This is a recurring event: View all events in the series “CityLIS Workplace Forum”
The British Stand-Up Comedy Archive was established at the University of Kent in 2013 to celebrate, preserve, and provide access to the archives and records of British stand-up comedy and comedians.
In this talk, Oliver Double will recall how the archive got started, show images of some of the bewildering range of artefacts it contains, and explain what these can tell us about the art and craft of stand-up comedy. He will also discuss the difficulties and challenges of trying to archive stand-up, which is so firmly rooted in the moment of live performance.
About the speaker
Oliver Double has been at the University of Kent since 1999, teaching and researching comic and popular performance. Before becoming an academic, he worked as a stand-up comedian on the national comedy circuit ('Delightful' -The Guardian), and set up the Last Laugh, Sheffield's longest running comedy club.
He continues to perform occasionally, for example in his one-man shows Saint Pancreas (2006) and Break a Leg (2015), and the monthly comedy club Funny Rabbit.
He has written a number of books, chapters and articles on stand-up, alternative comedy, variety theatre and popular performance, and helped to establish the British Stand-Up Comedy Archive (BSUCA), based at Kent’s Templeman Library.
Twitter: @Oliver_Double
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