Amy Annette

“I’d love to say something chic like ‘To want to hold the room’s attention is to lose it,’ but unfortunately, unless you’re someone who people vaguely recognise from the TV (were you in that Tena Lady advert?) you do need to be intentional to get and hold the attention of the room. Your first action should be to know what you want the attention for. Do you need to get everyone to sit down? Do you need to bring them to tears with a specially written poem at your shared Sweet 16? Or do you need to distract them while a spy sneaks behind them? There are many reasons to want to hold a room’s attention and many ways to do it. The traditional: be sincere and have a scary relative in the crowd to glare at people who talk. The viral: surprise everyone with an incoherent speech or series of unasked for opinions, and make sure someone films it. The basic: eye contact, steely confidence and pay for the tab so they have to be nice to you.”

See Amy Annette’s show Thick Skin at the Pleasance Courtyard as part of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, 31 July to 25 August.

37 stand-up comedians share their one game-changing rule for being the most interesting person in the room