Stand-Up or Die

Andy de la Tour: Andy is a writer, director, actor and stand-up comedian. He has appeared in scores of stage plays, TV dramas and films, including Notting Hill and 44 Inch Chest. His plays have been produced throughout the UK and also further afield, from the US, to Serbia and Panama.

"'I was born in 1968. For my generation of London-circuit stand-up comedians there was a Year Zero attitude to 1979. Holy texts found in a skip out of the back of the offices of the London listings magazine Time Out tell us how, with a few incendiary post-punk punchlines, Alexei Sayle, Arnold Brown, Dawn French and Andy de la Tour destroyed British comedy hegemony of Upper-Class Oxbridge Satirical Songs and Working-Class Bow Tie-Sporting Racism. Then, with the fragments of these smashed idols and their own bare hands, they built pioneering stand-up clubs The Comedy Store and The Comedy Strip. In doing so they founded the egalitarian Polytechnic of Laughs that is today's comedy establishment.' Stewart Lee 'Andy de la Tour deserves a noble place in the history of stand-up. He was one of the fringe theatre performers who were there at the foundation of Alternative Cabaret as the Seventies turned into the Eighties, alongside the likes of Alexei Sayle and Tony Allen... De La Tour nails the [Comedy circuit's] problems exactly, and with some authority - while the book maintains a brisk, entertaining read... anyone with interest in the workings of the live comedy circuit would be a fool not to get it.' Chortle.com"

• 1. Tourists on a Visa -Waiver 9 2. 'Are you ready for some comedy???' 13 3. Stand -up Comedy Is Not Fun18 4. Nine Shows Over Three Nights27 5. An Evening of Lesbian Stand -up33 6. Downtown For My Inaugural Gig 43 7. Before I Morphed Into Jim Davidson53 8. Too Many Shows Chasing Too Few Punters64 9. 9/11 Was Off Limits74 10. I Had Actually Done It85 An Extra Bit90