Oliver Double

Double worked as a circuit comedian and founded the Last Laugh comedy club in Sheffield.[4] He continues to perform in his one-person shows Saint Pancreas[5] and Break a Leg and in a monthly comedy club called Funny Rabbit.[6]

He has written books on the subject including 1997's Stand Up![7] and 2012's Britain Had Talent[8] as well as book chapters and articles about stand-up comedy, alternative comedy,[9][10][11] variety theatre and vaudeville[12]

Double contributed to the creation of the British Stand-Up Comedy Archive (BSUCA) at Kent University's Templeman Library[13][14] and he produced a monthly podcast about BSUCA called A History of Comedy in Several Objects.[15][16]

He has appeared on TV programmes and documentaries discussing stand-up comedy, including BBC's Imagine and Horizon.[17] He has also appeared on numerous comedy podcasts including The Alexei Sayle Podcast where he discussed Bertolt Brecht[18] and Book Shambles where he discussed the history alternative comedy with Josie Long and Robin Ince.[18]

Double teaches practical performance[19] including stand-up comedy[20] based on research and many of his students have become professional comedians.[12]

• Stand-Up! On Being a Comedian (1997, Methuen Drama) ISBN 9780413703200
• Getting the Joke: The Inner Workings of Stand-Up Comedy (2004, Bloomsbury) ISBN 978-0413774767
• Britain Had Talent: A History of Variety Theatre (2012, Palgrave Macmillan) ISBN 978-0230284609
• Alternative Comedy: 1979 and the Reinvention of British Stand-Up (2020, Bloomsbury) ISBN 9781350052819

• Oliver Double at University of Kent
• British Standup Comedy Archive (BSUCA)
• Oliver Double on Twitter
• Oliver Double at IMDb