Frog and Bucket launches comedy course
Manchester’s Frog and Bucket comedy club is to launch a stand-up comedy course this weekend.
The program will take place every Saturday afternoon for six weeks, starting on Saturday 16 January. The course has 12 places available, and will cover everything prospective comics need to know to give it a go on the circuit.
The course will be lead by comedian and former skills trainer Dave Williams. Williams has been a professional comedian since 1998 and regularly performs at The Frog and Bucket and The Comedy Store. With three solo Edinburgh shows under his belt, Williams has gigged worldwide, and before going full-time as a comic devised and ran training courses on a wide range of subjects including presentation skills.
Open to complete beginners, as well as those who have already performed, the course will concentrate on how to write material, and create that all important first set. It also aims to incorporate work on those smaller but crucial elements such as stage presence, mic technique and ironing out small idiosyncratic ticks.
At the end of the course on 21 February the club will host a showcase event. The course has already proved popular, and a second course has been penciled in to begin on 7 May, as well as a taster event on 12 March.
The course costs £150 for six two-hour sessions, as well as two tickets to any of the club’s shows during the six weeks, and two tickets to the final showcase.
Frog and Bucket manager Jessica Toomey said: “To develop a comedy course has been an idea for quite a few years, we want to offer something better and bigger than the other courses.
“We really want to take these students under our wing and offer all the advice, support, contacts and skills necessary to progress. We also wanted the course to prove how transferable the skill of stand up is to all areas of life.”
The Frog and Bucket began life in 1994 in the Britannia pub, before moving to its current venue in the Northern Quarter, and was the first Manchester venue dedicated to alternative comedy.
Over the past 22 years the Frog and Bucket has nurtured the careers of many comedians. Most famously it saw the first ever stand up gig by John Bishop, and Johnny Vegas, Jack Whitehall and Peter Kay were regulars early in their careers. The club has seen performances from Steve Coogan, John Thomson, John Oliver, Alan Carr, Jason Manford and Sarah Millican.
For more information or to book a place visit frogandbucket.com.
