Can Costa Coffee Stir Up Some Comedy?

Café chain Costa Coffee has launched an online comedy competition in an uncomfortable attempt to link their newest beverage, Costa Light, with the “light-hearted” British sense of humour.  Is this just a bit of frothy fun? Or do corporate deals like this create real ethical problems for what is often a subversive and confrontational art form?

Comedy is booming at the moment. Stand-ups fill stadium gigs like rock stars, and make millions in DVD sales. The public is craving comedy like they crave caffeine, and Costa Coffee is only cashing in on the trend. It’s no wonder that class clowns and office jokers want to be part of the circuit and, by offering two 10-minute slots at the famous Comedy Store venues in London and Manchester, Costa is using their commercial resources to give somebody that chance.

Corporate sponsorship provides much-needed funding for new talent, but comedy is paying the cost. The demands of a commercial company, particularly their squeamishness about controversial subject matter, can ultimately censor comics and prevent them from pushing the boundaries of acceptability. PRs have the power to sanitize the jokes in their competitions, and when faced with losing the dangling carrot of national exposure or a cash prize, many struggling comedians cannot resist homogenizing their sets into an acceptable, marketable commodity.

Perhaps the public has no moral issue with this form of distribution. After all, Michael McIntyre’s brand of inoffensive, uncontroversial and often family-friendly comedy is incredibly successful. That isn’t in any way an insult - McIntyre’s material is undeniably funny, but it is also undeniable that even something as cannily observed as ‘the Man Drawer’ will never push boundaries of taste or thought. While the audience appreciates such populist humour, the comedians themselves certainly find it more problematic.

Even in a more alternative environment like the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the problem of corporate sponsorship is still unavoidable. The Edinburgh Comedy Award, currently sponsored by Fosters Lager, was originally backed by the mineral water Perrier. In 1992, however, Perrier was bought by Nestle; according to campaign group Baby Milk Action, Nestle’s ‘aggressive marketing’ of powdered baby milk in developing countries contributed to infant malnutrition and death. Comedians were vocal in their protests against Perrier’s continued sponsorship. Emma Thompson, who won the first ever Perrier Award in 1981 as part of Cambridge Footlights, called for artists to boycott the awards, and Rob Newman created an anti-corporate alternative called the Tap Water Awards.

The Edinburgh Fringe has always stood for artistic freedom; acts have the opportunity to perform to their own audience on their own terms, without restrictions. But the Festival has grown massively, even in the few years since Perrier stopped sponsoring the award, and corporate funding is now necessary to keep it alive. Likewise, British comedy is too big to survive without the likes of Costa and other big corporations. Though the total corporatisation of comedy does seem unlikely, does the lure of sponsorship money outweigh the need for freedom of speech?

The decision to get into bed with big business really lies with the comedians, but there will always be a tension between what they want to say and what they are allowed to say. Costa Light may just create ‘Comedy Light’, and who wants low-caffeine, low-energy, unstimulating, extra-frothy comedy?

This article was originally published on Inter:Mission Bristol's Comedy Blog. To see it in the original and check out the (excellent) website, click here.

Inter:Mission

I am indeed that Emily Cawse, Deputy Editor of Inter:Mission Bristol. Described by my own cruel hand as a wannabe slacker with a crippling addiction to doing and a direct descendent of the real Monty Python. I got involved with I:M because I'm passionate about culture, but I giggle too much in serious exhibitions and art-house cinema.

You can read my articles for I:M on their website, of course, along with all the other excellent reviews, features, listings and blogs about the Bristol cultural scene.

(I've decided to post all my work for I:M on this blog after it's been up on the site for about a week. Not that I imagine my opinions are drawing massive crowds, but it does seem like a conflict of interests to split my miniscule readership between two different sites. If you read both, I will love you forever.)

The Free Fringe

Every performer dreams of spending August at the Edinburgh Festival – but a Fringe show costs more than the average actor or comedian can afford. Venue hire, accommodation, registration, travel, box office fees, promotional material, production costs and fast food between performances add up to thousands of pounds, which small companies have to find for themselves. The resulting high ticket prices mean that the cost of a trip to the festival is going up for audiences as well. Fosters Comedy Award winner Russell Kane charged a massive £17.50 for a one-hour show this year. Surely this isn’t the true spirit of the Fringe? Should artistic and cultural exchange cost so much? Isn’t there another way?

All these questions occurred to me as I stood on a rain-soaked Royal Mile, with only one solitary, foreign-looking fiver in my pocket, that would probably only buy me one drink in Edinburgh’s ridiculously-priced bars. Surely there must be a way to experience all the festival has to offer without maxing out my already-stretched budget? I stumbled down a side street, and discovered that the Fringe has sprouted another fringe of its own.

The Free Fringe began in 1996 on the principle that it would not charge performers to hire venue space, and the performers would not charge an entry fee (audiences are simply asked for donations at the end). This idea grew from the founding show, Peter Buckley Hill and Some Comedians, to this year’s 325 shows in 29 different venues. That’s not even counting the 340 shows at the rival Laughing Horse Free Festival, or the Forest Fringe, or countless other performances in off-the-radar venues. The simple concept of free venues and free entry has become a strong model for Edinburgh productions.

