes on you though because a man with no front teeth gave me a spot declaring “We need one of you(a woman)”.

  • 1 month ago | authenticcomedy.substack.com | Caroline Clifford

    Have you ever noticed that people who do wild adventure holidays are actually very boring people? Oh you bungee jumped while on Ayahuasca in Peru?? I’m literally asleep. And don’t get me started on extreme artists that set their nuts on fire or whatever. It’s cool that you like that but it’s not as interesting as you think. I *need* to be able to relate to something to like it, we all need to connect. It’s your point of view that makes a joke interesting, not the topic.

  • 1 month ago | authenticcomedy.substack.com | Caroline Clifford

    This is a re-write of an earlier article. I’ve re-written some bits for clarity. I am always very excited to share this technique with people. It's a simple way to enhance and edit your stand-up material. First I'll give a detailed explanation of the exercise, and a more concise summary will be at the end. When I am teaching my beginners class I always encourage free-form writing. I have lots of writing exercises that encourage quantity over quality, with the mantra “writing is winning”.

  • 2 months ago | authenticcomedy.substack.com | Caroline Clifford

    Hello. All of my exercises are paywalled, except this one right now! Please enjoy as it’s one of my favourites. Read this first:Write a list of things a highly judgemental person would notice about you when you walked in the room. Be specific! We can make this a world where it’s not weird that you’re somehow naked but clothed at the same time. These should all form a list of at least 10 items. Mine is:Short, but not petite, egg shaped?

  • 2 months ago | authenticcomedy.substack.com | Caroline Clifford

    If you’re trying to break into any kind of art-form there’s what I call a talent hierarchy, and it’s very unfair if you’re on the short end of it. Some people just seem to be born comedians, they have “funny bones”. They kind of have the right face and body for it, they just ooze comedy. But I do have good news for those of you with serious skeletons - it might still work out for you if this is what you want. You just need patience and grit.