Opinion: Let’s redress the alternative comedy debate

Recently I read two Giggle Beats articles about Alternative Comedy. One of them was a story about comedian Zoe Lyons, entitled: The Public Aren’t Interested In The Alternative Comedy Debate.

“There’s a massive market for [mainstream] comedy, so there’s no point telling people they’re stupid for liking it,” she said.

Presumably this reaction comes from conflating the sentiments from (the onstage persona of) Stewart Lee – one of the largest public advocates for Alternative Comedy who thrusts himself firmly into the centre of the debate with lengthy tirades against the most popular and highest grossing faces of contemporary comedy – with the assumed sentiments and motivations of anyone who enjoys or performs anything under the banner of “Alternative Comedy”.

Obviously the prejudicial nature of the comment is in itself is a form of snobbery. However, it was merely a line in an interview, something uttered in a sequence of questions and, in context, turns out to be part of a set up relating to a topical joke about the recent meat adulteration scandal. So I feel like it’s unfair to read too much into it.

However, Giggle Beats turned these comments into a story of its own on 19 February, ten days after the initial interview was published and one week after the site’s review of  The Alternative Comedy Experience. Reading the initial interview, you can see Lyons’ comments are in relation to Stewart Lee and The Alternative Comedy Experience, in the abridged article it seems she is making a much broader claim about Alternative Comedy.

Presumably this was done with the aim in mind of inciting a debate about Alternative Comedy – as was Giggle Beats’ response to my first draft of this article: “We were really looking for something that would spark discussion about the supposed ‘new alternative’ movement.”

Clearly I am being offered an opportunity to bring balance to the debate, and extol the wonders and virtues of Alternative Comedy to the disinterested public and even respectable, disinterested comedians.

I think there is a place for “Alternative Comedy” to exist as an identifiable grouping of certain events, acts and groups. Not as a dichotomy as we are historically predisposed to, but with a sliding scale as fluid as sexuality, characterised predominantly by a rejection of industry norms.

Which industry norms? Doesn’t really matter.

Do you want to do a set where you cry about moths? That’s fine. Broadly speaking, the esoteric subject matter, disengagement from audience’s interests, the overuse of pathos and the negative impact that it would have on you receiving regular paid work at any time in the future means I feel it’s fairly uncontentious to say that would be an “alternative” comedy performance.

Do you want to do a set where you deploy lots of conventional set up and punch line gags about high street brands, food outlets and minor cultural faux-pas but all with a view to highlighting the ongoing conflicts in Bahrain? Good for you. Sounds great. But I think a lot of promoters may veer clear of you due to the overtly political through-line. Are you sticking with it despite that? That’s great, maybe you’d like to drop your anchor in Alternative Comedy bay?

Are you going to tell some earnest stories about your drug habits including the ‘highs’ and lows of dealing with addiction? Well, who knows, could be a very good crowd pleaser and you could go on to great things. A set like that would certainly contain some challenging themes, but could also be seen as ‘edgy’ by a lot of promoters. The heartfelt sincerity combined with the tales of excess may appeal to many different people through the performance, it’s certainly a set that goes a long way. Though it would certainly be an unconventional comedy routine, is it ‘Alternative’?

I simply can’t say. That’s why I used the sexuality analogue early on. Sexuality is fluid, nuanced and a large part of it is self-identification. By which I mean: if I had slept with a dozen men, it wouldn’t make me gay any more than sleeping with a dozen women would make me straight. You need to take your cues from how people identify themselves. The man in my example may simply be a naval officer.

The term isn’t defeated because you can’t draw a false dichotomy between acts. Having a term like “Alternative Comedy” is necessary. But it’s only the first step.

I enjoy comedy. I enjoy music. If someone wants me to go with them to a “music club” I will look at them with suspicion until they give me some specifics. What kind of music? Will it be Drum and Bass – because I won’t enjoy that. Live no-wave jazz math post-rock? I’m there!

I love music. I think it’s tops. As a result I’m finicky with it. The ‘comedy boom’ is producing people with that attitude towards comedy.

I’m one of them. I won’t just go to see “comedy”, and yet the vague marketing that the industry uses seems to hark back to the ill-judged common sense of “funny’s funny” attitudes: If it’s funny, people will laugh, if it’s not, they don’t; it’s as simple as that.

This is nonsense. Watch an act soar on applause or face dive into a ravine of indifference with the same material, same intonation, same blinks.

I knew my night was feeling more curated once more conventional high-energy high-confidence student comics who were succeeding elsewhere were receiving more and more silence. Simply because I was attracting people that were looking for ‘other’, for a slice of ‘not that’. For some kind of ‘alternative” comedy, if you will.

To adequately advertise a night you need to be able to inform people of what to expect. Comedy simply doesn’t have the terminology. One day I hope it’ll have genres which people will argue over and discuss and reject like music does – amidst protestations that the concept of a ‘genre’ is vacuous and unhelpful.

But until that glorious day all I’ve got is “Alternative”, and so I intend to stick with it.

The night I run in Sheffield, called Alt.Com.Cab. (Alternative Comedy Cabaret), recently expanded to The Shoebox Studio at The Riverside to create our sister night The Alternative Comedy Cabinet (or “Alt.Com.Cab.” for short). Factor in a sponsorship contract with Dannoff Vodka and it seems the appetite for less conventional comedy has been severely understated.

Reviews, have – of course – been varied: “A mixed bag” (Sheffield Telegraph) compared with “I’d most definitely recommend going to see Alt.Com.Cab for yourself – not least because it’s very difficult to put into words exactly what on earth is going on. For £3 it’s an absolute bargain night out and, like me, you might surprise yourself by finding it one of the most refreshing and entertaining things you’ve seen in ages.” (Postcode Gazette).

So, if you really want to engage in the contemporary “Alternative Comedy” debate, I guess you’d better turn up.

Sean Morley run several nights in Sheffield. The Alternative Comedy Cabaret is at Harrisons 1854 every third Tuesday of the month. The Alternative Comedy Cabinet at The Riverside every first Thursday of the month. And The Speaker’s Corner, an alternative new material night, is at The Nelson Rock Bar every second and fourth Tuesday of the month. For more details, see: altcomcab.com