Comics to perform among exhibits including a quagga skeleton and a jar of moles

Comedians are to perform in front of bisected skulls, dodo bones and a jar of moles in a new venture that turns stand-ups into tour guides.

Katie Pritchard and Charlie George will offer visitors a comic introduction to the Grant Museum of Zoology in Central  London next month. The Edwardian building, part of University College London, hosts a collection of 68,000 zoological specimens, including one of only seven quagga skeletons in the world (it’s an extinct species of zebra) and a backlit ‘cave’ of 20,000 microscope slides.

The comedians visited the museum last week so they could start to plan their tours.

Pritchard said: ‘I learnt so much amazing stuff, my mind has been well and truly blown! Can't wait to tell you all about the exciting 15 minutes I had in the corner over by the rock hyrax when I felt like I was Neo in the Matrix and I'd just taken one of the pills which show him all the little green numbers everywhere!’

George said visiting the museum was ‘like a sneak-around Jurassic Park if that film were set in the library of Beauty & The Beast and had nicer jars. It’s wild’.

Their tours – to take place on July 16 and 23 - are being staged by Cultural Comedy Tours, which comedians Edy Hurst and Daniel Nicholas set up to produce bespoke events.

Hurst said: ‘We have been working in secret on this ridiculous idea of getting comedians into galleries and museums for a few years.

‘We’ve been delighted to find out that not only does it work, but that the Arts Council are supporting us to help invite new audiences into venues that have been closed for so long, and to give work to comedians in what has been an incredibly difficult time.’

Cultural Comedy Tours have perviously run  events at Attenborough Arts Centre in Leicester  and Salford Museum & Art Gallery.

And it is not the first time comedians have acted as tour guides – several years ago Chortle joined  Nish Kumar and Tom Neenan for an introduction to the British Museum.

Tickets for the Grant Museum tours are available here.

Published: 22 Jun 2021