Tell us about your show, The Stand Up Horror Show.
The Stand Up Horror Show is a one man occult cabaret. However, there is a twist in that all of the acts that have been booked have perished before the gig. It involves stories, jokes, magic, fortune telling and ends with a dangerous magic trick; me having a nail cannon fired at me and dodging the nails.
I think it will be something that is very unique. And I think up at the Edinburgh Fringe you have to be unique given the amount of different shows that there are on at the festival.
What inspired you to create a show based on this premise?
I was taken to an art exhibition called The Horror Show in London. It was excellent! I wish it was the kind of thing that could have a permanent installation.
It looked at how artists had used horror to highlight the darker side of society from the 1970s. It had many different artists in there that have inspired me over the years such as The Mighty Boosh and Lee Bowery to David Bowie and Spitting Image.
I was developing the show already and was looking for that missing piece and thought can you apply that horror lens to a stand up show?
How did you develop your ideas for each distinct character?
Upon looking at the intersections of horror, I was then able to look at which elements I wanted to bring through character-wise. I was intrigued by the Phantom of the Opera, which was played by Michael Crawford, who is often associated with being a comedy performer thanks to Frank Spencer. I took a lot of inspiration from that and added in elements of my own comedy persona, who I think is also very put upon by the situations that I find myself in on stage, doing improvised clowning heavy crowd work.
(Little fun fact for you, the Phantom of the Opera inspired the characterisation of Mewtwo from the first Pokémon movie… If you want more insights into the Pokémon universe, I also host a Pokémon podcast called Talking Trubbish.)
I also took inspiration from Tommy Cooper, Count Arthur Strong and WWE’s The Undertaker. They’re all masters of their craft and use aspects of the occult such as magic, mediumship and undead respectively, mixing it in with their other chosen art forms to create something new.
What drew you to this kind of comedy, which incorporates props, characters and surreal situations?
Around 2017 I was getting a reputation for being able to tell jokes and stories and do very fast, light-hearted crowd work. However, I did not find it particularly fulfilling. One night I just had my inner voice say “You aren’t enjoying this anymore”. I finished up my set on stage and decided something had to change.
I decided to completely retool everything. I thought, what if I try to make it actively harder for myself? I bought a pair of gloves with no thumbs in them and thought it would be funny to do a set with them not being able to pick the microphone out of the stand.
I am very influenced by a sitcom called Hi-De-Hi! There is a character in it called Ted Bovis (someone I consider to be an unofficial mentor) who has a catch phrase “First rule of comedy: You must have reality”. It is something I try to incorporate into my routines.
I had no reason to go on stage with all these impediments to my act, but what if I was made to? Then I found a 24-point spin wheel and that was the final piece to the puzzle – what if when the wheel said to, I had incorporate these elements to the act? But then of course I had to find 24 things to fill up the options, so it grew very quickly!
What do you think is the trick to good horror comedy?
I think it is finding the balance of horror and comedy so that everyone leaves satisfied. Those who came for the horror and those who came for the comedy. The double edged sword of these genres is that both comedy and horror take themselves very seriously. I think when we lean too far into it, that tension comes across wrong. The horror becomes ’70s B-movie and the comedy becomes oblique and they don’t achieve their purpose.
The best examples are those that incorporate elements of both comedy and horror and remix. I think the pinnacle of the genre is Shaun of the Dead and The World’s End by Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg. Both are examples of blending comedy and horror satisfying both audiences.
Beyond that, I think there are excellent efforts to blend comedy and horror in the live space in experiences such as Passaje del Terror and The Dungeons. Another example I believe is a fantastic blend is the first series of Psychoville by Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton.
You’ve performed this show at Brighton Fringe and are planning on taking it to Edinburgh. What are your hopes for the show at festivals going forward?
I want to be able to tour this show throughout the UK. I want to be able to take it to horror festivals and comedy festivals where I hope it will be able to sit as something unique in both those camps and prove that I have managed to appropriately find the intersection of horror and comedy, my initial concept for the show.
I would also like to see if any rock and alternative venues would like to program the show. I believe it would be something unique for their audience to enjoy, maybe teaming up with some local bands as a showcase of horror comedy topped off with an amazing gig that many people will remember and enjoy.
Finally, I would also like to spin the show off into “The Stand Up Horror Show For Kids” which I think they would enjoy that a lot as children love scary stories and magic.
Are there any other performers you’re particularly hoping to catch at the festivals you’re attending?
On my radar is …And This Is My Friend Mr Laurel, a play about Stan Laurel staring Jeffrey Holland from Hi-De-Hi!, the actor who Ted Bovis told all his comedy rules to (I intend to hang around after the show to see if I can maybe get a picture with someone whose playing a character has massively shaped my career).
I also intend to watch Phil Ellis’s Excellent Comedy Show. Phil is my favourite live act. I will also be checking out Comedysportz and Ben Hodge’s ‘It’s a Boy?’, an act I think will be on TV in only a matter of time. I will check out Josh Jones’ Gobsmacked, who I am super pleased is getting audiences that love him as much as they do!
Finally, I will try to catch Sian Davies’ This Charming Man, along with her other fantastic compilation shows Comedy Queers and Best In Class.
How have your previews been going so far? Has the show changed much from conception to now?
The previews have been going very well. I have had some fantastic things being said, which is really lovely. It seems that the audience is really getting on board with the concept.
When I started, it was just the idea of “where do comedy and horror, particularly traditionally occult practices, intersect?” As time went by, I started to see opportunities, crowd work sections could become infused with fortune telling and mediumship, the stories could become scary stories and so on. I, all of a sudden, had all these small sections inspired by the occult of a show which had a cabaret feeling to them.
The big thing that brought it all together was working with my director/collaborator, the all around comedic genius Ian Angus Wilkie. He felt there was something missing and pushed for a dangerous element, one that would satiate the fans of horror and comedy and leave everyone satisfied. This is the idea; the stand up horror show is not Tom Short’s show. I am merely the understudy who has to fill in due to a magic trick going wrong just before the shows start and as such I have to fill in and perform that trick which involves being shot at by an audience member with a modified nail gun.
What do you hope people take away from the show?
I hope it will be the kind of show that people have not seen anything like before, whilst also being able to pick up on the various influences and nods that are stitched into the show. I would like them to constantly be questioning what would be happening throughout and have those guesses be constantly answered with thrilling moments. I would want the audience to share what they saw and make others want to see the show again.
But I hope that people ultimately who seek it out for the comedy leave as satisfied as those who came for the horror elements.
Do you have any advice for anyone hoping to get into stand up comedy?
The first thing I recommend is seek out your local open mic scene. This useful in that you will meet lots of people who are also just starting out and you will find new friends and a support network which is invaluable.
My next piece of advice is try to get the mechanics of it down. Lots of people want to get on stage and break rules and push the boundaries, but it is difficult to do in a meaningful way that if you don’t know what the rules and the boundaries are in the first place. A piece of advice I got given really early on which I try to live by is: “There are 3 things you must do in comedy if you want to be successful; 1. be nice to everyone you meet, 2. be on time, 3. be funny… and the last one is actually the least important of the three”.
But the piece of advice I think is the most important that I tell new acts all the time: Enjoy yourself, make this your goal in comedy and then anything else that happens on your journey is only a bonus.
Tom Short is currently previewing The Stand Up Horror Show.
Book your free ticket to see him perform it at Blizzard Comedy on Monday 3rd July.
You can find out about other dates Tom is performing the show and keep up with his other work by following him on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. You can watch his online projects by following him on YouTube and Twitch.
