Stars talking Slapstick

Slapstick Festival is returning to Bristol on January 26-30, for the 18th annual edition of Britain’s leading festival of silent, vintage and classic screen comedy, with an additional day of events on March 27, and an online programme running from January 19-30.

Since the first Slapstick was hosted in 2005, the festival’s lovingly curated programme has garnered international acclaim as the place to go for rare film finds, expert-led discussions, quality screenings and the calibre of their guests. As silent screenings would have been when they were first shown, films screened at the festival are accompanied by live music, often commissioned especially for Slapstick.

A host of events will take place across the five days at Watershed, the Redgrave Theatre, and Bristol Cathedral, which will also play host to the gala – this year to be hosted by actor, author and broadcaster, Stephen Mangan. Other guests include Arthur Smith, David Mitchell, Barry Cryer, Bill Oddie and Armando Iannucci.

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Bristol 24/7 asked four of this year’s featured celebrity guests about their love of silent cinema, and their involvement in the Slapstick 2022 programme.

Lucy Porter

• An Old Gangster’s Molls (1927), with Lucy Porter, January 27, 10am, Watershed
• First Women in Comedy, with Sian Norris and Lucy Porter – January 27, 1pm, Watershed

Have you seen An Old Gangster’s Molls before, or will you be coming to it fresh, alongside many of the audience?

“I haven’t seen it yet, but I will watch it before I introduce it, so that I will hopefully have some interesting insights. One of my absolutely favourite things about being involved with the Slapstick festival is discovering new things. I’m intrigued by Anny Ondra’s fascinating life.

She was a brilliant Czech actress who worked with Alfred Hitchcock. She was married to German boxer Max Schmeling who was initially a poster boy for the Nazis, but then he actually shielded Jews from the Party and was ostracised by Hitler. Tall, blonde Anny was also regarded as the embodiment of the Nazis’Aryan ideal, until they discovered she was, in fact, Jewish. I can’t wait to see this intriguing woman in action!”

How would you define the style of humour that attracts you to silent comedies?

“I’ve always loved physical comedy and slapstick. My dad introduced me to Laurel & Hardy, Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd. I still find people falling over incredibly funny, and my children find it even funnier when I fall over! The thing I’ve come to appreciate about silent comedy is how hard writers, actors and directors had to work to get their stories across.

Hollywood back then was a real shoestring operation. Even the hardest working of today’s movie stars doesn’t have to book the studio, write the script, design the costumes, call the shots, do all their own stunts, and make drinks for the rest of the cast in their tea break.”

Lucy Porter

In discussion with Sian Norris, are you expecting to be able to draw parallels between the pioneering women in comedy of the early 20th century, and those of the 21st?

“Hell yeah! The great thing about early cinema was that women were involved in all aspects of production. Then as the 20th century progressed, they were shut out. These days with camera phones, Instagram and Tik Tok, women are starting to tell their own stories unfiltered again. Also, there are so many great comic talents being given their voice – people like Phoebe Waller Bridge are doing so much to lift up other female writers and performers.

Slapstick Festival has always made a point of championing unsung heroes and heroines of comedy. I’m really excited about what the future holds for women.”

What else stands out for you on the 2022 Slapstick Festival programme?

“I’m so excited that Sally Phillips and Roni Ancona are involved this year. They’re both brilliant, hilarious comedy performers who will be celebrating slapstick divas. I’m also really looking forward to Tim Vine’s tribute to Kenny Everett and Armando Iannucci’s discussion of his life in satire.”

Sally Phillips

• Slapstick Divas: Hosted by Sally Phillips and Ronni Ancona – January 27, 8.30pm, Bristol Cathedral
• The Patsy, with Sally Phillips & Ronni Ancona – January 28, 1pm, Watershed

What does it mean to you and Ronni Ancona to be part of Slapstick Festival?

Proud to be asked, and excited to visit Bristol. Some of my family live in the city and Ronni says the SS Great Britain is her favourite ship. But the simple answer is that both of us have a terrible, occasionally problematic, weakness for slapstick. The more serious the situation the greater the urge to trip over into a black forest gateau or start off a domino line of painting and decorating disasters. Comedy these days can sometimes feel very grown up – all those words, all that subtlety and darkness. So, a holiday in the land of slapstick feels like a pure and joyous relief.

We are, of course, huge fans of the much neglected early comediennes of the silver screen. Women like Mabel Normand, Marion Davies and Marie Dressler had serious comedy chops and Gloria Swanson started in comedies too. It’s easy to dismiss silents as ‘stuffy’ or compartmentalise these performers as just people from history but you’ll be surprised. These films are genuinely funny and very much part of the evolution of film comedy today. They were the launching pads for not only contemporary female comedians but for male comics too.

We both say we feel like we’ve got a slapstick metronome inside us, counting out the timing. We may decide to go with that beat or against it, and sometimes you need to try and silence it altogether, but it’s always there, suggesting you walk into a wall, take a soda siphon in the face or accidentally tie yourself to a railway track with your knickerbockers.

Who will you and Ronni Ancona be championing at Slapstick Divas?

