Cambridge Companion to Stand-Up Comedy

This accessible and insightful volume features chapters from diverse contributors exploring multiple aspects of stand-up, including history, interpretation, and performance dynamics. The wide-ranging analysis is completed by a series of originally commissioned interviews with comedians on the nature of their craft.

About the author

Oliver Double is Reader in Comic and Popular Performance at the University of Kent, where he established the British Stand-Up Comedy Archive. His books include Stand-Up! On Being a Comedian (1997), Getting the Joke (2005, 2014), and Alternative Comedy (2020). A former professional comedian ('Surprisingly Funny' – Guardian), he currently compères Funny Rabbit Comedy Club.

Product details

• Authors: Oliver (University of Kent) Double
• Assisted by: Double Oliver (Editor)
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press ELT
• Content: Book
• Product form: Hardback
• Publication date: 30.09.2025
• Subject: Humanities, art, music > Art > Theatre, ballet; Fiction > Narrative literature
• EAN: 9781316518571
• ISBN: 978-1-316-51857-1
• Pages: 322
• Series: Cambridge Companions to Theatre and Performance
• Subjects: LITERARY CRITICISM / Reference, DRAMA / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, PERFORMING ARTS / Theater / General, PERFORMING ARTS / Comedy, Theatre Studies, Comedy and stand-up, Sex and sexuality, social aspects, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Human Sexuality, Literary companions, book reviews and guides, Social groups, communities and identities, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Intersectionality