The 3 types of stand-up comedy course students

After nine years, and 700 graduates we can report our findings. There’s three types of people who want to learn stand-up comedy and enrol in our monthly courses. Each have very different goals, and levels of experience, but all share an interest in making others laugh. “So who are they?”, you ask. Those that want to be a stand-up comedian, those that have a bucket list to tick off, and key note speakers who want to add humour to their next presentation.

Comedians of the future

It’s not difficult to fill up our stand-up comedy classes with budding comedians. Melbourne, after all, is the stand-up comedy capital of Australia. Even with quite a few stand-up comedy schools in across Australia, the Hard Knock Knocks comedy school normally sells out well before the classes begin. And many of these students come from interstate, and roughly a third of the enrolling students plan to have a career in comedy. The youngest in this category was enrolled by her parents for her 18th birthday present.

Bucket list tickers

The second group learning stand-up comedy are the bucket list tickers. Many, as one can imagine, are in their 60s and above, but don’t think this category of student are pensioner card holders. Some are in their early 40s. A career in stand-up comedy might not be their ultimate goal, but they take the course just as serious.

So where does comedy appear on the global bucket list? A 2014 Esquire magazine reported that of the 83 Things Every Man Should Do Before He Dies ‘learn to tell a joke’ was number 25 and number 50 was ‘perform stand-up comedy!’ We assume it’s the same, a decade on. And also relevant to women.

This group is often the most engaged in the course, because they have absolutely no fear, since many have just come from scaling a Mount Kilimanjaro or skydiving over the Grampians.

Key note speakers

And on the topic of fear, it is probably this emotion that drives the third most common type of stand-up comedian student at the Hard Knock Knocks. Whether it’s an upcoming best man speech, a carer as a regular key note speech, or just wanting to add more humour to their weekly business presentation, this third group represent roughly a third of our comedy students – and they’re afraid of %$@#ing it up. This group benefit from both the structure of comedy, one-on-one coaching, as well as the many hours of practice that our comedy school schedules into the agenda.

So, whether you plan a career set on being a comedian, want to tick off another achievement in your life, or just got invited to deliver a TEDx Talk, taking lessons to learn stand-up comedy at the Hard Knock Knocks is for you. Hey! Being funnier is ideal for anybody.