By reducing the costs of producing a show, performers are given the opportunity to experiment and develop, without getting into a debt that could drown their post-Edinburgh future. Free entry attracts audiences who have been priced out of the mainstream festival. More importantly, it encourages people to try something new, a show they perhaps wouldn’t have bought a ticket for. New, inexperienced, unknown or niche free performers rarely have an empty seat, while paid shows struggle to fill theirs.

And at the end of the night, my crumpled fiver ends up in the bucket of a free sketch show I genuinely enjoyed, going directly to the talented student cast, and then, I imagine, straight into the bar’s till in exchange for a well-deserved but over-priced pint.

(Originally published in Epigram, issue 240, 10/10/11)

School Report: Can't Stick At Anything

Yes, yes, I know I haven't posted to this blog since April. I am also aware that I only posted four articles before my unplanned hiatus. But, as with any good school report, I do have my excuses.

In May, I was forced to return to my 'day job' of full-time student. Although full-time is just a technicality for a 6-hour-a-week English student, when you're writing thousands of words for your assessment, writing an article is hardly ideal downtime.

In June I have no excuse. I was having fun. So sue me.

In July, I was lucky enough to visit New York for the first time. I won't make you jealous, but it was a dream come true.

In August, I was performing in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival as part of university improvised comedy troupe, Bristol Improv. I won't apologise for not writing anything, it was the hardest I've ever worked. We tried every tactic we could think of to coerce people into our show, but in the end we were suprisingly successful. Obviously, success in Edinburgh terms means you don't perform to an empty room every night, but luckily for us we were far from that. It goes without saying that the shall we say 'apres-ski' of the Festival was all part of it as well...

In September I had to earn some money, and I haven't yet reached the point where anybody is prepared to pay me for my writing. (Although I did do some work experience at Hair Ideas at the beginning of the summer, and they gave me a lovely bag of hair goodies when I left, which I was more than happy to accept.)

And now we reach October. I am now part of the exciting new online magazine, Inter:Mission, for which I will be writing features and reviews. Check it out, I hope you like it - I love it, and I can say that, as I had almost nothing to do with its set up.

Thanks for reading my inane witterings, if you indeed do. I always appreciate your time and attention because, let's face it, there are things like this on the Internet. (Yeah, I still find that funny. What of it?)

Emily (@emilyin140)

REVIEW: Submarine

Submarine (2010)

Director: Richard Ayoade

Writers: Richard Ayoade (screenplay) and Joe Dunthorne (novel)

Stars: Craig Roberts, Yasmin Paige, Sally Hawkins, Paddy Considine

Submarine has been called a ‘coming-of-age comedy-drama’ and I would understand if this description alone was your reason for avoiding this film. You would be justified in expecting the ‘comedy’ to be unfunny and the ‘drama’ unmoving. Teenagers are irritating, and they become dull adults; having recently transitioned out of adolescence myself, it is hardly something I want to relive cinematically. But ‘coming-of-age comedy-drama’ does not do Submarine any justice at all.

Unfortunately, there is no way to describe this quirky, quick, quaint film that captures its intelligence, richness or relentless humour. Indeed, even those vague terms can’t do it. Instead, I have chosen a clip:

It isn’t difficult to understand this if you’ve ever seen a ‘coming-of-age comedy-drama’ before – the protagonist (here, Oliver Tate, a 15 year-old from Swansea) is simultaneously trying to save his own first relationship and his parents’ marriage. So far, so conventional. However, as this clip shows, it is the idiosyncratic way Oliver goes about his mission that makes this film stand out.Oliver’s approach to love is calculated and pragmatic; he researches extensively (see the book he is reading at 0.23 is called Making Relationships Work) and his voice-overs outlines his tactics. Personally, I think relationships would be much easier if everybody behaved so rationally and reasonably, but his methods clash with the feelings of his girlfriend and his parents. The letter is a perfect example of this – logically, it is fail-safe, but in the emotional reality of relationships, it just doesn’t work.

Even when Oliver is impersonating his father in the letter, or parroting the language of self-help books to his mother, his voice is unmistakable. Everything is from his perspective, told from his unusual point of view. Indeed, his voice itself has burrowed itself into my mind; his distinctive Welsh drawl makes his monologues seem laconic yet witty, and the dialogue simply hilarious. Craig Roberts’ delivery is nothing short of superb, particularly in the awkward exchanges with his mother, played by Sally Hawkins – as this clip demonstrates from about 0.26 onwards.

