“Hello babies, welcome to Gary Gulman…”  A comedian’s comedian in the truest sense, we discuss the making of Gary’s stand-up special/documentary “The Great Depresh”, charting a mental health journey via electroconvulsive therapy and medical ketamine, through recovery to genuine brilliance.  We learn the origin of the world’s most humble opening joke and why we should crowds credit for their vocabulary; and also cover the writing tip that’s visible if you freeze-frame a single shot of the movie, and his love of Kurt Vonnegut.

45 minutes of exquisite extra content, available exclusively to members of the Insiders Club, includes Gary on his extensive writing tips for comics and why it’s impossible to use up creativity, and some behind the scenes secrets on his experiences doing spots on Conan.

Go to www.comedianscomedian.com/insiders for this and much much more!

Connect with Gary here:

www.garygulman.com

@garygulman

Stu's current endeavours:

Released every Monday

"Child Labour" parenting podcast with Stuart Goldsmith & Sindhu Vee

www.childlabourpod.com

Mondays 9pm BST - "The Infinite Sofa" chat show

Top celebrity talent (former guests include Dara O'Briain, Sarah Millican and Russell Howard) join Stu and 12 members of the public, in an increasingly cult-like live online performance experiment.

www.infinitesofa.com

Tuesdays 8pm BST - "Chops" Online comedy club

Headline acts with new material plus the cream of emerging comics, all with a live audience in the "room"

www.chopscomedy.com

www.twitch.tv/stugoldsmith

Wednesdays 8pm BST - "ThinkTank"

A new even-more-experimental exercise in creativity, community, and throwing together a virtual bank heist under pressure.

New ideas and new jeopardy every week!

www.twitch.tv/stugoldsmith

LISTEN HERE

Filed Under: Alex Edelman, Audiences, Brain Regan, comcompod, Conan, Crashing, HBO, Interview, John Mulaney, Joker, Letterman, Maria Bamford, Mental Health, Stage Persona, Success, The Tonight Show, TV, TV Comedy, Twitch, USA, Writing Jokes, Writing On Stage, YouTube

Larry Dean is a phenomenal comic who doesn’t coast on his brilliant physicality, but writes hard and really gets to the kernel of what’s funny about his life.

We talk about being manipulated into working hard by people who understand you, deliberately mining opportunities for embodying the jokes, and how gay audiences sometimes confuse his self-deprecation for self-hatred. We also unearth the thrill of writing for revenge…

www.larrydeancomedy.com

TW: @larrydeancomedy | IG: @larrydeancomedy
TW: @ComComPod | IG: @ComComPod

STU GOLDSMITH’S INFINITE SOFA
Stu Goldsmith’s Infinite Sofa brings you the warmest and most atmospheric cure for the social-isolation blues!

Forthcoming guests include Flo and Joan, Alex Horne, Ed Aczel and Thom Tuck, who with 12 members of the public join Stu for a tight 90 mins of brilliant comedy, music and variety with interactive games and big laughs. 

Find out more at www.infinitesofa.com

CHOPS COMEDY
Every Tuesday at 8pm come and watch your favourite comics finding their sea-legs in the new world of online stand-up, with a warm and a generous studio audience, at Chops Comedy!  Forthcoming headliners include Kelly Convey, Alice Fraser, Marcus Brigstocke and Charlie George.

www.chopscomedy.com

LISTEN HERE

Filed Under: Acting, Audiences, Edinburgh, Festival, Free Fringe, Fringe, Graham Norton, Interview, Jim Carrey, Kevin Bridges, Live At The Apollo, Mental Health, Observational Comedy, Onstage Persona, Persona, Radio 4, Richard Pryor, Sexuality, Sofie Hagen, Stage Persona, Success, Writing Jokes, Writing On Stage, YouTube

Lean as hell and twice as productive, Nigel Ng is coming to shame your work ethic with his radical efficiency! This hilarious UK-based Malaysian comic lets us in on how his background in data science is helping him hit hard on social media, why he knew Edinburgh reviewers wouldn't like him, why he doesn't know what "texture" means, and what it felt like to gig 5 hours after a huge personal catastrophe. But is he too efficient for his own personal life...?

Join the Insiders Club for bonus material including Nigel on the specifics of his Instagram and TikTok strategies... Miss it and miss out! Sign up now at www.comedianscomedian.com/insiders for all of the above and much more.

