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Victoria Nangle has a quick chat with Sandra Bernhard before her Worthing gig

Hi Sandra, how are you today?
I’m kickin’ and jammin’ and running all over New York City, recording an album and grocery shopping all in the same day!

It’s great to see you return to international stand-up. Why did you leave it for so long?
Because I have a nine-year-old daughter. I have been preoccupied raising her. I’ve been busy Stateside working on various projects as well as touring with a variety of my one-woman shows. I’ve been sorely missed and I’ve missed being there so that’s why I’m finally getting back.

What do you love most about stand-up?
The interaction with the audience. The immediacy of the response. Taking on issues of the day. And tearing it apart.

What advice would you give to any aspiring female comics?
Have a unique point-of-view and a sense of fearlessness.

“If I had a day off I’d run around with Kate Moss and Pete Doherty and get into trouble”

Many first saw you acting in Roseanne. What are your strongest memories of working on the show?
Working with a stellar cast and having one of the best times I’ve ever had, with a crazy group of people.

Will you meet up with Madonna while you’re over in Blighty?
Our mutual appointment books are filled with each other.

What would you do with one day off in the UK?
Run around with Kate Moss and Pete Doherty and get into a whole mess of trouble!

Will you explore the British gay scene?
No, but they will explore me.

What brought you to perform in Worthing?
Madness and mayhem and a nice cup of tea.

Fancy a pint of beer after the show?
Of course, but can you cover a thousand of my closest friends?

Sandra Bernhard, Worthing Pavilion Theatre, Wednesday 24 October. All tickets £19.50 (plus £1 fee per ticket for card bookings). Show starts at 8pm.
Call box office on 01903 206206.

Victoria Nangle is proud of our very own Brighton Comedy Fringe

It’s all well and good having the big guns come down to Brighton once a year – and don’t think we’re not grateful to the Paramount Comedy Festival for their annual migration – but some of the cream of October’s comedy comes from a group that sits by the seaside all year round.

“During this one-day course, they’ll teach the core techniques used in improv comedy”

Eyeing up the local talent and checking out the shining fringe acts in Edinburgh, these guys work hard for you to get some of the cream of the up-and-comings, and indeed some of the already arrived, such a good reputation have they acquired. Yes, you’ve guessed it, it’s that marvellous lot down at the Marlborough Theatre, and their Brighton Comedy Fringe kicks off this Friday (19th).

Last year saw the likes of Josie Long and Stephen Grant treading the boards of this beautiful theatre (with a capacity of just 50 people), giving you an intimate performance you’re unlikely to get with such stars elsewhere. This year they haven’t disappointed either. Jo Neary’s Little Moments is playing two nights, just as BBC3 snaps her up, up and away from the live scene. And Zoe Lyons brings some friends from the circuit for our amusement – and grand friends they’ll be after she was nominated for the if.comeddie Best Newcomer Award (formerly know as the Perrier) at the Edinburgh Festival a couple of months ago.

If you fancy having a go at comedy yourself – it’s such a buzz, man – there are two separate workshops you can sign up for – stand-up and improv. The Jill Edwards Stand-Up Workshop gives you a taster of her sell-out term-long course she runs at the Komedia, teaching you about comedy writing, performance skills and also having a brilliant time. Past graduates of Jill’s include Jimmy Carr and Shazia Mirza, as well as local talents like Toby Whithouse and Seann Walsh.

The other course comes in the form of The Maydays Improv Comedy Workshop. You may have heard of The Maydays as they won an award for Best Comedy Show at this year’s Brighton Festival, they feature in the Paramount Comedy Festival programme and are really rather good. Well, this premier improvisation group is offering to teach a one-day course in making up comedy. Using games, they teach the core techniques used in improv comedy. I’m definitely signing up for this.

Darn it! I’m running out of space. I’ve still got to say about Mark Allen returning with his Quite Good Britain show from last year and a brand new show of ‘Mob Logic’. Plus the UK’s only deaf comic Steve Day. Plus Edinburgh Festival favourites Andrew O’Neill and Terry Saunders. Just check out the website – www.brightoncomedyfringe.co.uk – and cherrypick your favourites. Oh yeah, and it’s half the price of the main festival. Who could ask for anything more?

Victoria Nangle tells us to enjoy comedy month by checking out the smaller gigs as well as Paramount

With everyone rushing around like headless chickens trying to get those tickets to that Paramount Comedy gig it’s easy to forget that there are actually other comedy offerings to be had. Don’t. That would be silly.

