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STAND UP

Did you know that ‘laughter is the best medicine’ isn’t just a saying? Having a good laugh has multiple short and long-term health benefits! Laughter makes you take deeper breaths, which in turn stimulates your heart, lungs, and muscles and increases the endorphins (happy chemicals) that your brain makes. A good joke will also create tension and release, which safely activates and quickly deactivates your stress response, leaving your blood pressure rapidly increased and then decreased, giving you a relaxed, slightly euphoric feeling. Laughter can also stimulate circulation and aid muscle relaxation – excellent for stress-busting! Long-term positive effects of watching comedy include: an improved immune system, improved pain resistance, increased resilience, and overall improved mood. So get booking now – doctor’s orders!

Perhaps surprisingly, stand-up comedy is a relatively new artform… In the United States, it has its roots in minstrel shows, vaudeville emcees like Frank Faye whose expert and hilarious patter would entertain audiences between acts, and comic lecturers, such as Mark Twain, who would travel the country in the 19th century.

Throughout the 1930s and ‘40s, many of the Jewish entertainers of the ‘Borscht Belt’ began to try out their comedy material (often acerbic, gag-filled monologues) in the popular holiday resorts of the Catskills Mountains. It was around this time that British-American comedian, vaudevillian, actor, singer, and dancer Bob Hope began broadcasting his radio program The Pepsodent Show Starring Bob Hope, where his pithy one-liners and topical jokes began establishing the foundations of modern stand-up. Between Bob and the Borscht Belt comics, a classic stand-up style was established and began making it onto television with variety programs like The Ed Sullivan Show.

From the late-1960s onward, stand-up grew as a counter-cultural phenomenon, with comedy clubs sprouting up all across the country. Today, comedians are revered much as rock stars, with big-name comics selling out 20,000-seat arenas and releasing best-selling comedy albums.