Interview: Andy Price, Bristopia!

On Fri 11 Dec at the Cube, the Bristopia podcast – a monthly local radio parody show – presents Bristopia Live! Bristol’s 2015 in Review, a celebration of Bristol and a comedic look back at 2015.

Bristopia is a monthly scripted comedy show set in Bristol. It takes a satirical look at local politics, events, and both the real and imaginary residents of the city in the form of skewed headlines, interviews and documentaries. Here’s creator/host Andy Price to tell us more. 

Tell us the Bristopia story, Andy.
Bristopia is just another one of those demonstrations of what you can create in this modern world with zero budget. I watch a lot of stand-up but I don’t perform myself, and I saw writing a podcast as an easy way of getting round those two obstacles and still producing something entertaining. 
Bristol is a unique city, both ridiculous and inspiring depending on where you look – it was ripe for parody and satire so I jotted down a few ideas of the people we could meet, the stories we could tell, and decided on a format.

And what format did you come up with?
Bristopia is shaped as a half-hour local radio show. We read out what’s been happening in the city in the past few weeks – news headlines with punchlines. We then invite guests in, who will be associated with a current story – for example in our latest episode we had a bar worker at the recently opened Xmas market come in. From here we introduce a truly absurdist backstory, and that’s where most of the comedy comes in.
Each episode closes with a documentary produced by our resident American intern, Justin Crockler. In the latest documentary we look at how Bristol is a city with a large sense of social responsibility, but from this fairly tempered beginning we veer off drastically. In this one we eventually find out that George Ferguson has gotten hold of Britain’s Trident nuclear codes. Terrifying.

Introduce us to one or two of your recurring characters. 
Few guests have made it to the prestigious ‘recurring’ status, but one that certainly has is animal keeper Bob Wildlife, whose unorthodox methods and lax safety records works really well for what we do. He first appeared in his very own documentary section, but since then we’ve invited him back to do a Twitter Q&A (it didn’t go well), and he’ll be a key part of the Bristopia Live show.
Elsewhere, we’ve got the Ghost of Rupert Murdoch. We’ve learned on the podcast that the real Rupert Murdoch was actually killed off decades ago when he campaigned for a free press. The current Murdoch we all know and loathe is just a figurehead. So essentially, Rupert Murdoch turns up on the podcast when someone is faced with a moral dilemma, and Rupert helps them to make the right decision, whether it’s about love, life – or simply whether someone should tell the public that George Ferguson has gotten hold of the nuclear codes. 

So, what can we expect at Bristopia Live!?
It’s a standalone show, which means you don’t have to know the podcast at all. It’s more like Bristopia Presents: a Review of Bristol’s 2015. We’ll be looking back at the past 12 months, casting a comedic eye over events. There’ll also be some sprinklings of festivities too. 
It’ll have kind of a chat show vibe too. I’ll present it as usual, and bring out guests – some special Bristol residents – to explain why they love the city. We’ll also have a musical guest! Everyone loves a musical guest, I’m reliably told (by our musical guest). There’ll be bits of stand-up, and other entertaining bits and pieces. Basically, imagine Michael Parkinson, but if he was Bristolian. Then imagine a star guest like Tom Cruise, but if he was a local animal keeper.
It’s going to be a celebration – of Bristol, and its people.

Is the show rooted in real-life Bristol news stories,  or does it create its own news?
Bizarrely for a digital medium, we suffer the same kind of plight as traditional print media – by the time newspapers print a story the internet has been pulling it apart and making all the jokes for ages already. The way to avoid this is by going somewhere completely different. First and foremost, Bristopia is a comedy show. It’s set in Bristol because it’s familiar, but really, we can do anything. One of my favourite episodes featured Bristol’s Poet Laureate for Roadworks and Traffic Delays – a great way to exhaust all those traffic puns we had bubbling up inside us.
It’s the same with the nuclear codes bit. We could talk endlessly about George Ferguson’s parking scheme, or his use of taxpayers’ funds – but that would be boring. So I gave him the codes to Britain’s nuclear defence because it’s (arguably) funnier. On the other hand, we can cover stuff outside of Bristol and apply it to the city. David Cameron’s porcine indiscretion was already covered in great detail, but by combining it with the nuclear story we were able to take a different angle. What could be worse than the pig thing? You’ll have to listen to the latest episode to find out. 

Is there something about Bristol – its geography, its politics, a certain perceived laid-backness – that lends itself to what you’re doing? Or could this happen in any major city?
This is a tricky one – I like to think that the show could be applied to any city. But then I think – would this work somewhere like London? Is that a city that is present enough to be amused by the idea that a cafe selling just porridge  could be a reality? While I think in Bristol we could laugh at the idea that this could happen. But, genuinely, three weeks after I posted the first episode of the podcast in which a porridge cafe opened up in Bristol, one actually opened up in London. There’s nothing funny about that – some might even say it’s one of the signs of the apocalypse.
At the same time, maybe it does need to be the ‘right’ city. Take the TV show Portlandia, that’s certainly an influence and we do a similar thing in places, in terms of uneven coverage and a heightened view on certain aspects like Bristol’s laid-backness, or its creative side, or its ‘character’ mayor. But much of what happens in Portlandia is absolutely happening and exists in San Francisco, or Los Angeles, even New York, in the same way that things happening in Bristol/Bristopia could easily be applied to London, Manchester etcetera. It’s the familiarity that makes it work – but it has to exist in a city where it’s realistic. I think Bristol is slightly ‘mythical’ in this respect, in that national attention to it has only really started to break the surface in the last five to ten years.
But that’s probably over-analysing it. Essentially, Bristopia is a very silly show, so if you like the idea of seeing silliness performed live on stage, this is absolutely a show for you.

Bristopia Live! Bristol’s 2015 in Review Fri Dec 11, The Cube. For more info and to book tickets, visit www.bristolticketshop.co.uk/eventdetails.aspx?e=10740

For more info on Bristopia, visit www.facebook.com/bristopiapod

Listen to episodes at www.acast.com/bristopia or www.youtube.com/channel/UCoIruOH4n7EvHvgTeCGwgDw