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Standing Up Comedy: Analyzing Rhetorical Approaches to Identity in Stand-up Comedy
| Title: | Standing Up Comedy: Analyzing Rhetorical Approaches to Identity in Stand-up Comedy. |
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| Name(s): |
Grabert, Christopher, Author Holic, Nathan, Committee Chair Wheeler, Stephanie, Committee Member Brenckle, Martha, Committee Member University of Central Florida, Degree Grantor |
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| Type of Resource: | text | |
| Date Issued: | 2019 | |
| Publisher: | University of Central Florida | |
| Language(s): | English | |
| Abstract/Description: | My thesis addresses contemporary conversations about stand-up comedy and the art-form's capacity for facilitating complex rhetorical decision-making. I examine how stand-up comedians have positioned themselves on-stage through choices pertaining revealing personal behaviors, personas, and beliefs in public settings. Ultimately, I argue that the art of stand-up does not require truth-telling on-stage, and that there exists an implicit contract between performers and audiences which details comedians' license to share falsehoods, exaggerations, and embellishments on-stage without the repercussions that accompany these actions in other discourse settings. Finally, I evaluate how comics have handled this rhetorical (")license,(") with some performers delivering easily identifiable falsehoods on stage through characters and caricatures, and others choosing to deliver autobiographical material in spite of the license. My research offers a framework through which audiences may digest the speech utterances in standup comedy performances as the product of purely rhetorical, calculated choices. I will propose that audiences treat each stand-up performance, no matter how seemingly intimate or personal, as artifice. I then offer case studies of three comedians who approach the notion of crafting anon-stage persona in different fashions and evaluate how each of these comedians utilize the implicit license of stand-up comedy. My research contributes to conversations in rhetoric and composition related to the performance of public and private (")selves.(") | |
| Identifier: | CFE0007889 (IID), ucf:52773 (fedora) | |
| Note(s): |
2019-05-01 M.A. Arts and Humanities, Masters This record was generated from author submitted information. |
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| Subject(s): | rhetoric -- stand-up comedy -- speech acts -- persona -- rhetorical analysis -- performance -- speech utterance | |
| Persistent Link to This Record: | http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0007889 | |
| Restrictions on Access: | campus 2022-11-15 | |
| Host Institution: | UCF |
