This month we are gong behind the scenes of comedy and tour life with Carl Donnelly. He has just returned from a successful run at the Fringe and is touring the rest of the year. I caught up with the comedian this week to find out about preparing and writing a show.
How long does it take you to write a whole stand up show?
It’s different every time. I’ve laboured for a year over a show that has been good but not vintage. I wrote my 2013 Edinburgh show in two weeks and got nominated for the Edinburgh Comedy Award. Sometimes a show just comes fully formed in your head and other times you have to wait for it to slowly pour out of you. This year’s show was quite a quick one. I started putting stuff down that had been percolating in my head and notebook and when I looked at it I could see a show was peeking out.
Where does your inspirations for jokes come from?
It’s a bit of a cliché but mine all come from my day to day life. My ‘bits’ are all stories even if they’re observational. I always wrap them up in a story of how I came to observe it so I tend to just note things down as I see them out and about and then look over them again later to see if they’ve got any legs to become a routine.
What are the challenges of writing a show?
A stand-up ‘show’ has to have a few changes of pace and tone otherwise it ends up dragging so you can’t write a show like you would a set. You have to mix it up a bit. Audiences can start flagging a bit around 40 minutes so that’s always a good time to mess about or put a slightly more lowkey story etc just so they can reset for the final part of the show.
Your Previous show was about enjoying life, this one takes a different angle doesn’t it? What can you tell us about the challenges you have had that have helped create this show?
Yeah I really tempted fate with last year’s show! The show was about how things had settled down and I was really enjoying leaning into being a middle aged dad. Then I suddenly got rushed to hospital with internal bleeding. They patched me up amazingly and I was medicated for 6 months after. Two weeks after I got the all clear, my daughter contracted bacterial meningitis. Needless to say that was a tricky period. She’s totally fine now and made an amazing recovery. The show briefly talks about both illnesses but it’s more about the surrounding things (where it’s probably easier to find the funny stuff).
Were there any experiences that were hard to write jokes about?
The actual period when we lived in the hospital when my daughter was sick is very much glossed over in the show. It was just so hard an experience that I’m yet to find funny things in it. I’ve written shows about my dad dying as well as jokes about my mothers’ dementia but I think I finally found my topic that I can’t make into a joke.
Is there anything new you have learnt about yourself whilst writing it or performing it?
I’ve weirdly learned not to overthink your health. In the show I talk about health influencers a bit and in doing the material I had the realisation that I’ve been super health conscious the last few years and can be a bit obsessive about making sure my daughter is eating well etc. Then we both got freak illnesses that were in no way related to our lifestyle. It’s taught me that you can obsess about health and still get seriously ill so maybe chill out a bit.
What topic do you think is the hardest to write about and why?
It’s different from comedian to comedian. I’m sure some comedians would struggle to joke about their parents’ dementia but I’ve done bits about my mum. Mine is (although this might change given a bit of time) my daughter’s illness. It still feels quite raw and recent despite her being totally back to full health.
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