A fond farewell to Chubby White

This weekend (Saturday, June 9) sees the very final instalment (sniff) of the wildly popular Chubby White’s Variety Nights – brilliantly off-the-cuff, joyously surreal and eclectic monthly mixes of stand-up, sketches and music, themed around the mythical adventures of a long-lost 1970s Bristol stand-up.

“After three years and 17 uniquely themed shows, Chubby White’s Variety Night is coming to a close. Join Chubby White and the gang for one last hurrah, as we discover what happened to the mythical 1970s comedian and why he vanished all those years ago. This last hurrah features Chortle’s Best Newcomer Pat Cahill, Fringe Best Show nominee and Bristol cult hero Mat Ewins, and So You Think You’re Funny Finalist Jamie D’Souza.

Here’s Chubby’s co-creator George Erlanger to tell us the story of Bristol’s idiosyncratic, much-loved comedy-cum-variety night.

Tell us the Chubby White story. Who, what, where, when.. and indeed why?
As far as we know, Chubby White was a comedian based in Bristol in the 70s. Some say he was a cult-like figure, others might say he had a moustache. Either way we don’t know much about him.
Fast forward to the year 2015 and we (George Erlanger, Eitan Badouk Epstein, Jamie Maier, Nicky Green, Matthew Rankin) had just graduated from uni.
One fateful day, George was on his way to the corner shop for some cashews when he spied a flock of cats scurrying behind some bins. Naturally, he followed. As he cleared away the gaggle of cats, his eyes were physically grabbed by a psychedelic red and yellow flyer featuring an illustration of a charismatic, iconic-looking comedian. At its head, the flyer was emblazoned with the words ‘Chubby White’s Variety Night’.

The original Chubby White’s Variety Night flyer

George sprinted home, cashews in hand, and slammed the flyer down on the kitchen table, rudely interrupting dinner. “Guys!” he exclaimed. “We’re not going to be accountants after all!”
Needless to say it was total euphoria and we all tried to high-five.
From then on, we resolved to pay tribute to this mysterious moustached comedian with our own show. The rest is history.

How did you come upon this unusual / brilliant premise?
We wanted to make something that would defy the conventions of a ‘normal’ comedy night. It’s what Chubby White would have wanted.
Our first tribute to Chubby White was chaos. But it was beautiful chaos. We had a robot dance-off, everyone had to wear hats, and at the end of it, no one had any idea who Chubby White was. We did one more show in that vein, a Christmas one no less, and realised that more than anything, we just wanted to tell more of the story of Chubby White. And wear tons more wigs.
We wanted to take some of spirit of the cartoons and sitcoms we had grown up watching on TV and put it on stage. We also wanted to host those comedians that we considered unsung heroes of comedy: Mat Ewins, Pat Cahill, Heidi Regan, Jordan Brookes, Faye Treacy, Morgan Rees and so many more!

The brilliant Jordan Brookes at Chubby White’s 1001 Nights

How would you describe the flavour of the Chubby White nights?
Pineapple and ham. Yes, we are the Hawaiian pizza of comedy nights. To put that in a more literal sense, things often veer between the surreal, fruity, unexpected and the just plain overambitious.
But for each specific night, the flavour is totally dependent on the theme we’re attempting: Communist sci-fi, mermaid adventure, full-scale casino heist… We just love buildin’ worlds out of cardboard and dreams.

Give us one or two highlights from the Chubby White annals.
Eitan and George like surprising each other onstage. During our Christmas show, George interrupted Klaus (Eitan’s Minimalist comedian character) dressed up as Banter Claus, which meant sellotaping Primark Christmas glasses to his head, passing out receipts to the audience instead of presents and reading out memes. Eitan broke character so hard he had to leave the stage.

Santa Klaus (L) and Banter Claus (R) meet at Chubby White’s Silent Night

In our most recent show, Chubby White’s Heist Night, Eitan took revenge by printing out an A3 photo of George’s actual dad holding a sheep on his shoulders, presenting it as part of a billionaire arms dealer’s art collection.
Over the years, Jamie and Nicky have created some surprisingly proper songs for the shows too. In Chubbe Whyte’s Variete Knight, our Medieval offering, they wrote a hair-metal rock ballad about two Barbarian ‘dudes’ who are rebelling against the system by staying up late, skipping church school and looking at drawings of girls’ boobs. They’ll be gradually releasing some greatest hits over on the Chubby White Soundcloud so look out for those.

The beautiful fairy-boy-men sing a lovely song at Chubby White’s Once Upon A Night

Why has Chubby White run its course?
Chubby White will always be in our hearts and I don’t think we will ever stop paying tribute to him. But all stories need an ending. After three years and 17 shows, we feel now is as good a time as any to close the book on what’s been an absolutely magical experience.
That’s not to say that Chubby White won’t be back. All stories sometimes have sequels.

Chubby White fights The Viking during Chubby White’s VRiety Night

And what are you all going to be doing next?
Keep an eye out for Nicky and Jamie’s band Tungz. Big things occurring over there.
Over the course of the shows Eitan’s collected a raft of unique and unstable characters, so they’ll return soon. George is putting his devastating sense of humour to use in the world of education. And Matthew, working as a physicist at Renishaw, is building a laser that will one day destroy us all.

Missing: Chubby White, the last in the Chubby White series, takes place on Saturday, June 9 at the Bristol Improv Theatre, 50 St Paul’s Rd, Bristol BS8 1LP, and features Chortle Best Newcomer Pat Cahill alongside Mat Ewins and Jamie D’Souza. For more info and to book tickets, visit improvtheatre.co.uk/events/chubby-white

Read more: Profile: Chubby White’s Variety Night