Joe Pasquale was the first comedian that my parents took me to see live. My parents and I have long shared enjoyment of his wacky sense of humour and ability to make the ridiculous, entertaining. 

I've been fortunate to spend some time with Joe on a couple of occasions, picking his brains about his unique contribution to the world of comedy.

I'm fascinated that so much of Joe's work is outworked naturally. It doesn't seem to me, that Joe has a formula or a habit for anything in his work, but rather, a commitment to gather his props and ideas together and simply unleashing his quirky sense of creativity upon them in the moment. 

In today's blog, I want to highlight Joe's ability to personalise his comedy to the moment he's in.  

Joe maximises the opportunity for some physical comedy as he sits on the auditorium framing. I very much doubt every venue on his tour had such a facility for him to replicate this, meaning that in some form, Joe was...

Mark Watson is one of my favourite comedians. His style, his commentary on the everyday and his ability to do so in a very relatable, conversational tone, just has me in hysterics. 

So I'm enjoying my blog session this morning, considering what we as communicators can learn from the brilliant Mark Watson. 

Enjoy the clip and then I've got some thoughts to share on it;

The Art of Being Natural 

One of the incredible traits about Marks stand up is that it very much feels like a conversation. You could quite easily convince yourself that he's sat opposite you in a coffee shop, telling you about a story from the last few days. There's no hint of it sounding scripted (though it likely is, to some extent), in many ways, he's not the most slick of speakers yet that brings a sense of charm and intrigue to his stage presence. 

Now hear me correctly - this is a refined skill that Mark has mastered. Not many people could pull of the same scatti presentation...

I'm excited to be writing this blog, just a few weeks after I had the chance to spend some time with Al backstage at a The Princes Hall in Aldershot. I even got to sit in the wing and observe the show from the side. What you see on stage with Al, is a carefully thought through, yet combined with skill-fully ad libbed moments of his character, 'The Pub Landlord'.

What fascinates me most about Al is that this character has been years in the making, and is quite the opposite of the Al I met backstage. (A genuinely nice guy who was super helpful as I picked his brains about his ability to ad lib huge laughs from some simple direct questions!) 

You might be wondering why I've chosen a character act to help us think about communication. I believe there's lots we can learn from this and I've highlighted three points below.

Enjoy this clip of Al in action. 

Everything is BIG

The Pub Landlord is a big character. Full of charisma. Bold, brash and unashamed. I...

Michael McIntyre needs no introduction. With global recognition and as the highest selling artist at London’s O2, there's no doubt of Michaels comedic success. The O2 Arena in London holds an audience of 20,000 people, of which Michael sold out for 28 shows in a row! 

Yet if we put Michaels comedy skills aside, he's still a masterful communicator. 

Watch and enjoy this brilliant clip and then read my reflections on how Michael has skilfully utilised to hold the attention of huge audiences across the world. 

 Engages the audience with a question 

Rather launching into his routine about windscreen wipers, he asks the audience a simple question and confidently hand-signals them to cheer in response. Given that a large majority of those attending will have come by public transport, he's assured of this response. 

Immediately, having been provoked to engage vocally through cheering - the audience has bought in.

Of...