TW: @mrnigelng | IG: @mrnigelng
Rice To Meet You

TW: @ComComPod | IG: @ComComPod

As per last week's post-amble, consider giving these comics a follow on Twitter:
@DaneBaptweets @ninia_benjamin @funmbi @ginayashere @destheray @jamalimaddix @olathecomedian @AhirShah @paulsinha @MrNishKumar @tezilyas @dalisochaponda @athenakugblenu @abiclarkecomedy

STU GOLDSMITH’S INFINITE SOFA
Every Monday and Thursday night at the new later time of 9pm, Stu Goldsmith’s Infinite Sofa brings you the warmest and most atmospheric cure for the social-isolation blues!
Forthcoming guests include Rhod Gilbert, Sara Barron, Iain Stirling, Flo and Joan, and Luisa Omelian, who with 12 members of the public join Stu for an hour and a half of brilliant comedy, music and variety with interactive games and big laughs.

Find out more at www.infinitesofa.com

CHOPS COMEDY
Every Tuesday at 8pm come and watch your favourite comics riding their sea-legs in the new world of online stand-up, with a warm and a generous studio audience, at Chops Comedy!  Forthcoming headliners include Josie Long, Sarah Millican, Jarred Christmas, Rob Kemp, Russell Hicks and Lost Voice Guy

www.chopscomedy.com

LISTEN HERE

Filed Under: Audiences, Edinburgh, Festival, Fringe, Instagram, Interview, Kevin Hart, Malaysia, Mitch Hedburg, Money, Nigel Ng, Persona, Podcasting, Rice To Meet You, Stage Persona, Success, Twitter, Viral, Writing Jokes, YouTube

Catherine Cohen took home “Best Newcomer” at the Edinburgh Fringe last year, with a jaw-dropping show bursting with wit, originality and layer upon layer of irony.  Her angle of attack, mocking the audience for being so pathetically in love with her, allows her to take huge risks on stage, in a character that was grown through vast quantities of just the right sort of stage time.

We talk about why she loves the occasional “stone-faced” audience-member, about playing to win and succeeding, surviving burn-out, and why she can’t stop “freaking out about absolutely everything”…

Join the Insiders Club now at www.comedianscomedian.com/insiders for all this and much much more.

Catch up with Catherine Cohen:

http://www.catherine-cohen.com

TW: @catcohen | IG: @catccohen

TW: @ComComPod | IG: @ComComPod

As per the post-amble, consider giving these comics a follow on Twitter:

@DaneBaptweets

@ninia_benjamin

@funmbi

@ginayashere

@destheray

@jamalimaddix

@olathecomedian

@AhirShah

@paulsinha

@MrNishKumar

@tezilyas

@dalisochaponda

@athenakugblenu

STU GOLDSMITH’S INFINITE SOFA

Every Monday and Thursday night at the new later time of 9pm, Stu Goldsmith’s Infinite Sofa brings you the warmest and most atmospheric cure for the social-isolation blues!

Forthcoming guests include Rhod Gilbert, Sara Barron, Iain Stirling, Flo and Joan, and Luisa Omelian, who with 12 members of the public join Stu for an hour and a half of brilliant comedy, music and variety with interactive games and big laughs. 

Find out more at www.infinitesofa.com

CHOPS COMEDY

Every Tuesday at 8pm come and watch your favourite comics riding their sea-legs in the new world of online stand-up, with a warm and a generous studio audience, at Chops Comedy!  Forthcoming headliners include Josie Long, Sarah Millican, Jarred Christmas, Rob Kemp, Russell Hicks and Lost Voice Guy

www.chopscomedy.com

LISTEN HERE

Filed Under: Audiences, Awards, comcompod, Compere/MC/Hosting, Coping, Corona, COVID-19, Drama School, Edinburgh, Equality, Festival, Fringe, Gender, Interview, Isolation, Mental Health, Musical Comedy, New York, Persona, Podcasting, Reviews, Risk, Stage Persona, Structure, Success, TV Comedy, Twitter, USA, Whimsy, Writing On Stage, YouTube

At last! Brett Goldstein (movie star, comedian, writer, super-fan of ComCom and perpetual invite-swerver) drops by for a “NonComPod” that won’t expose at all how crackers he is. Sadly Stu can’t help himself and it all goes a bit “Are You Happy?” A brilliant conversation with a kind, funny, deeply handsome man, who lets us into his mind to discuss humility, boredom and workaholism - and why the comedy community is like an AIDS quilt...

