Liam Mullan longs for the return of the comedy album

As a child, whenever I was at my grandparents’ house I would make sure to venture into my father’s old bedroom and inspect his record collection. The vinyl stretched from one end of the wall to the other.. I would study the artwork of Never Mind the Bollocks, Sticky Fingers (complete with zipper flies) and the first ever Now That’s What I Call Music. The records that drew my attention the most, though, were from my first favourite comedian – Jasper Carrott.

I’d first become aware of Carrott when I was six and my best friend recited the entire Nutter On The Bus routine having me in stitches. I would watch Carrott’s TV shows whenever they were on and soon convinced my Dad to record his albums onto cassette so that I could fall asleep to the likes of Rabbits On and On… and memorise classic routines such as Magic Roundabout and The Mole. Despite his immense popularity Carrott had no commercial VHS releases so these albums were the only way to catch his earlier work.

Comedy appears to be in a ‘best of times, worst of times’ situation at the moment. It’s never been so popular, comedians never more well-known and outlets for their material never more vast – particularly in television in DVD.

On the other hand the audiences may not be ones many comedians wish to cultivate and discover their jokes reprinted in publications they find odious. Without wishing to join too voraciously with the backlash, Michael McIntyre’s brand of observational humour is as basic and undemanding as stand-up can be. If this becomes the expected norm of the masses then those who may otherwise wish to experiment live will have to work within the new tighter parameters set by braying crowds.

Shows such as Live at the Apollo and Mock the Week are now so influential that a comedian such as Kevin Bridges can go in nine months from a fifty-seat Edinburgh Fringe venue in August to 10,000 people at Glasgow’s SECC arena, essentially off the back of one TV appearance. What strikes me more than anything when I see these shows, however, is comedians as products on an assembly line.

I don’t fear an overall decline in comedy – there will always be a fringe or alternative side to the mainstream and if that becomes blander hopefully the alternative scene will react to that positively. Most of the people who appear on these shows only do so because all other paths are closed off by close-minded executives who see them as gagsmiths rather than writers, or even artists.

What I am worried about is an industrial shift and the comedy scene becoming more American in its mentality. Many American comedians are criticised by their British counterparts for the shallow nature of both their material and ambition. Most US comedians dream of regular appearances on the Tonight Show doing five-minutes of material pre-approved by executives in the hopes of an eventual full-time move into television, through either star-vehicle sitcoms or even the Holy Grail of their own late night talk show, meaning they can abandon regular gigging. As a result the grasping desperation becomes all the more obvious, and their live work becomes very much a means to an end.

If British comedy does follow down that route, and even if it doesn’t, one page we could take out of the US playbook is the return of the comedy album. From the Eighties, the album took a back seat in this country to videos. In the DVD era no comedian that I’m aware of makes any sort of serious commercial audio release of their stand-up.

This is a potentially rich untapped market that could work for both established stars and those bubbling under. This Christmas DVD sales for comedy outsold movies for the first time. Yet this remains a market that would be hard for most unknowns to crack.

One would imagine the cost of producing and marketing a DVD is prohibitive for many Fringe festival favourites. A simple audio recording of decent quality would be a fraction of the cost, the packaging would also be cheaper and the price could be set lower to allow more chance of blind purchases any time of the year, instead of taking a chance on a £15 purchase at Christmas time. Strategic marketing in motorway service stations could lead to late-night purchases from bleary eyed truckers and businessmen.

I remember seeing so many great shows at Edinburgh over the past two years, but I would struggle to remember nearly any of the routines from even the very best shows. As a customer I can say with complete certainty that if made available I would pay for a physical copy of recent shows from the likes of Andrew Lawrence, Pete Johansson, John Gordillo, Paul Sinha and Josie Long. Surely there are enough comedy geeks out there who would say the same to make most ventures profitable. Andrew Collins and Richard Herring recently made a CD marketed to their podcast audience and it has proven lucrative enough for them to promise a follow-up.

The cost of production need not even extend to physical copies. A recording can easily be made available on iTunes and elsewhere as either an audiobook or even free as a podcast, a move Daniel Kitson has made with admittedly amateurish recordings of his 2004 and 2005 shows. Despite their occasional shoddy audio quality, I cherish those podcasts. As a relative latecomer to Kitson’s outstanding work I am frustrated that nearly all of his past shows are not made available for me to consume in any form.

CDs and audiobooks may even be the best means with which to appreciate a comedian’s work. Without the need for audience cutaways to disguise edits, distracting stage design and a need for more concentration on the listener’s side, the words themselves count rather than the presentation. The true quality of the great performer with great material can shine as opposed to the façade of an energetic showman that can hide the hollowness within their words.

We are consuming more audio every year. Recent radio listening figures are the highest they’ve ever been, iPods and MP3 players are becoming cheaper by the year. Music can be heard on the bus, in the gym, surreptitiously at work, everywhere a DVD can be viewed and in so many more places besides. People are always lending their ears – at the very least comedians should be making their work available.

Comedy albums never went away in the US. As terrible a comedian he may be the fact that Dane Cook’s album Retaliation has sold over a million copies surely shows that there is a market for this medium. Maybe it would need a Kay or McIntyre to re-start it, but one hit album could be all it takes for record labels to create new comedy divisions and a punk DIY ethic to emerge from the alternative scene.

Even if CD is a dying medium, the romantic idea of record collector is starting to grow within many young-ish men browsing through independent second hand vinyl shops across the country. I have recently planned to start my own vinyl record collection that will hopefully one day rival my Dad’s.

If I have my own child I love the idea of them one day flipping through my albums and spotting a 12-inch Daniel Kitson record, asking me who the bearded man on the cover was and it leading him or her to discovering for themselves something truly special.

I doubt I’d need to record it onto cassette though – I’m pretty sure that will never make a comeback…

• Liam Mullan will be performing his debut show, Confessions of a ‘Smart’ Wrestling Fan at the Edinburgh City Football Club at 5.15pm during the Fringe.

Published: 3 Jun 2010