Slapstick 2022 tickets go on sale

Drop a bomb on Bristol from January 26-30, 2022, and you could wipe out a huge percentage of our national comic talent. This isn’t a suggestion, obviously, but a cheap and rather shoddy journalistic device for underlining just how many great comedians will be in town for the annual Slapstick Festival of silent, visual and classic screen comedy.

Among the many mighty mirth-makers heading our way are Richard Herring, Armando Iannucci, Stephen Mangan, Arthur Smith, Jon Culshaw, Tim Vine, Barry Cryer, Bill Oddie, Sally Phillips, Ronni Ancona, David Mitchell and Lucy Porter.

Buster Keaton and chum in ‘The Cameraman’ – showing in the 2022 Slapstick Gala

The 2022 festival takes place at four of our finest venues: Bristol Cathedral, the Redgrave Theatre, St George’s and the Watershed. The Cathedral is the location for the annual centrepiece Silent Comedy Gala on Friday 28. Hosted by Stephen Mangan, this includes a screening of the 1928 Buster Keaton classic The Cameraman, with a supporting programme of shorts featuring Harold Lloyd and Laurel and Hardy. It’s all served up with live musical accompaniment from the European Silent Screen Virtuosi.

David Mitchell makes his Slapstick debut in 2022

Two other events take place at the Cathedral on Thursday 28. David Mitchell makes his Slapstick debut in the regular annual Top Comedy Moments session. Matthew Sweet will be grilling the Upstart Crow star about his comedy influences, with an audience Q&A to follow.

Sally Phillips joins forces with Ronni Ancona to present this year’s Slapstick Divas

After that, Sally Phillips and Ronni Ancona are the co-hosts of this year’s Slapstick Divas celebration of the often overlooked great female talent in early comedy. If you want to know more about Marion Davis, the real-life character played by Amanda Seyfried in David Fincher’s Oscar-winning Mank, you’ll be delighted to find that her 1928 feature Show People is among the attractions.

Barry Cryer OBE, the veteran Zelig of British TV comedy, receiving the Aardman Slapstick Comedy Legend Award in 2015. They just can’t keep him away – he’s back in 2022

A day of events at the Redgrave Theatre on Saturday 29 kicks off with a family screening of the first Paddington movie, introduced by CBeebies star Andy Day. That’s followed by An Audience with Barry Cryer, in which BBC Points West presenter Alex Lovell grills the veteran Zelig of British TV comedy about his work with the likes of Tommy Cooper, Bob Hope, Morecambe and Wise, Richard Pryor and The Two Ronnies.

Then Tim Vine salutes Kenny Everett in the inevitably titled In the Best Possible Taste. Finally, Richard Herring submits to the first Slapstick Desert Island Comedy Flicks challenge, nominating the 10 comedy films/show he’d take with him to a desert island.

Armando Iannucci contemplates the state of satire

The following day (Sunday 30), Slapstick’s events decamp to St. George’s. Early riser Richard Herring kicks things off with a forensic probing of the life and career of his guest, impressionist and TV presenter Jon Culshaw. Next, Armando Iannucci joins Robin Ince to take a timely, illustrated look at the role of satire and his career in general in A Life in Satire. Finally, comedian, writer and broadcaster Arthur Smith rounds things off with the self-explanatory Laughs, Stories, a Song and a Poem.

Aardman Animation co-founder Peter Lord

For the festival’s trademark gems of early silent comedy, you’ll need to take up residence at the Watershed for the full four days. Guests include Bill Oddie exploring the comic joys of schadenfreude and joining forces with Aardman co-founder Peter Lord to share their love of early animation.

Sian Norris and Lucy Porter present First Women in Comedy, which explores the experiences of pioneering women directors, scriptwriters and actors in silent film comedy, including Alice Guy Blaché, Mabel Normand and Lois Weber.

The great Buster Keaton – subject of two Slapstick talks

The great Buster Keaton is the subject of two separate talks, while Paul McGann will be on hand to introduce a rare screening of the 1929 Soviet satirical comedy My Grandmother, which was banned for nearly 50 years.

Another highlight is the regional premiere of new intimate documentary The Real Charlie Chaplin, which was recently unveiled at the London Festival. It will be introduced by Chaplin’s biographer, David Robinson. Finally, cineastes who know world cinema titan Yasujirō Ozu only for his acclaimed serious dramas about family relationships (Late Spring, Tokyo Story, etc) are in for both a treat and a surprise when Slapstick screens his earliest surviving feature, Days of Youth: a charming silent romantic comedy from 1929 in which two male students unknowingly compete for the affections of the same girl while on a skiing trip.

Ozu’s rarely seen early silent comedy ‘Days of Youth’

Tickets for all events are on sale now, making perfect gifts for anyone who needs a larf in the New Year. There are also two passes guaranteeing continuous mirth. A £92 one gives admission to all Watershed events, including a pre-festival date with Steve Massa and Ben Model live from New York – plus Slapstick Divas and the Silent Film Gala at Bristol Cathedral (17 events in all). Should you wish to risk dying laughing, a £186 super-duper pass will get you into everything bar the Paddington event (26 events in total). Buyers of either pass will also receive a souvenir pin badge, while buyers of the full pass also bag a Slapstick 2022 T-shirt. Visit the Slapstick website for full details.

All images supplied by Slapstick. Main pic of Stephen Mangan copyright the Evening Standard.