25 mins of extra content available exclusively to members of the Insiders Club include the backstage view of Brett’s “Films To be Buried With” podcast, how a run of terrible gigs way back during the Comedy Reserve fringe line-up show became a brutal bootcamp, and a decent chunk of Stu giving Brett unsolicited advice on how to navigate his mental health…

Join the Insiders Club now at www.comedianscomedian.com/insiders for all this and much much more.

*New episodes are now streamed live at www.twitch.tv/stugoldsmith on 1pm BST every Wednesday, for release the following week*

STU GOLDSMITH’S INFINITE SOFA
Every Monday and Thursday night at the new later time of 9pm, Stu Goldsmith’s Infinite Sofa brings you the warmest and most atmospheric cure for the social-isolation blues!
Forthcoming guests include Nish Kumar, Suzi Ruffell, Anna Mann and Randy Feltface, who with 10 members of the public join Stu for an hour of brilliant comedy, music and variety with interactive games and big laughs.
Find out more at www.infinitesofa.com

CHOPS COMEDY
Every Tuesday at 8pm come and watch your favourite comics riding their sea-legs in the new world of online stand-up, with a warm and a generous studio audience, at Chops Comedy! Forthcoming headliners include Josie Long, Sarah Millican, Jarred Christmas, Rob Kemp, Russell Hicks and Lost Voice Guy.
www.chopscomedy.com

LISTEN HERE

Filed Under: Acting, Actor, Audiences, Benny Boot, comcompod, Competitions, Coping, Corona, Depression, Derek, Directing, Edinburgh, Fame, Fear, Films To Be Buried With, First Open Spot, Fringe, Inspiration, Interview, Isolation, Jack Whitehall, Jobs, Josie Long, London, Lone Island, Mental Health, Nick Helm, NonComPod, Onstage Persona, Persona, Pleasance, Podcasting, School, Storytelling, Structure, Success, SuperBob, TV, TV Comedy, Twitch, Twitter, Uncle, Writing Jokes, YouTube

*New episodes are now streamed live at www.twitch.tv/stugoldsmith on 1pm BST every Wednesday, for release the following week*

Is this a regular episode or a NonComPod?  It matters not as we meet Helen Zaltzman; podcasting matriarch, mentor of Stu’s, co-host with Olly Mann of “Answer Me This”, host of the brilliant “Allusionist” podcast on the Radiotopia network, and very funny lady indeed.

We talk about her comedy origins as Josie Long’s embroiderer, her childhood and the positives of knowing she was an unplanned baby, and setting one’s own parameters for success.  We also talk about language as a means of understanding the world, overcoming her own pedantry and forgiving it in others, how she wrote a successful tour show in less than a day, and why you’re Namaste-ing all wrong…

25 mins of extra content available exclusively to members of the Insiders Club include a dive into the origins of Helen and Olly Mann’s “Answer Me This” podcast; how they cultivated the community now 14 years deep into their show (and passing it on to their own children), and how they broke new ground with the sorts of creative and marketing tactics that these days would make up a TED Talk.

Join the Insiders Club now at www.comedianscomedian.com/insiders for all this and much much more.

helenzaltzman.com | instagram.com/helenzaltzman |twitter.com/helenzaltzman

Allusionist: theallusionist.org, twitter.com/allusionistshow, facebook.com/allusionistshow, instagram.com/allusionistshow

Veronica Mars Investigations: VMIpod.com, twitter.com/VMIpod, instagram.com/VMIpod, facebook.com/VMIpod

Answer Me This: answermethispodcast.com, twitter.com/HelenAndOlly, facebook.com/answermethis

STU GOLDSMITH’S INFINITE SOFA

Every Monday and Thursday night at the new later time of 9pm, Stu Goldsmith’s Infinite Sofa brings you the warmest and most atmospheric cure for the social-isolation blues!

Forthcoming guests include Nish Kumar, Suzi Ruffell, Anna Mann and Randy Feltface, who with 10 members of the public join Stu for an hour of brilliant comedy, music and variety with interactive games and big laughs.

Find out more at www.infinitesofa.com

CHOPS COMEDY

Online new material from seasoned professionals and exciting newer acts, in the most as-live environment online, every Tuesday night at 8pm BST via www.chopscomedy.com

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Join Stu Goldsmith for a one-to-one coaching session about your comedy career or personal project. These aren’t joke-writing sessions, more of a sort of micro-ComCom mentoring experience, to identify how you might be getting in the way of your own creativity and offer some solutions!

“Stu has made me think about writing comedy in a way that I wouldn’t have considered otherwise. His mentorship allowed me to access the deep, vulnerable, and humorous truths that are actually more impactful than the surface stuff I was doing otherwise. Highly recommend.” Jasky Singh

Go to www.comedianscomedian.com/lunch and book your one-to-one with Stu now!

