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Some much-needed laughs are on their way thanks to the BBC’s Festival of Funny. We asked its stars to share their stand-up faves
WE’VE done a lot of things in lockdown — followed the news obsessively, become amateur crafters, howled with despair — but laughing hasn’t been one of them. Thank goodness, then, for the BBC’s Festival of Funny, celebrating all things comedy. To mark the occasion, we asked some of our favourite comedians to tell us which stand-up they love the most.
Jason Manford on Peter Kay
In 1997, when I was 16, I worked in a room above a pub which held a weekly comedy club, The Buzz Club. Every week in between collecting glasses, I’d see the best comedians the UK circuit had to offer — from Steve Coogan to Caroline Aherne, to Harry Hill and Frankie Boyle. One week as I arrived at work there was, unusually, a queue round the block of waiting punters two hours before the show started. The reason: Peter Kay was headlining. This was way before his national treasure status, but word had spread about this hilarious comedian and everybody wanted a ticket. What I saw that night made me fall in love with comedy and made me realise how special Peter is. The love and respect that flowed from the audience to the stage and back again was like nothing I’d ever experienced before or since. He just seemed like one of us, a normal working-class lad who just happened to be breathtakingly hilarious. It’s only since becoming a comedian myself that I’ve managed to work out just how hard Peter works to make what is genius seem so accessible.
Dane Baptiste on Dave Chappelle
I feel like this might be seen as a given; or an obvious and racially-biased choice, like an American president. Nonetheless! My favourite comedian is Dave Chappelle, who I would argue is the greatest living comedian. And it’s not just because we share similar sounding multisyllabic names (Dane Baptiste, Dave Chappelle, got the same ring to it). It’s also because Dave Chappelle now enjoys the ideal state of being both critically and commercially acclaimed as an artist. His observations and art are so astute and well-crafted that he has transcended the conventions of comedy, ascending to the status of philosopher, which is just inspiring to witness as a human being and fellow comic.
Joanne McNally on Joan Rivers
There’s a ton of comics I admire, but the one I love the most has to be Joan Rivers, and no, it’s not just because she’s dead, although that always helps when it comes to garnering praise. Now it’s quite trendy to be a female in comedy, we’re in fashion, TV wants us, audiences want us, if people can’t see enough of us on their screens they will ring up and complain. But when Joan started it was the total opposite. She fought tooth and nose job to make it, and make it she did, and then she lost everything and then she pulled herself back from the brink and made it again. That’s why I adore Joan — it’s not just her killer jokes, it’s her tenacity, because in comedy you really do need both.
Jo Brand on Linda Smith
Linda Smith was in some ways very ordinary, even her name, but that made her all the more extraordinary. In an age when women stand-ups were few and far between, Linda chose to go down the road of political comedy with a capital P, on the alternative comedy
Anna Morris on Victoria Wood
circuit. Her jokes were sardonic, hilarious and politically astute whilst retaining a very accessible style that everyone could identify with. She shone particularly brightly on The News Quiz. At one point she won Wittiest Person on Radio 4, voted for by the listeners, remarkably pipping Stephen Fry to the post. Linda died in 2006 and I miss her.
As dramatic as it sounds, if it wasn’t for Victoria Wood I wouldn’t be a comedian. As an eight-yearold my parents showed me As Seen on TV, her iconic TV series, and I was hooked. I recorded all of them (on VHS of course — with a label saying ‘DON’T RECORD OVER!!) and watched them repeatedly. Though the industry was dominated by men, Victoria’s visibility gave us girls something to aspire to. She was a comedy genius and I wish she was still here now to make us smile.
Chris McCausland on Eddie Izzard
As well as being hilarious, groundbreaking and madder than a badger with a gun, Eddie Izzard challenged preconceptions by talking about being a transvestite (as she identified at the time) in a way that was present but not the focal point of the comedy. Eddie always kept that funny and interesting and left audiences wanting to hear more. This is the approach I strove to emulate when incorporating my blindness into my comedy, because there is much more that makes you, you, than just the one thing that many might assume is your primary defining attribute.
Kiri Pritchard-McLean on Maria Bamford
Maria Bamford is clever and silly and she paints a world so vividly you can’t help but be drawn inside. Her ability to inhabit characters wholly is so masterful. Her face is a living sketch show. I spent hours watching her web series when I worked the Saturday shift answering phones at The Frog and Bucket Comedy Club (sorry guys, I promise I still took bookings). She made me realise you can talk about heavy and important subjects whilst being hilarious.
Darren Harriott on Patrice O’Neal
Patrice O’Neal, he was like a comic’s comic. He passed away in November 2011. He just had the level of honesty I adored, he spoke openly and candidly about his failings and illnesses. He was a 6ft 4in, 300lb black guy who had high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity; who never held back on his thoughts, no matter what the consequences of that. And he never wanted to owe anyone in the business, which was why he turned down a lot of TV work, fearing it would somehow mean he would have to tone down his live act.
⬤ Jason Manford, Dane Baptiste, Darren Harriott, Jo Brand,
Kiri Pritchard-McLean and Chris McCausland feature in the Funny Festival Live, nightly on BBC2 from Sunday March 7; Dane Baptiste’s show Bamous is on BBC iPlayer; Anna Morris: Kid-Life Crisis is available on BBC Sounds