Comedy: Brighton Comedy Festival

We asked a few of the comics taking part in the Festival just why they liked it so much. Voila!

Helen Arney:
“Brighton is the perfect place for our first ‘Festival of the Spoken Nerd’ tour because it’s such a curious city. Yes, that has a double meaning, and I mean both of them. Every gig we’ve done in Brighton has been full of open-minded, interested people looking for something funny but a bit out of the ordinary. We brought our ‘Are you Pi-Curious?’ show here back in February and you whooped and cheered a probability tree diagram live on stage. You’re definitely our kind of people. And the city itself is full of curiosities… The Pavilion! The back alleys! The pebble beach!

All manner of weird and wonderful things in the Natural History Museum! We’re bringing a few of our own curiosities to the show: Is there such a thing as a non-spherical sphere? How do you say “I love you” with just maths? And can you use a satellite dish to set stuff on fire? So – you bring some curiosity, we’ll bring some answers. Is that a deal, Brighton?”

Festival Of The Spoken Nerd, Brighton Dome Studio, Fri 12 Oct, 7.45pm, £14/12

Tim Key:
“The Brighton Comedy Festival walks into my top eight comedy festivals for three reasons. Firstly, the fish and chips; I spend the journey and preceding fortnight dreaming of the fish and chips, licking my lips and muttering. I always eat them walking along that pebbly beach thing you have. It’s great preparation. Feeling heavy and tired I step out in front of my second reason for loving Brighton; the audience is so hip it hurts, a sea of knitted bags and creative hair. Discerning. My final reason is the location. It’s very handy for London, I appreciate what you’ve done there.”

Tim Key – Masterslut, Corn Exchange, Brighton Dome, Sun 7 Oct, 7.30pm, £15/13

Robin Ince:
“First time I came to Brighton, my friend insisted that the most important cultural landmark was the back alley where Phil Daniels and Leslie Ash had a quickie in Quadrophenia. The cultural landmarks keep changing – recently I was told it was a cafe where Nick Cave came to the aid of a man who argued his lunch had too few sausages. Occasionally Graham Greene has had a look in on the cultural map too, a little after discovering Kitchens of Distinction was a kitchen shop before it was an 80s indie band. I will be talking of none of these things in my show.”

Robin Ince – Happiness Through Science, Brighton Dome Studio, Sun 14 Oct, 7.45pm, £12/10

Frisky & Mannish:
“Along with Edinburgh and Manchester, Brighton is part of our beloved trinity of British cities. These are the places where people truly ‘get’ us, and really understand how important the Pussycat Dolls are to 19th century music hall studies. Brightonians are both intelligent and supremely silly. And we’re at home in a place teeming with the gays. The Brighton Comedy Festival is a gathering place for world-class comedians and we’re honoured to be included every year, although frankly, we’ve only just forgiven them for misspelling our names the first year we came. Yours sincerely, Friskey and Manish x”

Frisky & Mannish – Extra-Curricular Activities, Corn Exchange, Brighton Dome, Fri 12 Oct, 7.30pm, £15/13