Hello and welcome back to The Comedy Cast; today you’ll be hearing from Greg Dean.

Greg is someone very well-known in the comedy world and if you’ve ever look for a book on stand-up comedy then chances are you’ve come across his book on stand-up; Step by Step to Stand-up Comedy.

We started off by talking a bit about Greg heritage, coming from British stock, one side being Scottish, who still have a castle, and the other English.

We spoke about Greg growing up in rural California and joining the theatre as a young man before literally running away with the circus at the age of 21. Then we chatted about Greg going onto becoming a successful, touring stand-up comedian before he turned his hand to teaching the craft of stand-up.

Greg reveals the basics of his classes, the three mechanics as he calls them; the target assumption, connector and reinterpretation. Greg also speaks about being a member of the International Society of Humour Studies, being the only member that isn’t part of academia. He also talks about reading as much academia as possible while researching his book and his contributions to the society.

We talk then about the importance of comedians learning to read the reactions of their audiences so they can know how far they can take jokes, we speak too about nothing being off limits and about offending people from time to time and that comedians just have to get used to it.

We chat then about whether anything still surprises him in comedy anymore or has it seen it all already?

We speak more in depth about his book Step by Step to Stand-up Comedy and how it was a real labour of love that took 10 years to write and the struggle to find a publisher.

And Greg tells two absolutely hilarious stories about previous students of his that had me roaring, you might be offended by if you are you’re probably listening to the wrong podcast.

Greg Dean’s website: here

Greg’s Facebook: here

Greg’s Twitter: here

Greg’s YouTube: here

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