Caroline Clifford

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

I’m working on a few new articles, in the meantime here’s a banger from last year - enjoy!Attitude means simply the way in which you express yourself. It comes in two parts. The first part is your overall attitude, your persona or personality. Think about how you would describe yourself, or more accurately how others would describe you without describing your physical appearance. Are you relaxed, anxious, bubbly, aggressive, cool, needy… etc. Of course your personality can be more than one thing.

1 month 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.

2 months 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”.

Mar 26, 2025 | 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?