The goal of Stand-up tragedy is to make the audience members cry.
[1] Stand-up tragedy performances are usually long and employ the use of various media such as video, audio, highly emotional monologues and rants where the performer recites a fast-paced succession of tragic and disturbing stories.
Stand-up tragedy is often performed in bars, nightclubs, private homes, art museums, galleries and universities.
[citation needed] The comedian Brother Theodore (1906–2001) used the term to describe his comedic act which was dark, and had an absurdist edge.
[3] The Beat poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti (1919-2021) often referred to himself as a "stand-up tragedian",[4] and performance artist Bryan Lewis Saunders uses it to describe his own act in a more literal sense of the term.