Here’s my thoughts:

- Try to practice doing two different 7 minute sets, so you at least know you have 15 minutes of material and can just combine them at the show
- Identify your best 3 jokes. Start with one, put one right in the middle of the 15 minutes, and close with your best joke. If things aren’t going great, you’ll feel more comfortable knowing you still have your best joke as an “ace in the hole”
- Ask the booker if you can do 10 minutes instead
- Do some crowd work (it might be tough depending on the theatre size) but this always provides for some laughs without having more material
- Add more punchlines to existing jokes, this way you don’t need to write new jokes, just small additions to what you already have

Best,
Ben

I’ve been doing comedy for 6 months now and I have recently been offered to do a show at the South African State Theartre. They want me to do a 15 min set and the most I have done in my short career is 7 min. How do I prepare myself to do a big show like this one?

It’s up to you whether you want to change your name or not. I think a lot of people have the last name Campbell, do you mean you’re related to the soup company founders? If so, you might want to leave your name so it lends credibility to any material you may end up doing about it. Otherwise, the name thing is a personal decision, I’d say concentrate on getting funny first with your regular name, then worry about the marketing later on…

Best,
Ben