Marion Davies in both Show People and The Patsy, and Mabel Normand in a short at the gala.

Marion Davies has been badly represented for years, even most recently in Hank (2020). She was in reality a talented comedienne and very, very beautiful – the mistress of William Randolph Hearst who did help her a huge amount but at a price. Her talent was from that point on rather dismissed, but as you’ll see, she has funny bones and is takes a soda siphon in the face like no one else.

Mabel Normand wasn’t just in films with Charlie Chaplin and Fatty Arbuckle; she wrote those films, directed them, produced them and at one stage had her own studio. That she has more or less disappeared from public knowledge is a bit of a tragedy.

Sally Phillips

How are silent comedies enhanced by live musical accompaniment?

While slapstick creates the illusion of improvisation, it is actually highly rehearsed and technical but the live musical accompaniment was often genuinely improvised, which is somehow deeply appropriate. As films became more commonplace there were first cue sheets, and then around 1910, photoplay music began to be distributed but original scores were in the minority.

The music can of course, enormously impact the comedy, leading you down blind alleys, diminishing or increasing threat. So buckle up for a genuine silver screen live music experience.

Are there parallels to be drawn between the comic sensibilities of slapstick and silent comedy, and your own?

We love the ingenuity of slapstick – the sheer creativity of disaster piling on disaster. Some people divide comedy into two types – clowning and bouffons – clown would be slapstick and bouffon would be satire. There’s something ancient about slapstick, yet it still underpins most comedy today. Part of us will always hanker for the purest form of our discipline.

Like anything, you can’t start improvising on a guitar or another musical instrument until you know the fundamentals – the notes, and slapstick and silent comedy are the notes of the original comic scale. Interestingly a lot of movie writers today write the dialogue last, because words can get in the way of the important stuff.

Tim Vine

• In the Best Possible Taste! Tim Vine salutes: Kenny Everett – March 27, 6.30pm, Redgrave Theatre

How does it feel to coming back to Slapstick Festival?

It is great to be coming back to the Slapstick Festival. I’m looking forward to seeing what delights this year’s festival will be serving up and very pleased to be a small part of it. It’s the best festival of its type in the world, celebrating particularly the physical elements of comedy as well as unearthing some absolute gems from the past. For example, to watch a Charlie Chaplin film on a big screen accompanied by a live orchestra really makes you appreciate how these classics were watched originally.

For those unfamiliar with Everett, or your own work, can you outline what audiences can expect from coming to In the Best Possible Taste?

I’m going to be showing some of my favourite Kenny Everett clips from the Kenny Everett video show that first captured my attention as an 11 year old in 1978. And excitingly, I’ll also be interviewing Barry Cryer about his experience of actually writing and creating the show. There should be time for a few questions to Barry from the audience as well so bring your best Kenny Everett-related question.

Tim Vine hosting the Bristol Slapstick Festival Silent Comedy Gala 2018

Richard Herring

• Desert Island Comedy Flicks, with Richard Herring and Robin Ince – January 29, 12.30pm, Watershed
• Richard Herring’s The Sunday Chat – with Jon Culshaw – January 30, 12pm, St George’s

Can you sum up what you most enjoy about Slapstick Festival, both in terms of partipating, and the overall programme?

“Bristol is always one of my favourite places to perform, not just because I was brought up locally, but the audiences are genuinely comedy aficionados and all the gigs in the city are fun. And Slapstick Festival is a great way to meet acts old, really old and sometimes new.

I shared a box with Syd Little last time I was there and we watched a black and white film together; I saw Jimmy Cricket do a masterclass in stand up and had dinner with the Goodies, as well as interviewing them. I am a huge comedy fan so this stuff is just Heaven for me.”

You are in the hot seat for the inaugural Slapstick DICF event. Was it difficult to narrow down your choices?

“Yes, very tricky. I found that the films that mattered the most to me were mainly the ones I had seen as a teenager with the performers that made me want to do this as a job. I could easily have chosen 10 Michael Palin clips. but I narrowed it down to one.

I managed to include a couple of more recent films, but was disappointed that I couldn’t fit in any Steve Martin or Laurel & Hardy. Ultimately I attempted to at least give a nod to everyone else who’d influenced me.”

Richard Herring

What emergency questions might Robin Ince have up his sleeve?

“I fear that his emergency questions will be very long and full of intellectual ideas that I don’t fully understand. But hopefully he’ll just ask me if I’ve ever seen a ghost.”

What can audiences expect from your chat with Jon Culshaw?

“The tough thing with impressionists is getting them to be themselves, but I will do my best to find out who the man behind all the voices is. I bet he does loads of the voices though. I would if I could do it. I hate it when people have skills. It’s cheating really.”

Slapstick Festival runs from January 26-30, at Watershed, Bristol Cathedral and the Redgrave Theatre, with a programme of online events running from January 19-30, and an additional day of in-person events at the Redgrave Theatre on March 27. Up-to-date information, the full programme, all tickets and passes are available at www.slapstick.org.uk.

All photos courtesy of Slapstick Festival.

Read more: Slapstick presents: Laughter in Lockdown

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