Slapstick Festival is returning to Bristol in January with a fantastic line up of incredible stand-up, theatre and of course, silent comedy. And with the festival fast approaching, we need your help! We’re on the lookout for a lovely team of dedicated volunteers who can assist in ensuring the festival runs smoothly! There are lots … Read more
Slapstick Sunday At Bristol Hippodrome Here are a selection of photos from the 2019 Slapstick Festival gala day on Sunday 10th Feb which featured a matinee performance by Andy Day from CBeebies and our Silent Comedy Gala which featured Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times. All the photos were taken by our regular photographers, Paul Lippiatt and David Betteridge. … Read more
FOR A FEW DAYS ONLY – 2 FOR 1 ON SLAPSTICK FESTIVAL TICKETS! Join us for a very special HD screening of Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times accompanied by a 40-piece orchestra at Bristol Hippodrome on Sunday, February 10th. Hosted by Marcus Brigstocke, this year’s Silent Comedy Gala will also feature shorts from Laurel & Hardy and Buster … Read more
Silent Comedy Spectacular with Barry Humphries at the London Palladium Step inside the iconic London Palladium to be enthralled and entertained by your all-time favourite big-screen comedy stars from yesteryear, accompanied by a live orchestra. A trio of silent comedies from comedy giants Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin and Laurel & Hardy, will be presented by … Read more
Comedians at Slapstick Festival Every year at Slapstick we have an incredible line-up of comedians eager to talk about their passion for early slapstick and silent comedy. This year, many of our ‘family’ of special guests are returning to talk about their early influences including Laurel & Hardy, Charlie Chaplin, Louise Brooks and Alice Howells. … Read more
A Celebration of Laurel & Hardy at Slapstick Festival If you fell in love with Laurel & Hardy all over again after seeing Steve Coogan and John C Reilly’s heartwarming biopic Stan & Ollie – then we have just the thing for you! Slapstick Festival kicks off in Bristol on January 16th and this year’s … Read more
Bristol’s Slapstick Festival kicks takes place from January 16th to January 19th with a packed programme of events celebrating silent comedy. This year’s line-up features Richard Herring, Marcus Brigstocke, The Goodies, Tim Vine, Sally Phillips, Joe Thomas, Colin Sell, Tony Slattery and many more! For 24hrs only, on Thursday January 17th – you can buy … Read more
The Goodies – VIP Competition We have an amazing prize for one die-hard fan of The Goodies! Win VIP passes for The Complete Goodies at Bristol Old Vic on January 19th and meet Graeme Garden, Tim Brooke-Taylor and Bill Oddie after the show. Finally! The last, great unreleased DVD box set has seen the light … Read more
WIN A PAIR OF VIP TICKETS INCLUDING BACKSTAGE ACCESS! We’re giving away an amazing prize to one die-hard fan of The Inbetweeners! Join us for a special double bill at Bristol Old Vic on January 19th, featuring actor Joe Thomas AKA Simon Cooper and the show’s creators Damon Beesley and Iain Morris. Fresh off the … Read more
Young Slapstick Reviewers Six young people attended a fantastic Young Slapstick reviewing workshop with the brilliant Lynn Barlow and then wrote reviews of the Slapstick Gala. Huge thanks to Lynn Barlow for teaching the reviewing workshop, to Cathy Poole for facilitating it, and to all our amazing Young Slapstick reviewers! Slapstick Silent Comedy Gala: Review If you’re not familiar with Bristol’s annual comedy celebration … Read more
Pordenone Diaries – Day 3 So, finally, I am writing about our last day at the festival! Sorry about the delay… but here it is! Monday the 2nd of October was our final day in Pordenone and I planned to make the most of it! I’ve decided that three days at the festival is not … Read more
Pordenone Diaries – Day 2 Sunday was our first full day at the festival. The great thing about the festival in Pordenone is that there is such a variety of screenings. If a screening isn’t to your taste, you can still have a full day of interesting viewing. A festival pass allows you to go … Read more
Pordenone Diaries – Day 1 Some of the Slapstick team have just returned from an amazing weekend in Italy and Le Giornate Del Cinema Muto, which is currently running there until Saturday. For those that don’t know, this is an international festival of silent film held annually in Pordenone, Italy. We spent the weekend immersed … Read more
The Boot Cake One of the tasks that I help with in the festival office is organising and cataloguing the festival’s very large film collection. Most of this involves just inputting the titles into a database, but occasionally, I do have to investigate the title a bit more. It’s always an interesting task, and I … Read more
French and Saunders: Bop-a-dooey-oo It’s here! It’s finally here! Tomorrow, Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders will receive the Aardman Slapstick Comedy Legend Award. It’s sure to be a fabulous evening packed full of laughter and surprises. French and Saunders will be joining an illustrious group which includes June Whitfield, Barry Humphries, Barry Cryer, and Ken … Read more
