» Christmas cheer on the comedy circuit
Victoria Nangle comes up with a cracking joke and searches out some festive cheer in this season of goodwill
Alright, so it’s December. It’s officially cold, it’s officially getting scarily close to Christmas and I’m allowed to worry now without appearing too much to be the festive worry-wort I am, and it’s officially the season of good cheer. So where is it then?
With all the best ho, ho, hos in the world, bells jingling like they’re about to get disconnected they’re so jingly, and forced smiles at the ready, as we prepare to embark upon the annual odyssey to meet up with the relatives that time forgot, good cheer there ain’t. Anxious cheer a-plenty but good don’t get started until well after lunch on Christmas Day and that satisfied feeling of ‘we’re over the hump of it’ starts to emerge. That’s not to say that Christmas isn’t fun at all, it’s just bloody exhausting with it. So why not search out some Christmas cheer of our own?
Last year, my Christmas cheer manifested itself in the uncanny knack of turning any joke I tried to write into something fit for a cracker. ‘Which of the armed forces has the best bellys?’ ‘The naval forces.’ That was one of mine. Sorry. But it was quite nice to feel connected in some way to this whirling dirvish that was taking over not only my holiday days but also my TV schedule and my familial expectations.
“As we prepare for the annual odyssey to meet the relatives that time forgot, good cheer there ain’t”
A lot of comics write material especially for the Christmas period. Either new stuff or the old faithfuls that they can churn out every year. It’s such a big event that affects us all – simply having an ambition to travel near the end of the month could stop you ignoring the steamroller of a holiday that it is. Many have been marooned in Leeds for an extra day thanks to the ‘hands down’ effect Christmas has on the trains. And so, it’s always good to have something in your material that at least acknowledges that as a comic you’re not living in a vacuum called ‘my set.’
In creating some new festive gags, it gives us the chance to write something new without it having to be an entire section. Just a nod and a wink will suffice, and as such means that I’ve got the freedom to change the gag every time I perform if I so wish. Try out something new. Something I’ve thought of on my way to the venue. Since all I’ve got is a festive space in my set for this gag, it doesn’t need to lead into the next topic, it doesn’t have to connect to the previous one, leaving a lot of leeway for the development of something better than last year’s
cracker efforts.
And so will find the more mainstream comics. If you find yourself in a comedy club, searching out the cheer, check out the new festive gags. They might be just for you, just for tonight.
