This short experiential online six week course introduces postgraduate researchers to stand-up comedy performance techniques, which can be used to create engaging, dynamic and funny presentations, which can help participants to share their research aims and outputs with a variety of different audiences.
The course will adopt a toolkit approach, introducing participants to creative and writing techniques which aim to identify ‘the funny’ that exists both within the participants, and within the subject they are investigating.
These techniques will draw on practices from established stand-up comics. The course will also explore and critically analyse theories of comedy and comedy performance. Towards the end of the course, participants will have an opportunity to practice and refine presentations, and gain constructive criticism from a supportive community. During the course, participants will occasionally be asked to complete short homework tasks.
Each session will last for up to two hours and will take place using MS Teams. Each session will include a break of at least 15 minutes. There is a strict limit of 12 participants. Please register early to avoid disappointment. When you have registered, please add all event dates and times to your diary. Participants should ideally be able to attend all sessions.
The course will end just before the start of the postgraduate research conference which will take place in Milton Keynes.
Learning outcomes
Through this course, you will:
- Understand how your subject could be presented in a comedic way with the intent of enhancing the impact of both your research outputs and your professional activity.
- Understand what is meant by ‘attitude’ in comedy performance and develop aspects of your own performance persona.
- Learn about the boundaries of what is considered to be acceptable and unacceptable to a professional audience.
- Learn about what is meant by ‘the comedy circuit’ and how this relates to the development of comedy performance.
- Gain experience of sharing your research aims and objectives with others.
- Understand some key theories of humour and stand-up comedy, and differences between those theories.
- Learn about principles of joke writing.
- Learn about the practices of writing and how games can be used to drive your creativity.
- Understand how your subject could be presented in a comedic way with the intent of enhancing the impact of both your research outputs and your professional activity.
- Learn about editing and how to refine, critique and develop your presentation and performance.
- Learn how to perform a five minute ‘set’ and deliver that set to a friendly and supportive audience.
Programme
Week 1: 16 March 27, 14:00 – 16:00, Introduction, objectives and ground rules
In this session, you will be introduced to the course, its aims and ground rules. The session will include an activity that explores how you may be perceived by an audience that is unfamiliar with you and your research. You will also be introduced by what is meant by ‘attitude’ and the concept of ‘the circuit’. Useful key tools will be highlighted: the notepad and the recording features on your mobile phone.
Week 2: 23 March 27, 14:00 – 16:00, Comedy theory
In this week, you will be introduced to different ideas and conceptions of ‘comedy theory’, and will begin to share something about your research aims and objectives with the group (if you feel comfortable doing so). You will gain a further understanding of principles of performance and introduced to some writing games in anticipation of the weeks that follow. Particular attention will be given towards how to share feedback with others.
Week 3: 6 April 27, 14:00 – 16:00, Writing (attitude)
This session is concerned with performance and the development of attitude. It will begin with the belief that everyone is funny. This perspective is linked to the notion of what is meant by a ‘comedy persona’ and how it relates to status, and how this is linked to the often ambiguous position of the doctoral researcher. You will also be introduced to some further writing games and techniques.
Week 4: 11 May 27, 14:00 – 16:00, Writing (content)
With the previous week relating to the theme of identity, status and performance, this week turns more directly to your research topic. During this week, you will be introduced to further games and techniques to explore ‘the funny’ that exists within your topic and your discipline. You will be asked to share ideas for material for fellow participants and offer positive constructive criticism.
Week 5: 25 May 27, 14:00 – 16:00, Editing
In this session, themes from previous session will be brought together: comedy theory, the researcher, and the research with a view to combining everything together into ‘a set’. A key concept in joke writing and comedy writing is concision. You will be introduced the ideas from comedy theorist and performer Adam Bloom, where you will learn techniques that can help you edit and refine your material.
Week 6: 1 June 27, 14:00 – 16:00, Performing
This session will provide an opportunity to deliver a five minute performance about your research project in a friendly and supportive environment. After each session, there will be a structured feedback and Q&A session.
The contents of each session may change, depending on the needs of individual students.
About the facilitator
Chris Douce is a Senior Lecturer in Computing (which is funnier than it sounds). In addition to teaching on the OU’s software engineering module Chris has been performing comedy for ten years. Between 2019 and 2024 he was a producer and host for Catford Mews Comedy Club, based in South East London. He has also hosted and ran comedy events at the OU London regional centre, and ran a one-off comedy event at the OU’s cellar bar. In 2016 he wrote, produced and performed a show called Meetup101. In addition to comedy performance, his research interest include distance learning pedagogy, and the connections between storytelling, sustainability and software engineering.
Further reading
Bloom, A. (2023) Finding your comic genius: an in-depth guide to the art of stand-up comedy. Self-published.
Double, O. (2014) Getting the Joke: The inner workings of stand-up comedy. Second edition. Bloomsbury.
Holloway, S. (2010) The Serious Guide to Joke Writing. Bookshaker.
Murray, L. (2007) Teach yourself: Stand-up Comedy. McGraw-Hill.
Robinson, H. (2026) SEDA Academic Humour Toolkit. Available at: https://drhannahrobinson.org.uk/downloads/2026-08-18_Full_CoCreated_Humour_Toolkit_for_Higher_Education.pdf
Acknowledgements
Acknowledgements are duly shared with the facilitators of various courses I have attended over the last fifteen years. Three notable courses have included Barry Fern’s MC course, Ivor Dembina’s comedy drop-in and a 6 week course that was hosted at CityLit, London. This project is supported by eSTEeM, the university’s STEM scholarship centre.