The Comedy Bureau

If you’re a fan of standup comedy then you will be absolutely familiar with the stereotypical depiction of stand up happening in the basement of a club in front of a bare brick wall. But why are you so familiar with it? Why is that the signature style for stand up comedy?

In the final episode of this series, comedian Laura Lexx and academic Oliver Double discuss the specific circumstances that led to stand up and bricks becoming linked. From basement clubs like The Hungry i to The Improv to televised stand up shows and the bricks becoming iconic – we chart the way bricks and stand up came together out of folk and into our collective memory.

This is the last in the series from The Comedy Bureau and we really hope you have enjoyed these 10 episodes all about different niche facets of comedy. If you have had a good time PLEASE let us know, and let us know if you would appreciate a second series. We are a tiny enterprise – everything you have seen and heard is entirely self-motivated and self-funded and we rely on your sharing, enthusiasm, reviews and downloads to keep going. If you can review, rate, like, subscribe and share we will be incredibly grateful.

If you have ideas for future episodes you would like to see or questions on what you’ve already seen please let us know in the comments! You can follow us on social media The.Comedy.Bureau and you can email us [email protected]

We hope to see you for a second series very soon. All the best, Laura and Olly x

Our sources for this episode were:

• Friedman, Budd & Whetsell, Tripp (2017), “The Improv: An Oral History of the Comedy Club that Revolutionised Stand-Up”, BenBella Books"

• Gerald Nachman, Seriously Funny: The Rebel Comedians of the 1950s and 1960s (New York: Pantheon, 2003).

• Budd Friedman with Tripp Whetsell, The Improv: An Oral History of the Comedy Club that Revolutionized Stand-Up (Dallas, Texas: Benbella Books, 2017).

• Kliph Nesteroff, The Comedians: Drunks, Thieves, Scoundrel and the History of American Comedy (New York: Grove Press, 2015).

Podcast cover art by Adam Richardson

Artwork for The Comedy Bureau is by Matthew Grant at Tiny Worlds Workshop @tinyworldsworkshop.

Our video editor and credit sequence designer is Lucas Orme.

Music was devised and performed by Olly Double.

Huge thanks to the whole team at Podspike for invaluable advice and help launching and marketing the show.

All media enquiries via Julian Hall [email protected]

What an exceptional episode we have for you today… in 2023 Laura Lexx appeared on Celebrity Mastermind with her specialist subject being The History of Alternative Comedy. One of the most helpful books she read was Alternative Comedy: 1979 and the Reinvention of British Stand-Up by none other than Dr Oliver Double.

Cut to 2025 and she’s just a girl sitting before a lecturer begging him to tell her everything he knows about 1979 and the pivotal moment in comedy history that lead to what we now think of as mainstream comedy.

Our sources for this episode were:

• Rough Theatre Plays (1977), Open Head Press

• Double, Oliver & Lockyer, Sharon (2022) “Alternative Comedy Now and Then”, Critical Perspectives

• And Olly’s massive brain… he didn’t pull from so many books for this one because he’s a font of knowledge but if you want further reading, the books stacked on Olly’s desk are a great place to start.

The Comedy Store is still going strong - if you want to go and see a show at this legendary London venue then seek them out: https://london.thecomedystore.co.uk/

Podcast cover art by Adam Richardson

Artwork for The Comedy Bureau is by Matthew Grant at Tiny Worlds Workshop @tinyworldsworkshop.

Our video editor and credit sequence designer is Lucas Orme.

Music was devised and performed by Olly Double.

Huge thanks to the whole team at Podspike for invaluable advice and help launching and marketing the show.

All media enquiries via Julian Hall [email protected]

Stand-up comedian Laura Lexx brings this case file to the table to address one of the top questions she’s presented with when telling strangers what she does for a living… “Oh but you can’t say anything these days…” Or can you?

Academic Oliver Double sits down with Laura to discuss a history of censorship in stage comedy in the UK and USA. From the early years of front cloth comics and monologists, through the legal battles of Lenny Bruce, to the brilliant Billy Connolly. In this episode Laura and Oliver debate the common perception that speech has become less free and that we are far more monitored now on what we say than ever before.

