There is no fourth wall in popular performance. The show is firmly rooted in the here and now, and the performers address the audience directly, while the audience answer back with laughter, applause or heckling. Performer and role are interlaced, so that we are left uncertain about just how the persona we see onstage might relate to the private person who presents it to us. Popular Performance defines and surveys varieties of performance where the main purpose is to entertain, and where there is no shame in being trivial, frivolous or nonsensical as long as people go home happy at the end of the show. Contributions by new and established scholars focus particularly on how it is made, explaining the techniques of performance and production that make it so appealing to audiences. With sections examining how popular performance works in a range of historical and contemporary examples, readers will gain insights into:* performance forms associated with the variety tradition: music hall, vaudeville, cabaret, variety* performance forms associated with circus: wild west shows, clowning* issues relating to the identity of the performer in relation to magic, burlesque, pantomime in contemporary performance* issues relating to venue and audience in relation to contemporary street theatre, stand-up, and live sketch comedy.

Introduction Chapter 1 From Domestic Song to Drawing Room Recitation: Dan Leno's Music Hall Repertoire (Caroline Radcliffe, University of Birmingham, UK) Chapter 2 American Vaudeville (Leigh Woods, Professor of Theatre, University of Michigan, USA) Chapter 3 It's 1922 and at the Munich Kammerspiele Karl Valentin performs Der Christbaumbrettl at Die rote Zibebe (Michael Wilson, Professor of Drama, Loughborough University, UK) Chapter 4 Packed from Pit to Ceiling: the Kingston Empire (Adam Ainsworth, Kingston University, UK) Chapter 5 Grock: Genius among Clowns (Louise Peacock, University of Hull, UK) Chapter 6 Something Wicked: the Theatre of Derren Brown (Michael Mangan, Loughborough University, UK) Chapter 7 Performing the Burlesque Body: The Explicit Female Body as Palimpsest (Dr. Lynn Sally, Metropolitan College of New York, USA) Chapter 8 "Hiya Fans!" Celebrity Performance and Reception in Modern British Pantomime (Simon Sladen, V&A Museum, UK) Chapter 9 With them, Not at Them (Bim Mason, Circomedia, UK) Chapter 10 What's special about stand-up comedy? Josie Long's Lost Treasures of the Black Heart (Sophie Quirk, University of Kent, UK) Chapter 11 'It feels like a group of friends messing around onstage.' Pappy's and live sketch comedy (Oliver Double, University of Kent, UK) Conclusion Endnotes Bibliography Index Notes on Contributors