‘Where are the radical working-class stand-up comedians?’

Over this past decade, we’ve had stand-up comedy of the lowest common denominator; comedy that doesn’t make people think.

It’s comedy that meets up with people’s expectations for a quick, escapist chinwag before they return home to crammed, shared accommodation, paid for by precarious service sector work, peppered with mental health issues and the occasional dawning of reality of insights such as life expectancy falling for the younger generation for the first time in history.

A comedy where Russell Howard pathetically saying to Richard Branson: “Why did you get involved in the NHS?” is commendable, where ‘good on him for asking the hard questions!’ follows, despite Howard then letting Branson get away with saying that Virgin weren’t involved in the NHS for profitable reasons while making a multi-million pound living from fuelling stigma surrounding the West Country accent as the dunce. The farmer. The underclass fool.

A comedy in which Eddie Izzard unfortunately fails to outmanoeuvre the blatant lefty-baiting language of nationalist Nigel Farage (note the word ‘patriotic’ isn’t used), and rather, again pathetically, just points out that Farage has a French surname so he must be a hypocrite, instead of, I don’t know, showing some kind of understanding where white British communities are coming from, and yet still maintaining that you don’t agree with them!?

Where are the working-class stand-up comedians? Where are those without formulaic idiom and material, a lot of which isn’t written for them? Where are the radical comedians?

“Well, such comedians don’t make it into the limelight,” you may respond. “And that’s why you don’t see them.”

Lenny Bruce, George Carlin, Richard Pryor, Joan Rivers, Eddie Murphy, Bill Hicks, Sarah Silverman, Stewart Lee, Amy Schumer, Sarah Millican to name a few.

The People’s Comedy hosted one of the last major events in the Bearpit before the space was reclaimed by Bristol City Council – photo: The People’s Comedy

The People’s Comedy is unique for both paying acts (about £25 for 10 minutes or as much as we can) and platforming socio-political comedy.

By that, and since we launched in 2018, we’ve meant comedy with originality and voice – something a bit didactic.

We’re bringing it back to where it started at The People’s Republic of Stokes Croft on Friday evening.

Acts include Charlotte Evans, who started doing stand up to impress her dad, who is a VERY powerful man (allegedly); Stephen Bisland, who’s angry, philosophical, stoic; and Jon Matthews, one of the night’s founders, who combines desert-dry wit with an inimitable voice.

2020 was a year basically devoid of stand-up comedy. At The People’s Comedy, given our expanding to a second venue in 2019 (the Lion on Whitehall Road in Redfield), we were expecting to put on 24 stand-up comedy nights last year.

We would have raised £3,120 with combined ticket sales and donations (a safe estimate), which would have gone right back to stand-up comedians on the Bristol circuit.

We managed one stint back in-between the two lockdowns in October, following government regulation of rule of six etc. That night at the Lion in BS5 was superb, cathartic and deeply appreciated by all, except to a lesser extent those comedians who didn’t perform as well but they’re quite selfish to be fair.

The People’s Comedy stands for providing a platform for socio-political comedy, which means comedy with a message of originality, honesty and ultimately morality.

Here’s to Friday and post-basic comedy!

The People’s Comedy takes place on Friday at 7.30pm at the People’s Republic of Stokes Croft. Tickets are £5 in advance or £6 on the door and can be purchased from Headfirst.

Henry Palmer is a Bristol-born and bred comedian, writer and activist. He is one of the organisers and co-founders of The People’s Comedy and has a book, Voices of Bristol: Gentrification and Us, available at all good book stores (and some rubbish ones too).

Main photo: The People’s Comedy

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