He doesn’t want to do politics, but Joe does want to gig...
The Spring Arts Centre, Havant/Zoom Saturday, November 14 thespring.co.uk
Portsmouth-based comic Joe Wells has written for Have I Got News For You and supported Frankie Boyle and Alexei Sayle (and won a couple of Guide Awards...). But with politics becoming so absurd, a couple of years ago Joe found himself wondering why he became a political comedian in the first place.
The result was Joe Wells Doesn’t Want to Do Political Comedy Anymore!, a ‘genuine hidden treasure’ of the Edinburgh Fringe in 2019 according to comedy website Chortle.
‘My plan, like everyone had plans,’ says Joe with a wry laugh, ‘was that I would do the show at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2019 – that all went well – then I would do a little tour in the new year and that would end in May where I would do it at The Spring and I would film it there, and because it's local I should be able to sell it out, and that would be a nice end to the tour.
‘But obviously the lockdown happened, and The Spring date was postponed to November, so I thought, that's fine, I'll do it then. And now the second lockdown's happened!’
However Joe was determined to draw a line under this show: ‘I really want to share the story one last time, get it filmed and then put it to bed – I didn't want to postpone it again.’
Joe, plus a skeleton crew are allowed into the venue, as it’s for work, but there will be no audience at the Spring. Everyone watching will be on a Zoom call – buy tickets to access the link.
I'm allowed to go to the theatre, because that's for work, but I'm not allowed to have an audience there.
‘With comedy you need an audience. Even though I don't speak to the audience much, I just noticed that on streamed gigs not having any feedback was a bit weird. The dynamics aren't quite right.
What I want audiences to feel like is almost like they're at a party and I'm a very engaging person telling a story, and there's that kind of relationship. It's not just a oneway monologue. The audience matter, is what I'm trying to say!’
In the past couple of months though, Joe has found himself attracting more attention than ever, thanks to a video clip going viral.
The clip, where Joe talks about having a brother who isn't autistic, has so far received 1.2m views online.
‘That's the biggest career boost I've ever had.
‘I've gone to the Edinburgh Fringe four times, I tend to get good reviews, and people who come to the shows seem to like them, but from that clip I've had loads of opportunities come up. It's interesting that that's the thing which is the career boost, over things I spent ages working on...
‘That was my first indoor gig back after lockdown – around late August/early September. The club do little clips you can put on your social media and they gave me that, and it went viral.
‘I think it tapped into a point which maybe isn't said more about how we pathologise something which isn't “normal”, and we think of it as a disease or an illness.
‘My world view is that is an assumption we should challenge, just because something isn't normal doesn't mean that it's an illness. So I was flipping it. ‘I wanted to show that not "normal” is not necessarily a bad thing.’
Joe, who was diagnosed as autistic two years ago, is also writing a book, a project he is clearly very passionate about.
‘It's a book aimed at young adults about important neurodivergent people. For a lot of young neurodivergent people, there's not a lot of role models in the media. To have a book that goes: “Hey look at what these cool people are achieving, and they're different in the same way that you're different, would be a good thing”.’
Focusing on about 30 different people, including those with ADHD, dyslexia, dyspraxia and autism, Joe adds: ‘Neurodivergent people are either portrayed as kind of afflicted, or kind of savants or geniuses.
‘The reality of this is that it’s a different skill set – it's not that people have secret genius skills which have to be “unlocked”, it's a case of if the environment is right, people can achieve good things because of their difference.
‘I'm hoping this will cut through those stereotypes.’
The book has a publisher, but does not yet have a release date.
I wanted to show that not ‘normal’ is not necessarily a bad thing