{COMEDY} Comedy meets High Art CULTURE CLUB
What on earth do jazz, dance, visual art and classical music have in common with comedy? In the hands of several Fringe pioneers, quite a lot, discovers Jay Richardson
S ean Lock once likened media coverage of comedians to that of strippers – none too respectful of something that involved divesting so much. Despite comedy’s current boom, scrutiny still tends to focus on comics’ television careers or transgressions, rather than the process of creating art. And, as it grows, comedy is becoming more diverse and amorphous, especially at the Fringe, where ambitious acts are marrying it to other forms. They’re creating shows that, as New Art Club’s Tom Roden ventures, aspire to be ‘beautiful and challenging’ as well as funny. Meanwhile, they’re puncturing some of comedy’s own snobbery.
Alex Horne’s joyous, jazz-backed comedy of The Horne Section started as an opportunity to mess about with childhood friends, but the show’s popularity has exceeded all expectations. Transferring to Melbourne and London’s West End, broadcasting on Radio 4, appearing at ‘proper’ jazz festivals like Cheltenham and attracting the likes of Harry Hill and The Divine Comedy’s Neil Hannon for guest spots, The Horne Section’s success reflects comedy’s versatility at the expense of jazz’s supposed impenetrability.
Both comedy and jazz are comfortable with improvisation. And Horne notes that while ‘comedy has become quite ridiculous with stadium gigs, traditionally both art forms played to dark, smoky rooms of 30 people. And there are still gigs like that for aficionados, while the amount of column inches they command in the Sunday supplements remains ludicrously small’.
Having failed to learn the harmonica, he remains awed by his bandmates’ musicianship – ‘I have to conduct a bit and find it really hard; it looks so easy, like you’re just waving in time’ – but believes they’re innovating by harking back to a less venerated form of entertainment. ‘Comedy, anything that’s funny, is such a wide-ranging term and we’re drifting towards this variety, music hall tradition. We’ve had plate spinners and hula hoop girls on stage. And people coming on to sing, pretty straight and really well; audiences love
Left to right: New Art Club; Vikki Stone; Hannah Gadsby; The Horne Section.
L A V I T S E F 28 THE LIST 4–11 Aug 2011