LISTEN HERE

Filed Under: Age, Andy Zaltzman, Answer Me This, Audiences, Awards, College, comcompod, Compere, COVID-19, Edinburgh, Gender, How To, Inspiration, Interview, Isolation, Jobs, Josie Long, Persona, Podcasting, Radiotopia, Risk, Structure, student comedy, Success, TED Talk, The Allusionist, YouTube

The hardest-working man in UK comedy, Scott Bennett is tipped for imminent breakthrough to the mainstream, so you won’t be surprised to hear that he grasped the pandemic nettle and started performing online stand-up shows from his shed pretty much on day one. We talk about sacrificing a proper career to become a comic in his thirties, and how he processes the guilt he feels at following his dream, the “elastic limit” he has with his audience, doubling down on your best bits, and that old enemy, too much polish…

20 mins of extras available exclusively to the Insiders Club include Scott going into detail on his toolkit for observational comedy, and the nuance of how he writes with other people, including Rob Brydon, Daliso Chaponda and Jason Manford - how does it change his voice and creativity to step into the shoes of another act?

As the live comedy circuit undergoes a painful transformation into some unknown new form, there HAS NEVER BEEN A BETTER TIME to keep the podcast alive and get hold of oodles of sweet extra content (including the new special episode about The Great Pivot with ComCom Consultant Pete Dobbing) with a regular subscription. Join now at www.comedianscomedian.com/insiders

Follow Scott:
www.scottbennettcomedy.co.uk

TW: @scottbcomedyuk | IG: @scottbcomedyuk

Stand up from the shed: www.facebook.com/scottybcomedy

tour www.scottbennettcomedy.co.uk/tour.html

Scott's album "One Night In Dudley":

Itunes

Spotify

Join Stu Goldsmith for a Working Lunch coaching session about your comedy, career or personal project:

“Thank you so much for what was an incredibly productive, useful and thought provoking working lunch/therapy session” - Ben Milden

“Stu instantly put any nerves I had at bay, we spoke about many aspects of comedy and I found it be really beneficial, if you’re considering trying one of these sessions don’t hesitate! 10/10” - Jon Meehan

Go to www.comedianscomedian.com/lunch to book your one-to-one online lunch-date with Stu.

LISTEN HERE

Filed Under: Audiences, comcompod, Coping, Corona, COVID-19, Interview, Stage Persona, Success, Twitch, Write Now, Writing Jokes, Writing On Stage, YouTube

The co-host and co-creator of Dara O Briain's Go 8 Bit, Steve McNeil started his career in sketch comedy, and has enjoyed an invigoratingly twisty journey through multiple genres, currently specialising as a twitch gamer and host, with new project #WiFiWars gathering momentum online as we speak. We talk about his pivot away from TV, the single most agonising factor that led to the demise of "Go 8 Bit", his new special "Hey Listen!" and his recent battles with his mental health.

30 mins of extra content available exclusively to members of the Insiders Club focuses Steve's tips and tricks for growing an audience on Twitch, and what comics can expect to find when trying to explore that fertile territory! Sign up now at www.comedianscomedian.com/insiders

#WiFiWars
@WiFiWarsUK

Steve's special on GFS https://gofasterstripe.com/heylisten

https://twitter.com/stevemcneil

https://www.twitch.tv/stevefromgo8bit

https://www.twitch.tv/team/thestreamcreamdreamteam

As the live comedy circuit undergoes a painful transformation into some unknown new form, there HAS NEVER BEEN A BETTER TIME to keep the podcast alive and get hold of oodles of sweet extra content (including the new special episode about The Great Pivot with ComCom Consultant Pete Dobbing) with a regular subscription. Join now at www.comedianscomedian.com/insiders

And join Stu Goldsmith for a Working Lunch!  Go to www.comedianscomedian.com/lunch to book your one-to-one social, or professional, online lunch date with Stu!

@comcompod | @stugoldsmith

LISTEN HERE

Filed Under: Acting, Age, Alternative Comedy, Audience Participation, Audiences, Awards, BBC, Bottom, Chortle, comcompod, Coping, Corona, COVID-19, Dara O'Briain, Dave (TV channel), Depression, Double Act, Edinburgh, Festival, Fringe, Gaming, Go 8 Bit, Interview, Jess Robinson, McNeil & Pamphilon, Stage Persona, Streaming, Success, TV, Twitch, Writing Jokes, YouTube