Since October in Brighton has now become known as ‘comedy month’, Paramount is no longer alone in mounting its festival at this time. Heh heh. There’s more. Kicking off on Sunday is the Fresh Meat Festival, a brand new collection of shows on at The Joogleberry Playhouse, The Komedia and Mint Restaurant that encompasses sketch comedy, improv comedy, music and film. There’s loads. Goes on for a whole week too. By which point the Brighton Comedy Fringe will have kicked in – starting on 19 October – bringing top national and local comics to the stage at The Marlborough Theatre and to showcases at the Three And Ten public house. That goes on for two weeks, with the full listings found at www.brightoncomedyfringe.co.uk But more about that next week.

The Fresh Meat Festival kicks off this week, and it brings you exactly what it says on the tin – fresh meat, creatively speaking.

That’s not to say they’re particularly new to this performing lark. Already with Fringe credentials are the Four D’Oeuvres sketch group and Frankly Robert, and musical interludes in this here festival include a turn from the already strongly fan-followed fabulous Bobby McGees. And that’s just for starters.

“It brings you exactly what it says on the tin – fresh meat, creatively speaking”

To keep this meat extra fresh, if you love your comedy in a high quality tartar, there will also be turns from the improvisation troupe, the Off The Cuff Collective. Made up of comics, writers and general performers they’ve got a fine tune in made up funniness going here.

And then there’s all the other mixtures of poetry, storytelling, stand-up and brilliance you’ll find at any new festival. The great thing about brand new festivals with acts that aren’t quite as brand new as the festival itself is that they work hard to get the best. The festival has to make its name and give a good first impression. Be prepared to find several shows involving people you can later say in years to come: “I saw them on their way up, in this tiny venue with brilliant atmosphere”, and bask in the glow of the kudos it’ll bring you.

Fresh Meat organisers have put in that effort, and it shows. We’re lucky in Brighton that not only do we have this pool of talent from which to cherry pick for any show we want to put on, but that people are organising those shows. And festivals. Altogether now – Thanks.

Victoria Nangle picks out the best of the upcoming Magners Paramount Comedy Festival

One of the advantages I’ve got this year at the Magners Paramount Comedy Festival is that I went to the Edinburgh Festival earlier this year. Now, the advantage I’m stating here is not one of smugness at collecting as many festival badges as possible, although that is a good and worthy past-time. The advantage is that I managed to catch a snippet – or a show – from a lot of the acts coming down to lovely Brighton to make us all laugh, and I can see clearly that they were cherry picked from the established and the newly hatched. Giving you the benefit of my sleep depravation in Scotland – we’ve got the cream.


As well as the huge names everyone’s clamouring to see, like Richard Herring and Frankie Boyle, you can show a little more adventure and try a couple of those that have blipped on your comedy radar and then gone off touring. Among these you’ll find Russell Kane – he who keeps turning up plugging Five’s CSI, examining bodies and auditioning for bit parts. You’ll also find BBC award-winner Nina Conti with her constant co-star Monkey, the highly articulate foulmouthed stuffed puppet that steals all of her lines. All of her shows sold out up north, even when it was raining really, REALLY hard.

Robin Ince has constantly popped up in the BBC’s Comedy Cuts, and some may recognise him from a role he picked up in a small telly comedy you may have heard of called The Office. Although, he is best known in stand-up circles for supporting Ricky Gervais on tour throughout his recent Fame show, and on a previous tour – Politics.

Hits from Edinburgh that are well worth a gander include Jarred Christmas, who I caught compering a So You Think You’re Funny heat. No wonder I thought he was good at it, turns out he was nominated for respected comedy website Chortle’s ‘Best Compere Award 2007’.

“The acts were cherry-picked from the established and the newly hatched”

To get a true mix’n’match of comics – a little bit of this and a little bit of that – you can always dip your toe in and collect your selection at the weekly Best Of The Fest shows. Every Friday of the festival, presented by one of the leading comics of the festival (Russell Howard, Ed Bye and Frankie Boyle) you get a smattering of some of the other leading lights, giving us a taster of their shows. Miniature previews if you will.

If that’s what tickles your fancy, don’t forget the Intelligent Finance Awards. Doesn’t sound all that, until you twig that they’re the bods behind the if.comedy Awards, the ones that have taken over from the Perrier. Both the winner of ‘best newcomer’ (Tom Basden) and the overall winner (Brendan Burns) are here with their shows, as are a number of the other nominees, including local brilliance Zoe Lyons and BBC6 comedy host Jon Richardson. Nice one. Now, get your tickets.

4–21 October 2007. 01273 709709
www.paramountcomedyfestival.com