Speaking at PechaKucha Manchester

John Cooper at PechaKucha Manchester 2022
09/21/2022

I was invited to give a talk at PechaKucha Manchester recently. It's a speaking format using 20 slides, and 20 seconds on each slide, to give a talk of around 6 minutes...pretty tight.

I chose to speak about my near 20 years in comedy and try and condense it right down. My relocating to Manchester years ago to make a go of stand-up. Getting a comedy agent, taking up improv, performing at the Edinburgh festival and going on tour support around the country with comedians far more well-known than myself!

It was a liberating talk to give. I'd not given it much thought before suggesting the idea and it was a nice way to reaffirm my personal history. I'm often so busy thinking about my next project that perhaps I don't always acknowledge the skill of my experience that I should give myself credit for.

Pecha Kucha is a global format which takes place all over the world. The event I attended had scientists, engineers, clothing manufacturers, climate change specialists and me, I might have felt a little out of place, but on refl,ection I wasn't. Stand-up comedy is a very niche career choice.

I was also challenged by Kyle the organiser to give a second talk completely improvised, without any knowledge of the slides. Of course I relished it, as to me that's a 'no pressure gig'.

One of the other speakers commented on how terrifying the idea of an improvised talk was. From my perspective, it's just fun.
I think it's still very much an issue that some folks aren't comfortable speaking in public. PechaKutcha was really supportive and a great platform for that.

I hope to change that perception in the training I do, I'm currently promoting a talk on improvisation.

Building on my TEDx Talk in July, I go to teams and companies who are perhaps a little intimidated by improv. Instead of a workshop with participants, the talk, explains the benefits of improv, for work andfor fun, in a way I hope will understand and encourage teams to try improve themselves and build the brain muscle skills that I now take for granted. Just saying 'Yes, and'.

Get the Newsletter.

* indicates required

Please select all the ways you would like to hear from Rocket Steps:

We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By clicking below to subscribe, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Mailchimp's privacy practices.

Intuit Mailchimp

John Cooper
Comedian & Artist
2025
© Copyright. All rights reserved.
Rocket Steps limited.  Company Number: 09809357     
Privacy Policy
linkedin facebook pinterest youtube rss twitter instagram facebook-blank rss-blank linkedin-blank pinterest youtube twitter instagram