The Art of Making People Laugh: with Luke Thompson from Luke's English Podcast

Watch the episode on YouTube - https://youtu.be/lsetgclOHsU?si=C4FBMMeUXolfeecm

In this episode you'll hear a conversation with Luke Thompson about the art of going on stage and making people laugh.

Luke is from the UK but he's based in Paris, France. He's the creator and host of Luke's English Podcast, a successful show for learners of English with a loyal audience in countries all around the world and over 1 million downloads a month. He knows how to make people laugh. And I think that's one of the reasons why people love listening to him.

Some of the questions we discussed in this episode include:

• How and why did you get into stand-up comedy?
• How do you come up with funny ideas, anecdotes, jokes and stories? Do you have a system?
• How do you know if your material is funny or not? Do you test your stuff?
• The audience doesn't laugh. What do you do?
• Ricky Gervais says there's nothing you can't joke about. Do you agree with that?
• How do you remember what to say on stage?
• How much is improvised and how much is scripted?
• How do you feel about recycling jokes?
• What are your ambitions as a stand-up comedian?

I hope you'll enjoy this conversation as much as Luke and I did.

Episode Links

• Luke's website -- https://teacherluke.co.uk/
• Luke's YouTube Channel (check out his COMEDY / STAND UP playlist) -- https://www.youtube.com/@LukesEnglishPodcast
• The Ricky Gervais clip we talked about -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xggQqUyLrCM
• The clip from the intro of this episode -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbZVfz0tv_I&list=PLAy2UiT23ET2-SzlofK2QOkQpFy1uqWBm

Books we mentioned:

• Show Your Work by Austin Kleon -- https://austinkleon.com/show-your-work/
• Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life by Steve Martin -- https://www.amazon.com/Born-Standing-Up-Comics-Life/dp/1416553657
• Advanced Banter -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Banter

Thanks for listening!

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