Comedy Blogedy: How long have you been gigging in stand-up?

Julie Kertesz: My first showcase was end of March 2011 and my first gig alone was in November 2011.

Comedy Blogedy: How would you describe your comedy?

Julie Kertesz: Well, after acknowledging my age, I try to destroy the stereotype “old lady” and then tell stories from problems in my life condensed, transformed to make the audience laugh.

Comedy Blogedy: Which comedians influence your comedy?

Julie Kertesz: Perhaps Adam Bloom.

Comedy Blogedy: Did you always want to go into comedy?

Julie Kertesz: Go into comedy? What does it mean? I want to learn to make people laugh, when I want, not wonder why they laugh.

Comedy Blogedy: How do you go about writing your material?

Julie Kertesz: I dream them early morning, or sometimes during the day, they are all autobiographical, even if they’re a bit exaggerated; frustrations are a good starting point at making fun of old sorrows later on.

Comedy Blogedy: Do you gig as a stand-up full time or is it more of a part-time hobby? If so, do you find that your main job influences your material?

Julie Kertesz: No, it is part time, I am also a Toastmaster Speaker and Coach, and Workshop Creator and Leader. I am also a Personal Storyteller (Canal Cafe Theatre mostly with Spark London) All my life experiences, old or new, influence my material.

Comedy Blogedy: What do you find the most enjoyable and frustrating parts of the amateur comedy circuit?

Julie Kertesz: Most enjoyable are the wonderful responsiveness of Stand Up audiences. Cheers and laughter and so on: they do react! I love audiences in general, but they are really wonderful and I have a great reaction from younger ones! Frustrating is sometimes waiting until others go on and on, and sometimes it is heartbreaking to me how they die, other times it is a bit too much for my taste. Mostly, is when I do not understand as they go on too fast. And English is my third language.

Comedy Blogedy: What’s your favourite type of audience to perform to?

Julie Kertesz: Young men and women, mixed audience, audiences near each other in the dark. I have had good experiences only so far, be it from only 3 in the audience or 120 – well of course the laughter and energy is stronger and longer from a bigger audience but I do not mind. It is all experience. I have 23 gigs behind me now, most in London. One in Canterbury as they gave me ten minutes and one in Leicester during Dave’s Comedy Festival, where I was named “The Best Silver Comedy Newcomer” of the year, after two heats.

Comedy Blogedy: Have you been heckled a lot since you’ve started gigging? Do you enjoy being heckled? What’s the best heckle you’ve had?

Julie Kertesz: Well, I am not heckled a lot. I had a “fuck you” that I didn’t register did at my first gig, and the best heckle at the Cavendish Arms was a positive heckle “do it, do it!” when I told them what my daughter told me not to do, but well, she is not here.

Comedy Blogedy: What advice would you give to new acts thinking about starting out in comedy?

Julie Kertesz: Go and learn to speak in public, Toastmasters club was a wonderful beginning for me, learning to look in the eye long enough, to you’re your voice, to move, to have a point and passion mostly in what you say. Love the audience and they love you back. I read books about Comedy and Stand Up and Humour, went to three workshops last year, before really beginning, but then I realized I have made people laugh before in my storytelling without thinking “stand up” or “comedian” about myself. I still go to every gig as an experiment.

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