This happened a little while ago but I totally forgot to post it up here. Just in case anyone's interested though this is a feature on Sam Gardner and my comedy club that appeared in January in the Canterbury Times (swish!). It's quite hard to read so I've included a typed up version below.
Leisure Feature, Joe Bill
It has been on the end of both curt criticism and the odd disapproving tut in the past, but University of Kent’s stand-up comedy teaching module is having the last laugh. Two graduates of the drama and theatre studies course are looking to take the comedy world by storm, having bagged an Edinburgh star for their third anniversary special. Sam Gardner, who studied the MA stand-up comedy module, and Lucy Danser, who studied the creative producing for theatre module, run an up-and-coming comedy club out of The Parrot pub in Canterbury.
The pair will celebrate their third year in charge of Chatback Comedy this month after going full circle and securing a performance from Norwegian comedian Daniel Simonsen.The performer, who won the Best Newcomer Award at the 2012 Edinburgh Festival, also happens to be the headliner from the very first Chatback Comedy show back in 2010.
Lucy, 25, said: “Myself and Sam were housemates at university and I’d always loved and been involved with the stand-up comedy scene in London and at the Edinburgh Festival. “Sam was offered the opportunity to hold a one-off comedy night at The Parrot, where he worked, so we decided we’d pool our skills and knowledge and do it together. It was a great success, completely sold out and we even had to turn people away. The Parrot agreed we could hold it as a regular monthly event and we’ve been doing so for three years. The pub has actually changed hands twice in that time, but we’ve stayed.”
The pair were schooled by Kent tutor Dr Oliver Double, himself a former stand-up and a prolific comedy-writer, and it was his course that inspired the pair to create the club. “We opened the club because, despite the fact there was the country’s only stand-up comedy course right here in Canterbury, there was nowhere these acts could go and perform alongside [professional] acts working the circuit, on the next level up from them. They could go to see big names in London and there was their own [student] night Monkeyshine run by Dr Double, but nothing in the middle, so we opened Chatback.”
Lucy and Sam have managed to mix students with professional stand-up comedians at their nights by bringing in a few big names but also allowing open-mic slots for local comics or comedy students to get a five-minute set. “It’s been great for new acts to meet professional comedians, to get tips and feedback on their material and experience performing in a different style of club. We have a very loyal audience and we’ve seen it grow and change over the years. Early on we had a lot more friends and students. Nowadays we have people from all over and from Canterbury, which is wonderful.”
Chatback has attracted the likes of TV regular Milton Jones, Britain’s Got Talent star Kev Orkian and the face of Viva TV, Eric Lampaert. “We’re based on the London-style comedy club. The atmosphere is buzzy, the acts are new, exciting and often on the cusp of becoming more widely known on television shows. The comedians mingle with the audience and there is always a friendly, chatty, happy feel. The Parrot is unique and comedians love to play gigs there because it’s so friendly.”
Lucy, who is also a trained actress, believes the Canterbury comedy scene has improved dramatically since they started on Chatback. “The Parrot is our resident club, but over the years we’ve held gigs in Whitstable, on the UKC campus and further afield. We’ve definitely noticed a big surge in comedy in Canterbury over the past few years. Clubs have popped up, some for a long period of time and some just briefly. Many pubs have begun holding open-mic nights, too, which is great because there are lots more places to try out material for new comics.” Chatback has also gone into the Gulbenkian theatre on the university campus to put on children’s comedy shows and workshops.
Changes are afoot for the young Chatback team, with one half of the duo looking to follow in the footsteps of his famous comedy tutor. “At the end of this current season Sam will be leaving the company to train to become an English and drama teacher,” said Lucy. “We haven’t ruled out him returning after he’s finished and is super-qualified, but for the next couple of years I’ll be running the company along with some of the existing members of the team.”
And the crew have a few ideas of their own. "Our plans are to continue The Parrot gigs and the kids' comedy at the Gulbenkian but to also open a club in London and to tour with our new format show Stand Up & Slam! - a fusion between performance poetry and stand-up comedy. It's awesome! There are a couple more ideas still under wraps, but we have big plans."
- Visit www.chatbackcomedy.com for information on forthcoming shows.
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