» A laughing matter
Victoria Nangle reflects on 2007 and the comedy she’s seen in it
Brighton Festival, Edinburgh Festival, Brighton Comedy Festival, Fresh Meat, Brighton Comedy Fringe – it’s been a year for comedy, and that’s just the festivals that spring to mind. The one-off fantabuloso experiences that had me rolling in the aisles and grinning ear to ear – like Russell Howard, Pappy’s Fun Club and Nina Conti to pick a smidgen of the overall shows – if listed in full could just fill up this column as a list.
Watching local acts have the bigger spotlight turned on them, like Zoe Lyons being nominated for the if.commedie, Toby Whithouse making it to the final of So You Think You’re Funny 2007 (you woz robbed, Tobes!) and Seann Walsh supporting the likes of great talents Jo Enfield and Josie Long. Baby, we’ve come a long way, and we ain’t even started yet.
“I still feel like a little bit of voluntary incarceration wouldn’t be a bad thing”
The comedy circuit in and around Brighton and East Sussex has some fabulous talents and still more emerging blinking into the sunshine and warmth of a good crowd, only occasionally retreating from the cool blank stares of a ‘learning’ gig.
I’ve had a fair few learning curves thrown at me this year in my capacity as a new act on the circuit. Nerves have threatened to take over, trains have been cancelled and feedback hasn’t always been the kindest. But the times when it has worked, when I’ve connected with the crowd and I had that ‘Eureka!’ moment in November, when remembering I was supposed to be enjoying it, made me realise quite how far I’ve come.
It was this time last year when I was writing with trepidation about my first ever gig, preparing for it and promising not to run away and lock myself in the toilets. I still feel like a little bit of voluntary incarceration wouldn’t be a bad thing, especially the other day at a London gig when I was introduced as another female comic (“maybe they’re all exhibitionists, can’t be a bad thing – here’s Vicky Nangle!”). But by the time you read this I will have done 26 gigs. That’s a whole 25 gigs more than this time last year. That’s an average of two a month. I’ve almost impressed meself.
I’ve grown, by golly, and I’ve learned, but not a scratch on many of my contemporaries, who have been totting up over fifty gigs apiece and travelled a lot further and wider than I have doing it.
It’s all because of you. The people who want to see live comedy. Give yourselves a pat on the back. Live shows are so much more fun than a DVD. Thank you so much for supporting live comedy in 2007 – I look forward to seeing you again in 2008. We’ll have a blast.
