There we are, 5 years. A half decade of this silly little but maybe actually quite important and lovely comedy collective.
Seems like only the other day this was just a hype idea me and Kirstie were discussing online. And now we are, at least by social and community metrics, doing fucking great. We have a modest but dedicated audience of regulars in person and online. Nearly all feedback we’ve had from people watching us for the first time has been overwhelmingly positive. And people have felt safe, included, and entertained without the caveat of having to ignore subtle transphobic microaggressions in jokes or anything like that.
I joked last night that time will tell whether our baffling continued presence will actually be a net good or bad for society – but only because I have an innate need to always second guess myself and don’t know how to let myself get rightful praise from something, that not just me, but Kirstie too have worked very hard to curate for a grand total of £0 profit (well, actually the grand total is in the negatives, but shh).
Pursuing comedy as a career ruined it for me. But making a comedy space for the love and a drive to diversify the community and allow several people who love watching comedy but can’t face going to a club to see it because of all the negative associations and fear attached to that experience has reinvigorated my love for the artform and the community as a whole.
Don’t get me wrong, there’s still lots I dislike about the wider industry and circuit. But we’ve carved out a lovely little niche here that frankly gives me a place where I can enjoy live comedy again, let alone all the wonderful regulars and audiences we get passing through our doors.
The community of acts who work regularly with us, Patreon supporters and regular donors who are, if anything, more passionate about this space than I am, the staff at Gullivers for just being brilliant from day 1 and giving us an almost perfect space for what we could reasonably expect the size that we are to platform so many great people we wouldn’t be able to otherwise. Me and Kirstie make all this happen administratively sure – but Blizzard Comedy wouldn’t be what it was without all of you, so whether you perform with us, support us financially, or just watch every now and then, from the bottom of my heart, thank you. You have made me realize how much I can love and enjoy comedy again, and I am forever blessed that I get to both hone my own and showcase my faves with you on such a regular basis.
Speaking of showcasing my faves – we absolutely smashed that brief for our 5th anniversary show. 5 acts who are all quintessentially Blizzard – making this possibly my favourite show we’ve ever done (and if you read these regularly, you’ll know that is a high fucking bar).
We had the absolute comedy darling Alex Stringer opening – a comic who hasn’t played with us in frankly far too long, but is so active in the North West circuit putting so much good into it with grassroots projects and shows platforming women and enbies especially – not to mention her own comedy being some of the tightest I’ve ever seen.
Alex’s style is deceptively conversational, very casually dropping some clearly very well-crafted punchlines and gags with such economy of words that you have no chance to prepare before you’re hit with how fucking great and hilarious they are.
She’s improved a lot in the 2-3 years since I last saw her perform, and I’ll be honest she was already brilliant then. A true natural, but one who clearly works hard to go above and beyond that, and cement herself as one of the fucking funniest comics ever to try the craft. A superstar in the making if I ever saw one.
Next, we had a Broadcast Avalanche favourite, Eddie French. What is there to say about Eddie, one of the quickest wits I’ve ever had the pleasure to watch, so comfortably ad-libbing some of the greatest gags I’ve ever heard. And when they are performing a more structured routine, they are always immaculately crafted from premise to execution. A personal highlight for me was their argument that football fans are the absolute biggest and best nerds from any fandom ever, argued in such a brilliantly funny way but also incredibly astute and genuinely convincing that the premise doesn’t even feel that wacky in hindsight, just an obvious fact that I’m baffled isn’t already a widely accepted truth.
Eddie is the kind of comic I aspire to be, and know I never will. But hey, we’ve already got the best there is working at the same time as me, so why should I mind? I’m just thrilled to get to watch them time and again, whatever they decide to talk about will be brilliant.
Next, we had a returning favourite Saeth Wheeler. I’ve said it many a time, Saeth’s ability to craft such narratively satisfying sets is second to none. Every time I’ve seen them, it feels like an Edinburgh hour condensed into 10 minutes. Few other acts could cram so many good gags, a coherent story or message that ebbs and flows so beautifully and memorably, and just a very real sense of relatable humanity at its core that leaves each set they do lingering in my head for weeks after watching them sometimes.
