Comic timing

Home

Comic timing

Richard Herring

July is comedy central here in Bristol, with one established comedyfest being joined by a big, spanking new arrival. But can a congested diary really help make our city a comedy mecca? Steve Wright quizzes the promoters.

Initially, I was terrified. What were we going to do? We’d have to pull the whole thing, the industry would turn on us and Steve Lount would come at us and our London ways with a pitchfork!” Cass Briggs is one half of the brother-and-sister duo behind this month’s Bristol Comedy Garden. This new arrival will see a clutch of big names including Russell Howard, Adam Buxton, Ardal O’Hanlon and Stephen K Amos filing into a Big Top in Queen Square for four nights of stand-up: each night will feature four comics plus bars, food, live music and, er, some ridiculously large illuminated flowers. So far, so good.

One small problem, though – or is it? – is that the festival has been booked into four mid-July days already occupied by the Bristol BrouHaHa. Steve Lount’s excellent, established comedyfest brings a coupla dozen circuit favourites to town to preview Edinburgh Fringe shows at Southville’s Comedy Box and Tobacco Factory. This year’s typically appetising BrouHaHa line-up includes sets from carrot-topped nihilist Andrew Lawrence, duck-voiced Deutsch deadpanner Henning Wehn, beguilingly nonplussed Yorkshireman Alun Cochrane and the perennially excellent Richard Herring.

So: one week in July, two comedy festivals. Lucky, lucky Bristolians? Or confused, head-scratching promoters? And how did this comedy logjam come about?

Pan back to 2009 (also the BrouHaHa’s first year, as it happens), when Cass and brother Will programmed the inaugural Greenwich Comedy Festival, luring Bill Bailey, Russell Howard, Rich Hall and Jo Brand to the grounds of London’s Old Royal Naval College for some alfresco stand-up. Cass and Will, incidentally, are stepchildren of the late, great Malcolm Hardee – seminal comic, promoter, “amateur sensationalist” and much-loved mentor to comics including Paul Merton, Harry Enfield and Vic Reeves. Oh, and a man not averse to revealing his genitals on stage and screen. (“I grew up thinking it was all fairly normal to see your stepdad get his knob out on stage,” Cass recalls.)

This year, buoyed by Greenwich’s success, Cass and Will decided to branch out. And Bristol was an obvious choice. “We're from the West Country originally, and we’ve had many a good night out in Bristol. And we thought it would be marvellous if we could get Russell [Howard, originally from our part of the world] to do a big hometown gig too.” The siblings canvassed Bristolians’ views on the perfect outdoor comedy venue, and Queen Square kept coming out on top.

Then it was time to reach for the diary. “We decided on July because Edinburgh Fringe takes up August and Greenwich is in September – plus we needed as much time as possible beforehand to organise everything,” Cass explains. “We offered up some dates to Russell and 20 July was the one he could do, so we started to build the festival around that.

“Everything was coming together really nicely. Then I got an irate call from our mum, who knows Steve from the industry: didn't we know about the BrouHaHa? Why were we staging a comedy event on the same bloody dates?”

A good night’s sleep, though, brought some clarity. “Surely Bristol and the surrounding areas had enough people wanting a good time to allow both of us to survive and even prosper? Look at Edinburgh, a city of a similar size that holds one of the world's biggest cultural events. Granted, the Fringe has been running for 65 years – but they had to start somewhere...

“I put off contacting Steve for a bit as I was genuinely scared, but after a week or so I called him up. He'd heard about the Comedy Garden on the grapevine. I explained to him that I felt together we could present a really strong comedy front in Bristol. Steve’s Comedy Box nights and the BrouHaHa have set a precedent for great comedy in Bristol and it’s always been a goal of his to develop an even bigger comedy festival in the city. It’s now our shared dream to work together and build both of our events into something huge. It would be incredible if we could create something as diverse as the Fringe right here in Bristol.”

But does Bristol and its region have the audiences to support such a dense concentration of comedy? “Of course! You're talking about the whole of the South West – a huge amount of people. Our ticket sales show that people are coming in from places like Plymouth, Cardiff, Warwick, Gloucester – and Bristol, of course.”

So, what’s Steve’s take on all this? BrouHaHa’s first two years have sold well and brought some of the UK’s best fringe, circuit and emerging comics to town – so how does he feel about the new kid on the block? “I'd be lying if I said I wasn't concerned: but I am philosophical, and to be honest I’m quite excited by the Comedy Garden,” is Lount’s measured response. “It's not something I would've thought of myself, and if I had I would've wondered how to go about doing it. It can only be good for Bristol. You have to look at the bigger picture.”
Would he prefer to have kept mid-July to himself, though – or does he really believe that the two festivals can make Bristol a comedy mecca? “It remains to be seen if the Comedy Garden has a positive effect on comedy in Bristol, and if BrouHaHa reaps the benefits. But, yes, of course I would've preferred the Comedy Garden to have chosen a different week.”

Will the two ‘fests be competing for the same audiences? “The Comedy Garden has had to programme the biggest names possible to make the event economically viable, and they have put together a terrific line-up. BrouHaHa is pitched very differently: we specialise in brand new one-hour shows by Edinburgh Fringe comedians, many of them just breaking into the big time. Comedy Garden punters will be seeing so many TV names under one roof, whereas I think BrouHaHa audiences are more fascinated by the Edinburgh Fringe and the concept of the solo show. Our audiences tend to know and love the smaller names on the UK circuit. And many of them will go on to great things – John Bishop, Sarah Millican, Micky Flanagan and Rhod Gilbert all did the BrouHaHa before they were truly famous.”
So, can the two co-exist? “I hope so, because I've always maintained that Bristol would be a brilliant location for a city-wide festival embracing all shades of the comedy spectrum. As a comedy fan, I think the two events running simultaneously is as exciting as you can get. But as an independent promoter who has sunk a lot of money into BrouHaHa, I am naturally anxious. I just have to believe it will work. My livelihood depends on it!”
Back in the Garden, Cass likes the idea of increased collaboration. “I'm in favour of us running at the same time and collaborating more in the future. Bristol is the ideal place to start developing something really special, and Steve and I seem to be singing from the same sheet. I think we'd both be stupid not to grab hold of this opportunity and see where it takes us.”