Created in Birmingham

From time to time a disgruntled promoter will write something accusing the people of Birmingham of being an apathetic bunch who’d rather stay at home than go out and have a good time. See this post from a year ago for an example.

James Cook has joined this cohort with a post titled ‘Why the Birmingham comedy scene repeatedly dies on its hole…‘. His gripes are that (and I apologise for paraphrasing):

• research shows that residents of Birmingham are the most risk averse in the country. We have a drinking culture, but not much of a ‘going out’ culture. This makes things difficult for promoters
• there are too many poor quality comedy night charging people good money to see new, unpaid acts. These nights are rubbish and will put people off ever going to a comedy night again

I don’t claim to know too much about this – I go to the occasional stand-up show, but I don’t have James’s experience of the local comedy scene and he’s not the first to have made this complaint. However, from a lay punter’s point of view, I was under the impression that if comedy’s your thing then Birmingham caters for you pretty well. We’ve got:

• the NIA and LG Arena for the big, mainstream touring shows
• Town Hall and Alexandra Theatre for other biggish touring shows
• two main stand-up venues - The Glee Club and Highlight
• other occasional shows at The Public and the MAC. Warwick Arts Centre and various places in Wolverhampton are fairly close too
• some smaller, regular nights bringing in some decent national names (Comedy Junction and Popcorn Comedy)
• there’s a proliferation of other, smaller nights at pubs and bars around over the city too

In terms of general promotion, we’ve got a dedicated comedy website and (almost?) every year the Birmingham Comedy Festival draws a ring around a load of shows happening over the space of a month and shouts about them.

That seems like a pretty healthy spread to me. Certainly a good deal more than many other towns and cities can claim. Does it constitute a ‘scene’? If not, is it just the audiences for the smaller gigs that are missing, or something else?

I’d be interested in hearing what people think. Or, seeing as how he started the discussion, leave a comment on James’s post.

This is one for the promoters out there. And for anyone who gripes about not being able to find out what’s going on in this fair city (that’ll be most people then).

Ian Ravenscroft has a new blog and has used is to voice his annoyance at the lack of places available for trumpeting stuff that’s happening (in his case, the Popcorn Comedy nights at the Victoria):

So realistically, we’re left with flyering and postering. Which is fine. Well, unless you live in Birmingham that is. If you’ve tried to do it here, you’ll know it’s a nightmare. You can’t flyer, you can’t poster, and subsequently promoters of all events face the prospect of shutting down due to a lack of numbers.

Venues don’t want to cross-promote, understandably, but as a result, it looks to the average punter like there isn’t much going on in the city. And when I say ‘average punter’ I mean, someone who likes going out, but isn’t switched on to the whole social networking/blogging/RSS thing.

• Things we learned by hosting Popcorn Comedy – Dice Productions
  I’m a sucker for this kind of thing. Lessons here from putting on a stand-up comedy/short film night in a pub
• Six Birmingham nominations for the RPS Music Awards
  Big ups to BCMG, Oliver Knussen, Andris Nelsons, CBSO’s Igor Fest, Colin Matthews and Birmingham Opera Company for nominations in the RPS Music Awards
• Forthcoming residency at The Lombard Method | fizzPOP
  This is a Good Thing, in my mostly humble opinion
• Birmingham Hippodrome Brochure April 2010
  The forthcoming summer/autumn/winter programme from Big Theatre. A whole heap of dance (esp IDFB and BRB) and musicals with a dash of opera
• Creative Survival in Hard Times « D’log
  “Creative Survival in Hard Times is a new report from New Deal of the Mind, commissioned by the Arts Council. It explores policy options for supporting young creatives in the UK, and the key useful suggestions are…” Click the link to read on
• Desperately seeking Desk Space… – ragearts’s posterous
  Rage Arts are looking for some desk space for their graduate intern. If anyone can help then get in touch with them
• Birmingham Pride – 29/30 May
  Dates just announced for the UK’s biggest LGBT party

Please excuse this little bit of self promotion…

After its Brum debut at the Birmingham Comedy Festival last year, cult London comedy night Popcorn Comedy is back, this time at The Victoria on Thursday 25th March 2010.

Popcorn Comedy showcases the funniest comedy videos from around the internet, combined with live stand ups and character comedians, who mix in their own comedy videos for good measure.

This time, Popcorn has live performances from Rob Rouse (8 out of 10 Cats, Grown Ups) and Brian Gittins (described by Ricky Gervais as “One of the best comedy characters of the decade”). I’ll be hosting the night along with my Dice Productions cronies, so I’ll see you there.

It’s a fiver in (and less for students), so follow this link and book your tickets for Popcorn Comedy.

Very late notice, but if you’re at a loose end tonight then you could do a lot worse than head over to the Electric Cinema for the Birmingham launch of stand-up/video comedy phenomenon Popcorn Comedy:

featuring the rap/stand up stylings of Doc Brown and the wonderful Holly Walsh live on stage, as well as a selection of the newest and funniest videos from the web in glorious high resolution

It’s part of the Birmingham Comedy Festival (which is currently ongoing) as well as being sponsored by Hello Digital.

Tickets are £6, get them from the Electric Cinema website or, more realistically given the time, on the door. I’ll be going along, maybe see you there.

There’s a little more info on Dice Productions’ blog – they’re organising things and will be premiering their new video.