I’ve been trying to stick with the theme of female comedy duos for my blog posts up until our exciting event with Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders in June. For this post, I’ve decided to focus on the comedy partnership of Victoria Wood and Julie Walters. Sadly, Victoria Wood passed away last year. Victoria Wood … Read more
Work For Slapstick Festival! Position: Voluntary Contract: Six Months (initially) 8 hours pw Would you like to work in a creative environment and have real impact within a small team of people who deliver one of Bristol’s biggest film festivals? This is a voluntary role initially and tasks will include: developing and managing the content … Read more
French & Saunders:Comedy Legends For one night only, the Aardman Slapstick Awards present a unique opportunity to see comedy legends Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders in conversation. Celebrating 30 years since the launch of their award-winning TV Series French & Saunders (1987-2007) this is a rare chance to see the pair together on stage as they discuss … Read more
N PHOTOS: SLAPSTICK 2017 In Photos: Slapstick 2017 Above are a series of photos taken during Slapstick 2017, which ran between 25th – 29th January 2017. All events took place either at Colston Hall, Watershed, Bristol Old Vic or Arnolfini. All images were taken by one of our official festival photographers; Paul Lippiatt, David Betteridge and David … Read more
Field Trip Two weeks ago, I spent a few days in Berlin. They were very rainy days… but I did get to do quite a bit of sightseeing. I always try to seek out interesting places to visit when I am new to a city. One of the highlights of Berlin (at least for me), … Read more
A Summary of Slapstick 2017 A summary of Slapstick 2017 from Chris Daniels I feel incredibly proud! When deciding the programme for the 2017 edition of Slapstick, our thirteenth, I hoped that it would bring light and laughter to Bristol after a year that seemed doomed to be defined by the unprecedented and untimely loss … Read more
Slapstick Festival Day 3 – A chat with Daan van den Hurk Wow – time is flying here at the festival! We’ve just finished our morning screenings of Paths to Paradise and Master of the House. This afternoon brings us Max Linder, Keaton, and Beckett…. all leading up to our Silent Comedy Gala this evening … Read more
An Epic Day I spent Tuesday watching the epic of all epics – Napoleon. Bristol cinemagoers have two days left to go experience this film at the Watershed. Go, go, go! Do not let the five and a half hour running time throw you off! (I’m sure you’ve binge-watched a series in a day… or … Read more
Tommy Cooper – Intentional Bumbling Things are in full swing in preparation for the festival in January! There are so many great events coming your way in 2017. One to look forward to is: Tommy Cooper – Just Like That. Barry Cryer (a regular festival guest), who was friends and wrote for Cooper, is hosting … Read more
To buy tickets for individual events at Slapstick Festival 2017 please click on the event ‘Book now’ button or call / visit the venue box office. For passes please contact Colston Hall Box Office. N.B. Please note Seven Years Bad Luck and When Keaton Met Beckett tickets will be sold through Colston Hall Box Office … Read more
Wednesday 18th January Wed 18 Jan 2017 NOTFILM (2015) Watershed | 11.30am | Tickets: £8.00/£6.00dir. Ross Lipman | US | 130mins NOTFILM is a documentary about the embattled collaboration between Nobel Prize-winning playwright Samuel Beckett and silent-era genius Buster Keaton as they filmed Beckett’s only on-screen work. During the restoration of FILM (1965), NOTFILM director Ross Lipman discovered its long-lost prologue … Read more
Sun 22 Jan 2017 Accidentally Preserved: Surviving Slapstick on 16mm Watershed | 9.30am | Tickets: £8.00/£6.00 Slapstick comedy shorts were excellent fodder for home movie companies of the 1920s and 1930s. Kodascope and Pathéscope rented or sold safety film prints for people to watch in their homes, not realising that decades later they would out-survive the … Read more
Slapstick Festival 2017: SATURDAY Sat 21 Jan 2017 Silent Comedy: A Century Ago | A Fairbanks and Chaplin Double Bill Watershed | 9.30am | Tickets: £8.00/£6.00 Join us for a taste of the ‘flickers’ from a century ago – Saturday morning pictures circa 1916. A classic silent comedy double bill featuring two of the biggest stars of the … Read more
Slapstick Festival 2017: FRIDAY Fri 20 Jan 2017 Raymond Griffith: The Silk Hat Comedian Paths to Paradise (1925)Watershed | 9.30am | Tickets: £8.00/£6.00dir. Clarence Badger | US | 60mins Oscar-winning director, historian and silent film champion Kevin Brownlow introduces a rare Raymond Griffith feature, Paths to Paradise, from his personal collection and champions this unsung comic who, … Read more
KEN DODD AWARD Slapstick and Aardman were honoured to give the “Comedy Legend Award” to Ken Dodd. The award celebrates the life and comic achievements of comedians alive today that have contributed significantly to the world of comedy. A fantastic night was had by all as Ken regaled the audience with his tales of his … Read more