Introduce Yourself to SIG: Performing Humour

[Alexander Sparrow]

Hi everyone,

Welcome again to the SIG: Performing forum! This thread is for introducing yourself to the group. A loosely followed format will help make all the information easy to find, so let's start with the format below. My introduction will follow this post.

Name:
Field: 
Area/s of interest:
Writer/performer of comedy (Yes/No, and which type):
Introductory paragraph:

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Name: Alexander Sparrow
Field: Philosophy
Area/s of interest: Aesthetics and ethics of stand-up comedy
Writer/performer of comedy (Yes/No, and which type): Yes, writer and performer
Introductory paragraph:
I'm interested in using humour studies to improve stand-up comedy (both for myself and other comedians). My aesthetic interest is working out how jokes can be made maximally effective, i.e. laugh-producing. My ethical interests lie in defending comedy against claims that it should be limited in terms of subject matter, joke targets, or comedic sub-genre. At this stage, I defend the benign violation theory in a limited way: arguing that it can be shown to improve jokes strictly within the field of stand-up comedy. (The original argument that it encompasses and explains all instances of humour is not relevant to my work, which is limited to the study and performance of stand-up comedy.)

[Craig Draheim]

Thank you, Alexander for setting this introductory thread up!

Hello everyone,


Name: Craig Draheim

Field: Media Studies (Focus on Dramatic Writing) & Theatre Arts (Focus on Performance Studies)

Area/s of interest: Offensiveness, protest or propaganda humor, and the exploration of Autoethnographic/Practitioner Research methodologies.

Writer/performer of comedy (Yes/No, and which type): Yes, writer and performer

Introductory paragraph: My scholarly interest in humor is linked closely to its creation by examining the artform through a performance theory lens and incorporating methodologies that collect firsthand experiences from the field. My research has been based around establishing better forms of communication between different groups (comedic practitioners, audiences, academic communities, and media outlets) to move toward a more accessible understanding of the process and purpose of jokes. Within this research, I asked if live comedy needed "Research Comedians" (a placeholder term I used), which I defined as individuals that had a strong comprehension of both theory and comedic practice. 
On top of fifteen years of creating live/video/audio comedy throughout North America, I have an MFA in Screenwriting (with a concentration on comedy, horror, & experimental writing), an MA in Interpretation & Performance Studies, graduated from the Second City Conservatory, completed the improv/sketch programs with the Pack Theater, and I'm a member of National Lampoon's Lemmings.