Submarine is an impressive directorial debut for Richard Ayoade. I’m not surprised by the finely-tuned comedy; he is most famous for his acting roles in Garth Merenghi’s Darkplace, The Mighty Boosh and The IT Crowd. As much as I admire his performances, I might even go as far to say that I prefer his work behind the camera. The cinematography is experimental, certainly, although occasionally distracting: this clip alone includes a documentary-style zoom-in on the letter (0.27) and an ominous movement as Oliver leans in at 0.48. It shows the sharp style and frequent jump-cuts that force us to watch the film in the way Ayoade wants us to. He must have written the screenplay knowing how the film would look, as shown by a subtly brilliant moment of metacinema earlier in the film. (Pathetically, that was probably my favourite moment, so I won’t spoil it for anybody else with a similarly off-centre sense of humour.)

You might have guessed that I completely loved it. The peril of reviewing is that most people will inevitably disagree with you, but I hope I can persuade one person to seek it out (it had a very limited release) and that they feel the same way. Submarine looks pretentious, but it is intelligent; looks ‘indie’, but is playfully experimental; it might sound like a ‘coming-of-age comedy-drama’, but don’t let that put you off.

How to bluff your way through... CHILDREN’S LITERATURE

If children’s books were just for children, Harry Potter would never have become so astoundingly successful, selling over 400 million copies worldwide and spawning the highest grossing film series of all time. Our parents are to blame for that. Adults read the books to their kids, got hooked themselves, told their friends, pushed up sales and created the greatest literary phenomenon of recent times. Love or hate the boy wizard, he shows that kid’s books aren’t just for kids. Here is your quick guide to some great literature that little’uns shouldn’t be allowed to keep to themselves.

For Bookworms

Eoin Colfer calls his Artemis Fowl series ‘Die Hard with fairies’ – there’s no better way to describe this wickedly funny collision of a teenage criminal genius and subterranean, supernatural soldiers. As much as I hate to call a book ‘laugh-out-loud funny’, Colfer is hugely entertaining, even for so-called grown-ups.

I’ll be honest – the head-spinning teenager-speak of The Confessions of Georgia Nicolson makes me feel dizzy. And that makes me feel old. But Louise Rennison creates adolescence’s answer to Bridget Jones, who remains as likable and as funny as ‘Dave the Laugh’.

For Budding Historians

Some of the most powerful literature about war is from the perspective of the youngest victims. Ian Serraillier’s The Silver Sword is the true account of a family escaping occupied Warsaw, but the most memorable story is that of the Balicki children, surviving in a bombed-out cellar and open woodlands with no parents to protect them from Nazi forces.

Deborah Ellis spent months interviewing women and girls in refugee camps in Pakistan for The Breadwinner, about an 11 year-old girl forced to dress as a boy to provide for her family in Taliban-era Afghanistan. A window into the real impact of the Gulf Wars.

For Everybody

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time isn’t a children’s book, but the autism of the 15 year-old protagonist makes it an essential read for all ages, showing that we all need to learn that the world is a difficult place for many, whether we’re supposedly grown-up or not.

This article was originally published in Epigram (2011).

How to bluff your way through... AUTOBIOGRAPHY

In 1809, Isaac D’Israeli wrote, ‘if the populous of writers become thus querulous after fame (to which they have no pretensions) we shall expect to see an epidemical rage for auto-biography break out.’ 200 years later, and Jordan/Katie Price has already published four different autobiographies. Was D’Israeli right? I have never read Price’s work, so it would be unfair to call her books soulless, worthless artefacts of a fame-hungry, talentless attention-vacuum. But these autobiographies turn some truly amazing people into quality literature.

Boys and their Tales of Childhood

The critic Clive James brings all the wit of his newspaper columns to his own life in his Unreliable Memoirs. His childhood in post-war, suburban Sydney is startlingly honest and surprisingly captivating. Not only that, but his autobiography is undeniably, irresistibly hilarious. If you can’t stop laughing, he has written four more volumes.

Roald Dahl understood children like no other author. Boy: Tales of Childhood is technically written for his younger audience, but, for his grown-up fans, it not only describes his early life, but transports you back into the mind that created gigantic flying peaches and Big Friendly Giants.

Also recommended: My Family and Other Animals, Gerald Durrell

Fictionalized Tales

In the introduction to Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, Jeanette Winterson writes, ‘Is Oranges an autobiographical novel? No not at all and yes of course.’ There is nothing straightforward about her story of a girl, also Jeanette, coming-out to her evangelical church community. She stretches the truth into art, inserting rewritten fairy tales and structuring her life like the Bible, yet there is a sincere, honest heart to the fictionalized novel.

Semi-autobiographical works are the ultimate incarnation of ‘writing what you know’ and there are countless such novels. Some noteworthy examples include: Sons and Lovers, D. H. Lawrence, David Copperfield, Charles Dickens; The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath.

Untold Tales

We know almost nothing about Shakespeare. He did not write an autobiography. The next best thing, however, is Bill Bryson’s Shakespeare: The World as a Stage, which entertainingly skips through what we can puzzle out about the legendary writer.

Claire Tomalin is the queen of literary biographies. Jane Austen may have had a dull life on the surface, but Tomalin brings out the sharp intelligence that makes Austen one of the best-loved authors in the English language.

This article orginally appeared in Epigram (Issue 237, 21/03/2011, p. 20).