Is this true? In what ways is speech in comedy monitored and censored? Crucially, is this criticism from a point of authority or the now amplified voices of the many but much less powerful general public?

Do you agree with Laura’s argument that it is not cancellation but capitalism that affects your bookings once the general public falls out with you? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Our Sources for this episode are:

• Burgis, Ben (2021), “Cancelling Comedians While The World Burns, A Critique of the Contemporary Left”, Zer0 Books

• Bruce, Lenny (1975), “How To Talk Dirty and Influence People”, Harper Collins Distribution Services

• Goldman, Albert (from the journalism of Lawrence Schiller), 1974, “Ladies and Gentlemen, Lenny Bruce!!”, Random House

• Thomas, William Karl (1989), “Lenny Bruce - The Making of a Prophet”, Media Maestro

• Collins, Ronald K.L. (2002), “The Trials of Lenny Bruce”, Sourcebooks, Inc

• Lenny Bruce audio CD: Lenny Bruce, The Historic 1962 Concert When Lenny Was Busted, from Viper’s Nest

• Index on Censorship: 1 Nov 2000, Volume 29.06 Index on Censorship can be found here: https://www.indexoncensorship.org/

• Here is a link to the article about Billy Connolly from 2004: https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2004/nov/28/theatre.billyconnolly

Comedians Laura and Olly mention in this episode, just on the off chance you’ve not heard of them, are:

• Nish Kumar - @mrnishkumar

• Ross Noble - @mrrossnoble

• Sajeela Kershi - @sajeelakershi

Podcast cover art by Adam Richardson

Artwork for The Comedy Bureau is by Matthew Grant at Tiny Worlds Workshop @tinyworldsworkshop.

Our video editor and credit sequence designer is Lucas Orme.

Music was devised and performed by Olly Double.

Huge thanks to the whole team at Podspike for invaluable advice and help launching and marketing the show.

All media enquiries via Julian Hall [email protected]

Finishing up our mini-series in Comic Theory, this week Laura and Olly turn their attention to Superiority Theory.

This is the idea that people laugh because the stimulus made them feel better than or good in some way. They enter the chat with a brief discussion on status, particularly in double acts between a higher status straight man and a lower status funny guy.

Then we move on to the theorists and philosophers and we head right right back all the way to the words and explanations of Aristotle, Hobbes, Lorenz and Mintz as we explore the theory that laughter is inherently about superiority or aggression. Do we laugh to feel better about ourselves in comparison to others? Or, perhaps, in comparison to how we felt moments before the joke? Is all joking necessitated on a status imbalance and where does modern comedy fit in?

Laura and Olly round off this week’s chat with an analysis of Punching Up and Punching Down – a look at the importance of aiming your joke, no matter the subject, in the right direction.

We hope you have enjoyed these three episodes on joke theory, next week we will be moving on to a new subject, but nonetheless remaining very much in the weeds.

Subscribe now so you never miss an episode. See you then!

Our sources for this episode are:

• John Morreall (1987), The Philosophy of Laughter and Humor, Albany, NY: SUNY Press.

• Lorenz, Konrad (1966), “On Aggression”, Taylor & Francis Ltd

• Carroll, Noel (2014), “Humour a Very Short Introduction”, OUP Oxford

• Quirk, Sophie, (2018), “The Politics of British Stand-Up Comedy - The New Alternative”, Palgrave Studies in Comedy, Springer Nature Switzerland

• Barbara, Rashi & Chilana, Richa (2022), “Punching Up in Stand-Up Comedy - Speaking Truth to Power”, Routledge India Mintz,

• Lawrence E. (1985), “Standup Comedy as Social and Cultural Mediation”, American Quarterly"

Podcast cover art by Adam Richardson

Artwork for The Comedy Bureau is by Matthew Grant at Tiny Worlds Workshop @tinyworldsworkshop.

Our video editor and credit sequence designer is Lucas Orme.

Music was devised and performed by Olly Double.

Huge thanks to the whole team at Podspike for invaluable advice and help launching and marketing the show.

All media enquiries via Julian Hall [email protected]

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