Simon Munnery
Winner of the 2012 Chortle Award for innovation for La Concepta, a conceptual restaurant that popped up at various secret venues around the Edinburgh Fringe the previous year.
Read More
A Brush With Comedy
Review of the Sky Arts documentary featuring Vic Reeves and others
Simon Munnery has a great stand-up routine taking issue with a well-meaning critic who described his comedy as ‘the closest thing to art’, as if the two forms are mutually exclusive. It’s retold in this interesting – if over-long – documentary about when those two worlds overlap.
A Brush With Comedy is written and directed by Louis Moir, who has first-hand experience of both camps as the son of Vic Reeves creator Jim (whose new programme Painting Birds precedes the debut of this film on Sky Arts tonight).
‘My dad has always said there is great humour in art,’ the film-maker says. ‘And I’ve always thought comedy and art coming together is often overlooked – and often looked down on.’
Indeed, Jim rejects the label of comedian altogether, insisting, ‘I’m just an artist’. With that ‘just’ something of an understatement for a man who can knock out six paintings in a morning.
He became Vic Reeves as a way of putting on a low-cost comedy night in the 1980s, having had no experience of stand-up at all. He says he simply adopted the punk rock mentality: ‘Invent something and do it constantly. It doesn’t matter if it’s good or bad as a long as it’s new…. I didn’t want to do a comedy act and hone it and tell jokes.’
Vic, we learn, could just as easily have ended up being called Craig Wildfowl, a nod to the performer-artist’s love of wildlife, especially birds. But now he’s as good as retired the alter-ego, Jim is clearly happy with his new career as the artist he always thought of himself as. However not all the comedians featured in this film are so at ease with the description.
Bec Hill says that she had never even considered what she did as art before being asked to take part in this project, even though her stage work requires a flipchart to display her elaborate, animated, illustrations. ‘I don’t think I should be in this film,’ she confesses at one point.
The film also reveals wider insecurities, not just about being defined as ‘artists’. Spencer Jones seems nervously uncomfortable showing the world any of his work, even the comedy for which he’s won awards. And when it comes to art he feels like an ‘imposter’, a trivial dilettante compared to the real deal.
Even Munnery, who we meet pottering about in his shed and pouring concrete into a pair of Wellington boots, demurs when asked if he’s an artist. Other than Moir, only satirist Miriam Ella, creator of a spoof Ladybird book long before the publisher did the same, accepts the categorisation.
All the comedians are filmed with their families to see how their home life interacts with their work. But the main project is to create pieces for an exhibition in a London which will place their output indisputably in the world of fine art – and leave it open to feedback. ‘You can’t control how people react,’ says Hill, trepidatiously.
Though the family dynamic is clearly of direct interest to Moir Jr, he is rightly more keen to explore the boundary between art and entertainment, although the film – which runs two hours including adverts – starts repeating itself by the end.
His other question is whether art can be funny. The conclusion from those attending the exhibition of the comedians’ work is – despite their fears – a resounding ‘yes’. Though surely you wouldn’t have expected any other conclusion.
• Painting Birds With Jim And Nancy Moir is on Sky Arts at 9pm, followed by A Brush With Comedy at 10pm
Published: 19 Apr 2023
Simon Munnery: Alan Parker Urban Warrior Farewell Tour
Long before Twitter’s wokest campaigner Titania…
13/08/2019
Simon Munnery: And Nothing But
‘It’s like a scattergun. Some of it works, some…
14/08/2015
A Slight Ache is one of Harold Pinter’s lesser-known…
11/08/2014
Simon Munnery Sings Soren Kierkegaard
For years Simon Munnery has been entertaining his fanbase,…
7/08/2014
The Edinburgh Fringe is a fertile nursery for inventive…
10/10/2012
If stars were given for innovation alone, Simon Munnery…
21/08/2012
Alexei Sayle says it was a reluctant decision to return…
25/01/2012
Simon Munnery: Hats Off For The 101ers And Other Material
Simon Munnery may have the pin-sharp mind of man with…
13/01/2012
As if testifying to Simon Munnery's enduring status…
28/08/2010
Simon Munnery's AGM09 - Fringe 2009
Simon Munnery has made a career out of his own brand…
11/08/2009
Elizabeth And Raleigh: Late But Live
Following last year’s triumphant Johnson and Boswell,…
1/01/2008
Ten Best Stand-ups In The World Ever. Gig 1
So, top marks for everyone who guessed Johnny Vegas…
1/01/2008
Simon Munnery – Original Review
Simon Munnery is one of those acts who is often called…
12/02/2007
Malcolm Hardee Charity Cabaret 2007
Every comic of any standing deserves their own memorial…
28/01/2007
When you hear of a benefit gig for a comedian who’s…
1/01/2007
Johnson and Boswell: Late But Live
In 1773, legendary curmudgeon Samuel Johnson and high-living…
1/01/2007
Simon Munnery: Annual General Meeting 2007
Simon Munnery is to the Fringe what the ravens are…
1/01/2007
Robin Ince\'s Christmas Book Club 2006
From modest beginnings, Robin Ince’s Book Club has…
18/12/2006
Simon Munnery's Annual General Meeting
Description
New! Untried! Untested!…
1/01/2006
There are some painful times in Simon Munnery's AGM…
1/01/2004
Simon Munnery seems very apologetic about presenting…
1/01/2004
Simon Munnery: Noble Thoughts Of A Noble Mind
There's a man dressed all in orange, a ball and chain…
1/01/2002
Hegley's Journals and Playlet With Simon Munnery
This one's an oddity all right. The fact that two…
1/01/2001
Products
DVD (2014)
Alternative Comedy Experience Series 2
DVD (2013)
Alternative Comedy Experience
DVD (2007)
Simon Munnery: Hello
Past Shows
Edinburgh Fringe 2008
Elizabeth And Raleigh: Late But Live
Simon Munnery: Annual General Meeting 2008
This Show Belongs To Lionel Richie No 3: Up Arthurs Seat
Edinburgh Fringe 2016
Nina Conti and Simon Munnery Whack It Up The Flagpole
Simon Munnery and Friends: 30 Not Out
Agent
Show + Tell
Contact by email
3 Unit 7a 4th Floor
Rich Estate
Crimscott Street
SE1 5TF