Jo Koy bombing at the Golden Globes? Meh, I’ve had worse...

You can be the best writer in the world and have the best comedy wordsmiths in the business helping you, but if you can’t sell it on stage, then you might as well be up there reading the phone book, writes Vix Leyton

Jo Koy bombed at the Golden Globes, but that kind of thing is par for the course for a gigging comic (CBS)

A lot of people wouldn’t have known the name Jo Koy before last night; an American comic who has been doing stand-up for 30 years before taking on the prestigious job of Golden Globes’ host. When he accepted the job, he was probably hoping to be a viral sensation by this time – get it right and the world will know your name. However, get it wrong and the world will also know your name…

The question you get asked most when you tell someone you do stand-up comedy is what it feels like to “die” on stage. You tell people it is par for the course, it’s a rite of passage, and that you build up resilience over time. The first two are absolutely true – as a new comic you’ll likely be comforted after a death with “Millican’s Law”. Devised by Sarah Millican to stop her dwelling on a bad gig, she’d allow herself to wallow in it until 11am the next day, then draw a line. The third point, about resilience, not so much.

Stand-up comedy, however curated, involves you putting yourself centre stage, asking people to like you – and when they don’t, it hurts. As Koy has demonstrated, you are never too big or too experienced to face a death on stage, the only difference is, as you advance, the stakes get so much higher.