Fundraiser secures Bristol's comedy festival

Organisers of the Slapstick comedy festival in Bristol say next year’s event can now go ahead after a benefit gig raised almost £35,000 last night.

The fundraiser featured Al Murray, Jack Dee and Dara O Briain playing the 1,800 Colston Hall, with the cash coming from the £27.50 ticket price and the sale of merchandise.

Festival director Chris Daniels admitted that it’s the annual benefit gig that ‘keeps the festival running’.

He added: ‘Nearly all arts and entertainment activities are struggling to keep on top of funding and rising costs at present and there’s a limit to how much can be charged for tickets especially for family-friendly events like ours. So we are hugely indebted to the acts which put on such a brilliant show for us at Colston Hall, and to all the people who came along to laugh out loud and support us.’

Also on last night’s bill were Jeremy Hardy, Jo Caulfield Tony Hawks and Richard Herring – all performing for free – although as a reward the comics were taken to Aardman Studios, which animates the likes of Wallace And Gromit, where they made their own Morph characters.

However, Herring admits to having difficulty with his, writing on his Warming Up blog: ‘He looked like a Morph who had been left by a fire or been smoking crack for the last thirty years… The people at Aardman decided that my Morph must be killed, just to prevent it accidentally appearing in one of the animations by some terrible chain of unlikely events.’

Daniels added: ‘It’s a great sign of the respect and affection Slapstick attracts that where once we had to beg the agents of top names to pass on our invitations to be part of the festival that we now have major entertainers asking us if they can help, take part or return.’

Next year’s festival, the 11th, will run from January 23 to January 25, celebrating all forms of vintage comedy – although Daniels said: ‘we haven’t started mapping out the programme yet’.

Here are some pictures from last night’s show:

Published: 4 Jun 2014