Chris Head Comedy Coaching & Directing

21/09/2026

In this week's Substack post on How Stand-up Comedy Works, I'm giving advice on, er, giving advice in stand-up.
https://chrisheadcomedy.substack.com/p/how-to-get-laughs-giving-advice-in

15/09/2026

My latest Substack post on How Stand-up Comedy Works looks at how you can get laughs by taking a cynical adult attitude to kids shows and stories. https://chrisheadcomedy.substack.com/p/how-to-get-laughs-looking-at-kids

07/09/2026

My latest How Stand-up Works Substack is on creating comedy with problem-solution writing.
https://chrisheadcomedy.substack.com/p/how-to-find-the-funny-with-problem

31/08/2026

I give you more anthropomorphic stand-up comedy inspiration this week in my latest How Stand-up Comedy Works Substack. Check out Richard Pryor acting like his dogs, Noel Fielding acting like a blue bottle (aka bottle fly) and Brigitte Christie doing her entire act as an ant.

Be inspired by Richard Pryor, Noel Fielding and Bridget Christie to bring anthropomorphism into your stand-up.

28/08/2026

Get 20 off my Live Sketch Comedy Course in STROUD! Use code SKIT to save £20 on the Stroud course. Perfect for writers and performers wanting to sharpen their live comedy skills. Book now for added laughs in your life ! https://wix.to/ewJBK3D

18/08/2026

Here's my lastest Substack post of FREE stand-up comedy writing inspiration where I look at doing a sketch in stand-up, with a classic example from Billy Connolly.
https://chrisheadcomedy.substack.com/p/toboggan-sketch-comedy-in-stand-up

07/08/2026

In 2015 in London I did a sketch show course with a great group that culminated in a live show at the Hen & Chickens that they called "That Show Thing". Just found some photos from that show. It's quite clear what's happening in this one featuring I think Andrea, Jenny and Lawrence... (Jason? Sorry it's been a while). Whoever he is, the man is evidently not happy. If you are in Stroud (or can get there) I'm doing another live sketch show course 11 years on this autumn! More info and booking: https://www.chrishead.com/post/live-skecth-comedy-course-stroud

30/07/2026

Live Sketch Comedy (And a Course in Stroud @ The Subscription Rooms)

In a live comedy sketch show, whole scenes and situations can be conjured up out of thin air with perhaps just a few chairs, minimal costume and mimed props. And like a stand-up performance, you can break the fourth wall and talk to the audience.

To get a flavour of the style, check out the video of the brilliant lo-fi sketch double-act Two Episodes of Mash, with Joe Wilkinson and Diane Morgan (before they became massive). In this style of sketch comedy, is built around the clear comic personas of you and your fellow comics and the relationships between you.

And, as can be the case in improv, the characters are often only a thin veil over your own comedic personas. Indeed, the pleasure for the audience will be in seeing you playing the characters.

Also, as when you do a stand-up act-out, you never fully step into a fictional world. Even while a sketch is in progress you will bicker as ‘yourselves’ and talk about things that are happening in the room. You might stop a sketch and restart it, or abandon it altogether.

None of this need rule out using classic comedy sketch structures and approaches, but the great joy of this kind of live work is you can play fast and loose with it all.

In my Live Sketch Comedy Course in Stroud, you’ll create, write and perform brilliant comedy sketches, performing them in a show at the end of the course that will have the live immediacy of stand-up.

In the live performance at the end of the course (in the form of a rehearsed reading of the sketches), much like Wilkinson and Morgan’s Two Episodes of Mash, it's about the chemistry between you and your fellow performers, as much as it’s about the sketches.

You'll ‘break the fourth wall’, break the rules, bicker between yourselves about how to end a sketch, engage directly with the audience, and even abandon sketches midway!

The course is perfect if you want to have fun, collaborate with a great group, and sharpen your comedy writing and performance skills (and live in or near Stroud, obviously. Less perfect if you, say, live in Glasgow).

Upcoming Stroud Live Sketch Show Course

7pm-9pm, Wednesday nights, 9th Sept 2026 - 7th Oct 2026

@ Sub Rooms, Stroud

£97.50

More info and booking
https://www.chrishead.com/service-page/live-sketch-comedy-course-stroud

20/07/2026

Here's my latest stand-up comedy writing inspiration on Substack. https://substack.com/home/post/p-207765340

16/07/2026

Are you doing an Edinburgh comedy show this year? Perhaps you’ve got a lot of stand-up material you need to shape for the show? Here is a show structure that I work with to organise the material into a three-part structure to effectively pace the content and maintain audience engagement.
Part 1 (approx. 10 minutes): Start by establishing your persona. Select the material that best sets up who you are and where you’re coming from. At the end of this section, set up the central question or issue you are exploring (e.g., on a recent show I advised on it was "Why am I 33 and single?"). This provides the audience with a premise to follow throughout the show.
Part 2 (approx. 40 minutes): Dedicate the bulk of the show to exploring the central theme. (In a 45 mins set this section becomes 30 mins)
The job here is to complicate and deepen the central question.
Tangents: You will also go off on tangents that are nothing to do with the theme! The theme is the main road and you have all of these side roads you can go down and then come back.
Mid-set energy: Just past the halfway mark, where audience interest might dip, introduce a surprising or high-energy element—in the case of the show I’m working on, it’s a song—to lift the room.
Closing the section: Conclude Part 2 with the "worst points"—the lowest, most shameful, or embarrassing moments of your material.
Part 3 (approx. 5 minutes): Use this final section for conclusions, answering the central question. End on callback(s).
Want to work with me on getting your show into shape? I have given notes on structure, material, jokes, storytelling, and performance for a huge range of shows for Edinburgh Fringe, Soho Theatre, Melbourne Comedy Festival and more.
Among many others, I've worked on shows with Count Binface ("Bindependence Day, 2024 tour show), Stefania Licari (Italian medic comic with Edinburgh Fringe and Adelaide Fringe sold out shows - pictured), Richard Lindesay (flute playing social media phenomenon) and Matt Parker (maths comedy genuis).
Inspiring, practical and problem solving. Guaranteed to make the structure stronger, the narrative clearer, your performance better and the whole thing funnier!
Send me a video of the show and/or the script and I will review it, prepare my thoughts and then we'll work on it in a Zoom call. Following the session you receive detailed written notes covering all the points. Full info and booking:
https://www.chrishead.com/show-notes-directing