So, I went to the Stand comedy club last night for a show that's basically a rehearsal for the Live Floor Show (see link): it completely tears down all the illusions you have of stand-up as a spontaneous phenomenon.

For the most part, the comedians came on-stage with notes, which they referred to frequently throughout their sets. Also they did *all* of their material, a large amount of which fell flat on it's arse (the BBC researchers always laugh at every joke, but they're pretty much trying to warm the audience up and encourage that acts more than anything else). There was a lot of comedy gold as well, but it was padded out by...comedy lead (to keep the metaphor rolling).

I fancy doing an open-mike spot sometime. I think it would either be incredibly good fun or else they'd throw tomatoes (in Glasgow, they leave them in the tins), but either way I could say that I'd given it a shot.

So on a related topic - who's your favourite stand-up comedian?

Bo"Yes...so...anyway"urne