I first started doing stand up comedy in 2018. I asked for the book Off The Mic by Deborah Frances White and Marsha Shandur for my birthday in 2015, so a good two and a half years before that first gig. In retrospect, it really shouldn’t have been a surprise that I ended up doing so. Off The Mic takes the form of a series of chapters addressing various elements of stand up - writing, performing, developing ideas, persona, stage presence, etc. In each of these, White introduces the topic before interspersing the body of the text with largely original interviews with a very wide range of acts, covering the UK and the US (and so noting, implicitly, some of the interesting differences in the art form between the two sides of the pond) and the breadth of experience from Nathan Caton to Phill Jupitus. Dotted throughout are longer form interviews, including a fascinating one of Jupitus himself interviewing Eddie Izzard, an early comedy favourite of mine. Typical of me, I only got around to reading it now, nearly five years into doing comedy. Oops. Still, I have picked up thoughts and been able to, in my head at least, more critically and intelligently respond to them or integrate them into my thinking. A worthwhile read for comics or, just about, those with a very deep interest regardless.