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DRIVEN TO DISTRACTION: An analysis of Jasper Carrotts’ stage routine over time, as compared to his written material, using his ‘Mother-in-law’ sketch. Table of Contents Introduction Contextual information Accents Tuts Pauses Reformulations Audience Address Audience Prompts Sentences Conclusion Appendices: A – Notation used for transcripts B – Transcript of live show in 1975 C – […]
INTRODUCTION The purpose of this project is to study and compare written and live sketches by comedian Jasper Carrott to find the relationship between the two and how, grammatically, the delivery develops over time. Specifically to find what effect, if any, constant repetition of an act has on the structure of its sentences. There is […]
Contextual information Gesticulation is the grammatical equivalent of contextual narrative and so finds a place in this project. I am covering this first as physical actions play an important part in any comedians’ routine, but are not readily apparent on the taped version*. Generally speaking, it can be found in three ways. Firstly, by actually […]
Accents General discourse, communicating directly with the audience, is what makes or breaks a comedian. If you read a humorous sketch – such as ‘Driver-in-Law’ – it is not the words themselves that make you laugh, but the images that they conjure up. In the book form this is somewhat restricted. You can indicate stress […]
Tuts Unconscious ‘tuts’ only appear in the first half of his act and are usually preceded by a very short pause and followed by ‘and’ or ‘er(m).’ They may just be used as fillers for time or while he thinks out his next sentence, but there is evidence to suggest that they are possibly mnemonic […]
Pauses Pauses, coupled with intonation, are a significant part of speech and in Jasper Carrott’s routines have a number of different uses. These can be divided into deliberate and unconscious pauses. The former will include stopping for breath, pausing for a build up or to prompt a response from the audience. The unintentional pauses, which […]
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