A solo comedic performance judged on material, timing and audience engagement.
Stand-up comedy is a solo comic performance: one person, standing alone with no set, delivering a run of jokes, observations and short stories straight to the audience. There is no character to hide behind and no cast to share the load. The performer writes or chooses the material, decides the order, and lives or dies by whether the room laughs.
On eTalenter it is a ready-made competition item with a different shape on each template that carries it. On the Kenya national drama and film festival template it is an Individual item for boys and girls together, in five age groups from Pre-Primary to Tertiary, scored out of 100, with no time limit set and the language listed as English. On the American fine arts festival template it is an Individual item with a five-minute limit and an English-language strand, and on the Indian inter-collegiate youth festival template it is an Individual item with a five-minute limit, performed in Malayalam.
A round is simple to run. The performer is announced, walks on, and the clock starts at the first word. A good set has a clear opening that tells the audience who they are listening to, a few strong routines built on things the audience recognises, and a closing joke that lands cleanly rather than trailing off. Because the panel scores laughter and craft together, a nervous but well-written set often beats a confident one with weak material.
What separates a winning entry is control. Strong performers write tight, rehearse the pauses as carefully as the lines, and know which joke to cut when the room is quiet. Younger entrants do best with everyday school, family and food observations told warmly; older entrants can take on sharper satire as long as the set stays inside the organiser’s content rules.
Organisers run stand-up comedy because it needs only a microphone and a stage, and because it rewards writing, memory, timing and nerve in a single item. Since the templates do not publish a heading split for it on every strand, the organiser should circulate the judging headings, time limit and content rules with the entry notice.
Where Stand Up Comedy is run
On the eTalenter templates this item appears on three: the Kenya national drama and film festival template (On Stage, five age groups), an American national fine arts festival template (Drama), and an Indian inter-collegiate youth festival template (Action, Malayalam). Comedy competitions are also run at school talent shows, college fests and open-mic style contests more widely, but this page describes the item as those three templates set it up.
- Kenya
- United States
- India
Key facts
- Individual item on all three templates: one performer, boys and girls together
- Kenya template: five age groups from Pre-Primary to Tertiary, each scored out of 100, with no time limit set
- American fine arts template: Individual, English, five-minute limit, scored out of 100
- Indian inter-collegiate template: Individual, Malayalam, five-minute limit, scored out of 100
- Not the same as the comedy-led play or skit items, which use a cast and are judged as drama
- Needs no set, only a stage and a microphone; the material, timing and delivery carry the marks
On eTalenter, Stand Up Comedy is filed under Action, Drama, On Stage and typically scored with Marks. It appears in 3 ready-made event templates — each one can adjust its time limit, age-group assignment and scoring setup independently.
Across the templates that use it, Stand Up Comedy is most often entered as an Individual competition, typically scored out of 100, commonly time-limited to around 5 minutes where a limit is set.
What judges look at in Stand Up Comedy
What a Stand Up Comedy panel is actually weighing up, and where the marks are usually won or lost:
- Material: jokes and routines that are original, well built and suited to the audience rather than borrowed from a well-known comic
- Timing: pauses before punchlines, speed through set-ups, and knowing when to wait for a laugh to finish
- Delivery and presence: confident voice, eye contact with the room and body language that supports the joke instead of distracting from it
- Audience engagement: handling a quiet room or a heckle, and keeping the whole hall with the performer to the end
- Structure: a strong opening, a sensible order of routines and a clean closing line inside the time limit
- Suitability: keeping content inside the organiser’s rules for age, language and taste
Treat these as the judging focus, not a fixed rubric: publish your own weighted criteria for Stand Up Comedy under Scoring Setup, or start from the full mono-act judging criteria guide (the closest solo-performance format).
How to prepare for Stand Up Comedy
How entrants and their teachers usually get Stand Up Comedy right on the day:
- Write the set in short routines, each with a set-up and a punchline, and cut any joke that has to be explained
- Build material from real, small observations the audience shares, such as school mornings, family habits or exam week, rather than generic jokes
- Test the set on friends and teachers, note exactly where they laugh, and keep only what works
- Time the set with a stopwatch and rehearse to finish about ten seconds under the limit so a laugh in the middle cannot push you over
- Memorise the opening and the closing line perfectly; those are what a panel remembers
- Practise with a microphone in a large room, including how to hold it, and rehearse the pause as carefully as the words
- Prepare a backup routine and a way to keep going calmly if the first joke gets no reaction
- Check the notice for language, content rules and whether props are allowed before finalising the script
Ready-made event templates that include Stand Up Comedy
Open any template to preview it in eTalenter and install it as a live, editable event.
| Template | Category | Score label | Competitions |
|---|---|---|---|
| AG National Fine Arts Festival | Drama | Marks | 1 |
| Kenya National Drama and Film Festival | On Stage | Marks | 5 |
| MG University Inter Collegiate Youth Festival | Action | Marks | 1 |
Frequently asked questions
Is Stand Up Comedy judged individually or as a team?
Across eTalenter’s templates it’s most often run as an Individual entry, though an organiser can set either participation type when assigning the item to an age group.
How long should a stand-up comedy set be?
It depends on the strand. The American fine arts and Indian inter-collegiate templates set a five-minute limit; the Kenya template sets none, so the organiser should publish one.
Is stand-up comedy judged individually or as a team?
Individually. It is a solo item on every template that carries it, scored out of 100.
Can I use someone else’s jokes?
Panels reward original material, and borrowing a famous comic’s routine usually costs marks on the material heading. Write your own, or at least make borrowed ideas clearly your own.
Is stand-up comedy the same as a comic skit or mono-act?
No. A skit uses a cast and is judged as drama, and a mono-act is a solo play in character. Stand-up has the performer speaking as themselves directly to the audience.
Do I need props or a backing track?
Stand-up is normally done with a microphone only. Check the organiser’s notice, since the templates do not set a prop rule.
Want the full judging picture? Read the full mono-act judging criteria guide (the closest solo-performance format), or browse every action competition item.
Try Stand Up Comedy in eTalenter
See every ready-made template that runs Stand Up Comedy, and install one as a live event — age groups, rules and scoring included.
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