Comedians Performing Optimistic Material

Young Comics and The New Wave of Comedy

The clown that cries is a theory that usually stands up to scrutiny, but the new wave of comedy on our screens suggests otherwise. Comedians such as Josie Long and Russell Howard are spreading optimism to stand-up comedy audiences.

Josie Long's newest show, which has now become widely available through the internet, attempts a form of observational comedy that serves not only to enlighten the more down beaten of the audience, but also to entertain.

This is perhaps the theme of the post comedy-store comedy, that stand-up comedy has not only just become about how well performers can perform jokes, but also their editorial skills.

Yet the editorial skills of comedians such as Stuart Lee and Bill Hicks are no longer in vogue. Instead a much more positive view on life has been taken up in apparent global recession by comics who instead have shows such as Josie Long's aptly named, "Trying is Good."

The Younger Generation of Comics

One of the things that links the new wave of comedians is not only the charm of comedians such as Sarah Millican or Michael McIntyre, but also their young age when compared to comedians in the past. The punk poet phenomenon of the 80s has continued with comics generally not maintaining public recognition for more than 2 Edinburgh shows, which has lead to comedians generally being younger.

Perhaps younger comedians still have their hopeless optimism that is generally left on the M6 service stations of their older contemporaries.Yet this seems too simplistic. Perhaps we as an audience have become more accepting of comedians who take more chances and lay themselves in performances.

It may just be a phase in comedy that will pass, but for the moment it's a nice change of pace from the hopeless cynicism of the last few years.