FESTIVAL COMEDY | Punning Comedians
PUN DIRECTION
Quick quips and intricate wordplay is an often under-rated stand-up skill. Brian Donaldson hears from a number of acts who are continually looking to reach their punchlines in the shortest time possible
PHOTO © STEVE ULLATHORNE
W hile the Fringe has long been renowned for comedians doing storytelling shows with a big theme or grand concept, there’s a bijou set of stand-ups who are walking a different laughter path. The raw and pure form of comedy that is pun-making may not be to everyone’s taste, but when done well, it can provide as memorable a night as listening to someone talk about a recently deceased relative or how they travelled the world to meet a bunch of namesakes.
While an undisputed pioneer of the one-liner may be absent this year (Tim Vine, a two-time winner of Dave’s Joke of the Fringe Award), there’s a talented plethora of punners and a host of one-line quipsters in town. In 2011, Australian comic Bec Hill launched a night entitled Pun Run (which gets a one-off airing this Fringe) as a means of purging herself of the many jokes she was accumulating in her brain. ‘The response from comedians and the audience was so overwhelming, it ended up turning into a regularly sold-out night,’ she recalls. ‘I think it would be torture for anyone who hated puns. Norman Lovett was a guest at our i rst night and he admitted his loathing for wordplay. I think we all took great pleasure in watching him squirm through every act.’
Among those appearing at Pun Run is the 2014 UK Pun Championships victor, Darren Walsh. Telling puns appears to have chosen him rather than the other way round. ‘I’d love to be able to do stories and longer jokes but that’s just not me. I don’t think you can pick what type of comedian to be,
it just happens. I guess an hour of puns is quite hard going so I try and break it up with videos and drawings as much as possible.’
Current UK Pun Championships title-holder Leo Kearse is a passionate defender of this comedic style in the face of a festival rammed with long- form storytelling. ‘People who hate puns are basically stupid idiots. I love all puns and the more stupid or contrived the better. Puns totally kick ass on some wet-lipped posh kid wafl ing on about “literally” the “craziest” thing that “genuinely” happened (it never happened). Puns are proper jokes, they have a twist and you have to engage your brain to enjoy them.’ Long-term joke-writer Jem Brookes (his credits have included topical shows such as Radio 2’s The News Huddlines and Radio 4’s Week Ending) insists that puns work best when they come right out of the blue. ‘It often happens when I’m out and about or when people say a phrase or saying, and then that may start a chain of thought. If I’m working on a particular show, sometimes you just have to sit down with a piece of paper or on Twitter and start forcing yourself to come out with stuff. Usually the best ones hit you when you’re not expecting it, though often you get into a subconscious higher state of mind where you don’t even realise you’re turning stuff over constantly in the back of your mind.’ Richard Pulsford recalls a particular landmark moment in his life when that stuff turned over in his mind when perhaps it shouldn’t have done. ‘My partner was giving birth and there was something both sublime and
38 THE LIST FESTIVAL 6–13 Aug 2015