The Edinburgh Festival is nearly over. Bravo to the various talented Southwest comedians who have taken the plunge! You too can learn to stand up to be seen and heard. Build the skills and confidence to create humorous, engaging stories and share them on stage, on screen or in business. Or just have fun! My new Comedy Matters courses are starting soon, helping you become a more confident, fearless and fascinating speaker – with absolutely no pressure to be funny. Phew! I’ll provide plenty of...

Unexpected playful happenings – incongruity – are often the grist of comedy. Just ask Immanuel Kant and Arthur Schopenhauer, who both explored the role of the unexpected in laughter. Although, once upon a time, humour wasn't taken particularly seriously. Bah! Of course, when life's unexpected moments are serious, the result is rarely laughter. But with time, disappointment, grief and pain can often be reimagined into comedy. My very first stand-up set at Plymouth University, twenty odd years...

Being silly is surprisingly difficult for many people. Somewhere around the age of 10 years (and onwards) many of us learn to edit ourselves. We worry about looking foolish, saying the wrong thing or getting it wrong - and particularly 'standing out'. Yet, paradoxically, that's where the joy, creativity and clowning began for me. This week's clown class was all about getting out of our heads, improvising and giving ourselves permission to be stupidly silly. And that's exactly what happened....