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All Outputs (15)

37 funny fragments: the UoS comedy and performance art project assemblage (2023)
Journal Article
Wilkie, I., & Talbot, R. (2023). 37 funny fragments: the UoS comedy and performance art project assemblage. Comedy Studies, https://doi.org/10.1080/2040610X.2023.2188834

What follows is an account of the ongoing University of Salford (UoS) Comedy and Performance Art Project. This has evolved into a series of staged and recorded ‘Non-Events’ that broadly seek to uncover any interactions between the fields of Comedy... Read More about 37 funny fragments: the UoS comedy and performance art project assemblage.

Waves of laughter : comic surfing on Bergson’s mechanical inelasticity (2020)
Journal Article
Wilkie, I., & Diddams, N. (2021). Waves of laughter : comic surfing on Bergson’s mechanical inelasticity. Comedy Studies, 12(1), 91-103. https://doi.org/10.1080/2040610X.2020.1850107

Bergson’s concept of ‘mechanical inelasticity’ from his influential essay Laughter (1900, 2010, 5) remains a staple of comic theory. Bergson’s focus was on what impels laughter in social contexts. In viewing the raising of laughter as a process, i.e.... Read More about Waves of laughter : comic surfing on Bergson’s mechanical inelasticity.

Very silly party politics : surrealism and satire in the ‘Pythonesque’ (2019)
Journal Article
Wilkie, I. (2019). Very silly party politics : surrealism and satire in the ‘Pythonesque’. Comedy Studies, 10(2), 213-223. https://doi.org/10.1080/2040610X.2019.1623506

2019 sees the 50th anniversary of the iconic British television comedy series Monty Python’s Flying Circus (BBC: 1969-74). This article focuses on the concept of ‘Pythonesque’, placing the broadly political satirical content that is evident within... Read More about Very silly party politics : surrealism and satire in the ‘Pythonesque’.

The University of Salford Sound of Laughter project (2019)
Journal Article
Wilkie, I., Harrison, L., Brennan, D., Briggs, H., & Battle, L. (2019). The University of Salford Sound of Laughter project. Comedy Studies, 9(2), 245-257. https://doi.org/10.1080/2040610X.2018.1494365

What follows is a report of the University of Salford’s Sound of Laughter Project (2018). This pilot study was set up as an initial attempt to ascertain whether it is possible to discern any meaning from the different laughter sounds that audiences m... Read More about The University of Salford Sound of Laughter project.

Funny walking : the rise, fall and rise of the Anglo-American comic eccentric dancer (2017)
Journal Article
Wilkie, I. (2017). Funny walking : the rise, fall and rise of the Anglo-American comic eccentric dancer. Comedy Studies, 8(2), 182-196. https://doi.org/10.1080/2040610X.2017.1343971

This article will attempt to reposition comic eccentric dance as a metamorphic form that still, surprisingly, exists, and is to be found with reasonable ubiquity, in renewed incarna-tions within twenty first century media. Tracing the origins of co... Read More about Funny walking : the rise, fall and rise of the Anglo-American comic eccentric dancer.

Tragicomic presentations of self: starring Phil Silvers as Bilko: (2016)
Journal Article
Wilkie, I. (2016). Tragicomic presentations of self: starring Phil Silvers as Bilko:. Comedy Studies, 7(2), 182-192. https://doi.org/10.1080/2040610X.2016.1197663

When a performer becomes over-associated with a particular, celebrated comic character, can this lead to problems, not merely in terms of type-casting, but in creating confusions for the actor's own perception of self? In instances where a comic crea... Read More about Tragicomic presentations of self: starring Phil Silvers as Bilko:.

Tragicomic presentations of self : starring Phil Silvers as Bilko : the incomplete comic human (2016)
Journal Article
Wilkie, I. (2016). Tragicomic presentations of self : starring Phil Silvers as Bilko : the incomplete comic human. Comedy Studies, 7(2), 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1080/2040610X.2016.1197663

When a performer becomes over-associated with a particular, celebrated comic character can this lead to problems, not merely in terms of type-casting, but in creating confusions for the actor’s own perception of self? In instances where a comic crea... Read More about Tragicomic presentations of self : starring Phil Silvers as Bilko : the incomplete comic human.

Reflecting on the process : actors' documentation of comic performance (and the case of Bull fighting Beckett) (2016)
Journal Article
Wilkie, I. (2016). Reflecting on the process : actors' documentation of comic performance (and the case of Bull fighting Beckett). Comedy Studies, 7(1), 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1080/2040610X.2016.1139807

This article considers actors' documentation of their process and suggest how performers' ‘reflection-on action’ might become more formalised in the study and recording of performance. While ‘autobiographical’ material is generally regarded as being... Read More about Reflecting on the process : actors' documentation of comic performance (and the case of Bull fighting Beckett).

“Too many actors and too few jobs” : a case for curriculum extension in UK vocational actor training (2015)
Journal Article
Wilkie, I. (2015). “Too many actors and too few jobs” : a case for curriculum extension in UK vocational actor training. London Review of Education, 13(1), 31-42. https://doi.org/10.18546/LRE.13.1.04

This article questions the current situation for vocational acting training (VAT) in the UK. It aims to provide an update on the report into burgeoning provision of acting training (and the attempt to address subsequent high rates of actor unemployme... Read More about “Too many actors and too few jobs” : a case for curriculum extension in UK vocational actor training.