W.C. FIELDS – Global Stage to Silent and Talking Films and Radio We cannot separate W.C. Fields silent films from the totality of his career. Achieving great success on the stage in nearly every continent, combining stage and silent films in New York, then to Hollywood in talking films.W.C. Fields’ father, James Dukenfield emigrated as … Read more

Monday 7th November 2022 (7.30pm)
Slapstick Festival’s annual comedy fundraiser returned to Reading’s Hexagon theatre. Event features, Alan Davies, Ed Byrne, Stephen K. Amos, jay Lafferty and more

To those who came to see us in 2022, we hope you had a fantastic time! If you want to remind yourself of the great events we put on as part of our Slapstick 2022 season HERE’S HOW!

The Tiswas Team receive their Legacy Awards, given in recognition of creating significant new work in the medium of silent and visual comedy

Tiswas Stars Reunite for One-Off Reunion Our slapstick season finished on an absolute high, with the stars of the classic children’s TV series Tiswas reuniting for an evening of fun and mayhem. Chris Tarrant, Sally James, John Gorman and Bob Carolgees, along with Spit the Dog, were among those that took to the stage on … Read more

Slapstick Sunday Our last full day of festival events began with Paddington (2014), introduced by Andy Day, and concluded with Lee Mack’s hilarious Desert Island Comedy Flicks. In between there was a moving tribute to the late great Barry Cryer hosted by his friend and long-time comic collaborator Les Dennis, with Barry’s Son Bob Cryer … Read more

We have screening notes for a number of our programmes, you will find them on the programme pages for the individual films.

Since I reported the results of my researches into the brief career and subsequent total oblivion

Someone recently posted on You-tube a recording from an old 8” low-cost shellac gramophone disc released in 1930.

By Pamela Hutchinson

Plus our fabulous festival guide

On 30th December 2019, we learnt the sad news that Neil Innes, long-time friend and supporter of the festival, had sadly passed away.

Charlie Chaplin, one of cinema’s most famous stars, was a man of many talents… actor, director, writer, and composer are among his many credits.

It’s Just a Jump to the Left! Slapstick 2018 is just around the corner! We’ve got so many great events in January to help brighten those cold winter days and nights! Make sure you check out our full programme as we have four days chock-full of laughs, music and classic comedy with some great special … Read more

Why is Slapstick Violence Funny? The subject of this post was originally going to be on an entirely different topic, which will be saved for a later time! When I was doing research for that topic, I came across this TedxEmory talk on YouTube. The title of this video is, “Technology and the New Aesthetics … Read more

Lucy and Ethel – Sitcom’s Best Friends Lucille Ball and Vivian Vance created one of television’s most enduring comic duos – Lucy and Ethel. Lucy and Ethel were neighbours and best friends on the beloved sitcom, I Love Lucy. The two were constantly getting into trouble with all of Lucy’s crazy schemes! I remember growing … Read more

Anita Garvin and Marion Byron – A Classic Comedy Duo I hope everyone has seen our exciting event coming up in June! It’s so great that we will be able to present the Aardman Slapstick Comedy Legend award to that fantastic comedic duo, Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders! The event has now sold out… so … Read more

It all started with Alice… One of the tasks that I’m doing for the festival now is organising its DVD library. It is very interesting going through all the titles… I enjoy coming across new and different films. One of the discs that I was reviewing contained two of Walt Disney’s very early animated shorts. … Read more

Max Linder – French Silent Star One of my favourite events from the festival was the screening of Max Linder’s Seven Years Bad Luck. David Robinson’s excellent introduction gave some insight into what had been a very troubled life for the early silent film star. If you weren’t at the event, I thought I would … Read more

A Bit About The Freshman Last month, Harold Lloyd’s The Freshman was screened at our annual Silent Comedy Gala. I thought I’d take a moment to share some trivia about it. “The more trouble you get a man into, the more comedy you get out of him” – Harold Lloyd A little bit of trivia: … Read more

A Few Reviews Has it really been five days since the festival ended? Just thought I’d post few links to some reviews and articles that were written about our events! Please make sure you read a summary of the festival from Festival Director, Chris Daniels, that is available on our homepage. It’s great to read … Read more

VICTORIA WOOD SAVES SLAPSTICK EVENT Chris was surprised and delighted when the comedian offered her time for free at short notice. Despite her amazing talent, Chris reported that “she was a comedy legend, but really nice, down-to-earth and humble. She would be incredibly nervous before she had to get on stage, but, as soon as she started, … Read more

In Photos: When Victoria Wood Hosted The 2013 Slapstick Festival Gala Back in 2012 we were thrilled and excited when the one and only Victoria Wood agreed to host our 2013 gala. As expected she hit the ball out of the park, taking on the roll with aplomb, insight, laughs galore and, of course, professionalim. … Read more

Ian Lavender: Why I Love Ben Turpin Sun 24th Jan | St. George’s | 12:40PMTickets: £5.00/£7.50/£12.00 Under 12s £6.00 Ben Turpin is one of our finest and most neglected on-screen performers. With his trademark crossed eyes and thick moustache he made scores of classic slapstick films alongside the likes of Charlie Chaplin, Mabel Normand and … Read more

Hooray For Harold Lloyd, Barry Cryer and Friends! Sun 24th Jan | St. George’s | 2:30PMTickets: £15.00/£12.00/£6.00 (plus booking fee) Join us for a classic double bill of Lloyd’s finest onscreen comedy hosted by ‘king of the one liners’ and national treasure Barry Cryer. Harold appears in two of his finest comedy shorts ‘Now or … Read more