Saeth is a criminally underrated performer, and I imagine it won’t stay that way for long. Absolutely go and see them now so you can be one of those wanky pricks who goes on about all the brilliant bands and comedians you got to see before they were famous (like me, I do that all the time, it’s what I live for).
Closing the second section before our headliner, we had another absolute fave of ours and everyone who’s ever seen her Maxine Wade. Maxine is the cutting edge of what comedy is – tackling dark and serious issues so expertly and not just like Jimmy Carr saying the word “cancer” and getting 14 tax-free Netflix specials because of it. But also, recontextualizing the beats and flows of timeless stand-up from the good old days before us wokies killed it by deciding that maybe 20 white men telling jokes about their wife they hate wasn’t the be all and end all of the format.
Maxine has expert delivery, sharp punchlines, and is just generally one of the most fun acts I’ve seen in a very long time. She is an asset to the industry and art form, and we are all better off for her presence in it.
And finally, we had one of my absolute idols James Ross – performing his simple but incredibly brilliant format “Guess Who with Vibes”.
James is another one of those acts whose wit is so sharp that he’d be able to think of a great metaphor punchline for this comparison in a split second while I gave up after 10 and just wrote this instead.
He’s so quick on his feet, has the energy of a man who is both full of himself but also everyone else – elevating everyone in the room to god status for the hour he’s on stage. No matter how low your self esteem is, being in a room with James Ross on stage is going to drag that up to unthinkable levels when he’s done with you. There’s just something so incredibly earnest about the joy and fun James has on stage, exacerbated by this format that has so much potential for entertainment, that after the first round, even those usually shy about audience participation where having the time of their lives.
The show is what it sounds like. A volunteer picks a person in the audience, James asks them a series of intangible vibes based questions for them to say “yes” or “no” to, they answer, and if the person the volunteer chose sits down at any point they’ve failed, but if they’re the last standing then they win.
It’s a huge amount of silly fun. And James is the perfect person to do it, with such variety of questions and themes and strings to go down throughout, that I think in a larger room this could’ve easily gone on for 2 hours without anyone getting bored of the format.
James’ glee is infectious. He gets everyone on board with no challenge at all. He has the energy to entertain a room for an hour doing or talking about just about anything, and combine that with this delightfully silly format, and you’ve got the makings of one of the best and most original comedy formats to date. A lesser comic would use this game as a way to pick on various physical attributes of an audience and as a way to generate disposable “comedian OWNS paying audience member by DESTROYING their self-esteem” clips – but even the slightly cheeky and meaner questions are so specific and whimsical that they are impossible to take in bad faith. It is a great deal of fun, and a lot of the questions seemed so tailored to our delightfully weird audience, making it a genuine spectacle to see our regulars engage without question some absolute batshit “would you rather” questions, and ink blot tests.
On a personal level, it’s deeply meaningful to me that I got to introduce the promoter that inspired me to start this gig, and really played a pivotal role in my own self belief in my belonging place in stand-up as the headliner for this show. But even putting that aside, I can’t think of a better way to have spent our 5th birthday show. And all the brilliant support acts we had, were the icing on the cake.
And there we have it, 5 of the most iconic sets we’ve ever platformed on our show, and also I was there doing something strange no doubt too.
I don’t really know where we go from here, or what 2024/2025 will hold for us, but I do know that I am so excited to continue this journey with you all. Thank you all so much, whether you donate large sums of money to our Patreon every month, or whether you just went to one show 7 months ago and had a great time and keep forgetting or not getting the chance to come back but maybe will do one day. I appreciate you all so much. We’ve already got the next few months booked with a glorious selection of comedians both old and new to us who I just know are going to love this room as much as I do.
If you want to catch the streamed version of this show, it is broadcasting on Twitch.tv/blizzardcomedy on Monday 22nd April at 7:00pm, and will be available to watch for 14 days after that. And if you’d like to book tickets to upcoming shows you can do so here.
Thanks again, I love you all, see you soon ❤
Blizzard Comedy 