New book from stand-up Lee Kyle

Stand-up Lee Kyle has written a book telling fellow comedians how to turn a collection of jokes into a proper show, based on his experience as a director.

How To Make A Stand Up Show is a new book aimed at comedians who already know how to perform but are struggling to shape their material into something with structure and purpose, whether as  Edinburgh Fringe hour or a filmed special.

Kyle, who has been performing stand-up since 2009, has built a parallel career directing solo shows for comedians including Chris Cantrill, Elaine Robertson and Sammy Dobson. He runs a regular night at the Stand Comedy Club in Newcastle called New Directions specifically designed to help emerging acts in the north-east make their first full-length show.

He says that rather than setting out rules for how comedy should be written or structured, the book ‘looks at where conventional wisdom holds up, where it doesn't, and how comedians can work with their own instincts rather than trying to override them’.

'I love the moment when the mess of ideas becomes a show,' Kyle said. 'I feel that this book can help others do that.'

How To Make A Stand Up Show is available as a paperback, audiobook, PDF and Kindle edition from imleekyle.com

• Also just published is The Laughter Grafter: The Diary Of An Average Comedian - based on the 254 gigs Tony Harries performed. Describing it as ‘the most depressing book ever written about the stand-up comedy circuit,’ it charts his journey from ‘the first nervous gigs where you travel long distances for little stage time, to headlining, getting paid, and receiving drinks, pats on the back and compliments (and insults) in the ear’. It’s available here.

Published: 1 Jun 2026