Ralph Oswick: Permission to Laugh - at last
Ladies and Gentlemen, you have at last got permission to laugh. And just in time for the lockdown restrictions to be lifted.
Permission to Laugh is the mini version of Bath Comedy Festival.
The festival itself has been postponed more times than the organisers like to remember, and the real thing is already booking out for April 2022.
Meanwhile in the white heat of July, (from the 16th to be precise) they are offering a smorgasbord of delight, controversy, comedic tomfoolery and general hootage!
In the tradition of Bath Comedy, there’s a mixture of famous names (that bane of my spellcheck Henning Wehn is on twice at Widcombe Social Club) including Simon Evans and Geoff Norcott, just to show it’s not all lefty leaning, and new and up and coming talent.
The New Acts competition draws hundreds of entries nationwide, with no less than ten heats this year, starting on 18th July.
The heats for the newbies take place in the intimate and unthreatening surroundings of Bath Brewhouse, but the finale will be in the somewhat more challenging art deco Forum ballroom.
Previous winners of the competition grace our telly screens on a regular basis, and all go to great lengths to say how supportive the Bath audiences were in their formative years. From small acorns etc.
Talking of The Forum, it’s metamorphosing into quite the most fabulous creative hub. There’s a new stage being created in their Coffee House with a comprehensive programme of affordable comedy throughout the mini fest.
And if you’re totally broke, why not take a selfie in the Bath Comedy Giant Deckchair which will be installed for the duration somewhere in Southgate. Sitting is free!
Regular supporter and long-term festival patron Arthur Smith will be taking small but perfectly formed audiences on a couple of madcap walking tours of the posher parts of our fair city. The tours entitled Crescent Laughter (geddit?) will be fortified by a wealth of research carried out by my good self and historian Kirsten Elliot, but whether Arfur will stick to the facts or make his own up remains to be seen!
His tours alternate with those guided by Natural Theatre Company, while elsewhere in town the renowned Frankenstein perambulations presented by Bristol’s Show of Strength are also on the programme. So, plenty of Covid-free fresh air to be had.
One doesn’t want to lift lockdown all in one go!
Fingers crossed a printed brochure will be out by the time you read this, but as you can imagine, the wavering rules about what one can and can’t do have necessitated some last-minute developments, not least the sudden availability of more tickets.
So please head to and check out the constantly updated what’s on section. But hurry as there seems to be a word-of-mouth revival and things suddenly and inexplicably sell out.
Meanwhile, a George (Formby) Cross for bravery to the organisers for even thinking about putting on a festival, albeit a mini one, in the current ever fluctuating cultural and social climate!