Stand Out Stand Up For Slapstick

Hosted by Alexei Sayle

Stand Out Stand Up For Slapstick

With Henning Wehn, Zoe Lyons, Boothby Graffoe, Lucy Pearman & Charlie George

Another stellar line-up of comedians coming to The Hexagon!

Date: Friday 17 Nov 2023
Venue: Hexagon, Reading
Time: 19:30
Price: £28.50
Early Bird offer: Strictly limited amount of £4 off tickets are available.

This fundraising comedy event promises to be an unforgettable evening of laughter featuring some of the brightest stars in British stand-up comedy today.

Hosted by actor, writer and comedian Alexei Sayle, ‘Stand Out Stand Up’ features renowned comedians Henning Wehn, Zoe Lyons, Boothby Graffoe, Lucy Pearman, and Charlie George, each bringing their unique comedic styles to ensure a night filled with uproarious laughter and hysterical moments.

By attending this event, you get to enjoy a fabulous night of comedy and also to support Bristol’s fabulous Slapstick Festival, dedicated to celebrating silent and classic comedy.

Early bird tickets are still available at a discounted price, so don’t miss the chance to secure your spot for a night filled with riotous laughter and fun in Reading

Please note: The host of ‘Stand Out Stand Up For Slapstick’ was originally advertised as Omid Djalili, who due to unforeseen circumstances has had to pull out of the event.

SOSU 2023 Website 500x650

The Big Comedy Bash 2023

The Big Comedy Bash 2023

MARCUS BRIGSTOCKE, JO BRAND, MILTON JONES, RIA LINA, ARCHIE MADDOCKS, DR PHIL HAMMOND + more

Date: Wednesday 10th May 2023
Time: 19:30
Venue: Hexagon, Reading
Price: £26 / £24 Concessions (including booking fees)
Ages 14+ Advised ~ May contain Adult Material.

Slapstick Festival’s annual comedy fundraiser is back at Reading’s Hexagon theatre for a sixth year running, with another outstanding series of top comedy performers lining up to help raise funds for Bristol’s Slapstick festival*.

You can expect an evening of brilliant stand-up comedy with sets from satirist, actor and comedian MARCUS BRIGSTOCKE, comedian, actor and Bake-Off: Extra Slice star JO BRAND, stand-up comedian MILTON JONES (Mock The Week) and comedian and scientist RIA LINA (Live at the Apollo, Have I Got News For You), and stand-up comedian Archie Maddocks, and comedian and doctor Dr. Phil Hammond.

This promises to be an unforgettable night of laughter and fun, For one night only.

*Slapstick Festival is a not-for-profit silent/classic comedy festival that’s been celebrating the finest in vintage comedy for almost two decades

The big Comedy Bash 2023

Gender Rebels

GENDER REBELS

Save money with a pass for all 3 films for only £15

Date: Saturday 22 April
Venue: Waterside 3 at Watershed
Price: £15.00

Slapstick Festival, Bristol’s annual festival of silent and classic screen comedy, has teamed up with internationally respected film historian Pamela Hutchinson, award-winning performer, filmmaker and playwright Malaika Kegode and Bristol’s reigning City Poet Kat Lyons to present a day-long programme looking at some of the wittiest ways movie-makers have explored and disrupted gender roles during the 20th century.

The events include the three films:

Victor / Victoria

Beverly of Graustark (1926)

I Don’t Want to be a Man

Get the Full Day Discount!

FESTIVAL PASS v2
FESTIVAL PASS v2

Victor / Victoria

Victor / Victoria

Date: Saturday 22 April
Time: 19:30 hrs
Venue: Waterside 3 at Watershed
Price: £8.50
Dir: Blake Edwards
1982, USA, 134mins. Cert: 15

With an introduction from the award-winning performer, filmmaker and playwright Malaika Kegode

Jazz Age Paris is the setting for this quadruple Oscar-winning screwball musical comedy, part derived from a 1933 script, in which Julie Andrews plays a down-on-her-luck opera singer who is persuaded by a gay drag artist friend (Robert Preston) to pretend to be a man pretending to be a woman to get high-paying work as a female impersonator in a nightclub.

There, the ‘woman’ wins the love of a macho Chicago businessman (James Garner) who shocks his associates by wanting to continue the romance even after he learns ‘she’ is a ‘man’. With an introduction from Malaika Kegode. “A work of dry wit, high slapstick, black despair, romantic warmth, and penetrating intelligence” – David Kehr, Chicago Tribune.

victor victoria1982

Beverly of Graustark (1926)

Beverly of Graustark (1926)

Date: Saturday 22 April
Time: 15:00 hrs
Venue: Waterside 3 at Watershed
Price: £8.50
Dir: Sidney Franklin
1926, USA, 70mins. Cert: U

Piano accompaniment from Meg Morley and introduction from Bristol’s reigning City Poet Kat Lyons

Our second film is the South West premiere of a newly-restored silent comedy starring the Hollywood star Marion Davies in one of her biggest box-office hits.

She plays the New Jersey cousin of a man who learns he’s in line to become a prince of Graustark.

When his travel plans are disrupted, she adopts his identity, his title and his enemies – then faces a dilemma when she falls for a man who may also be a fake. With a surprise (colourful) finale, piano accompaniment from Meg Morley and introduction from Kat Lyons.

Beverly of Graustark 1926 2

I Don’t Want to be a Man

I Don’t Want to be a Man (1918)

(ICH MÖCHTE KEIN MANN SEIN)

Date: Saturday 22 April
Time: 11.30 hrs
Venue: Waterside 3 at Watershed
Price: £8.50
Dir: Ernst Lubitsch
Germany (1918), 45 mins, cert TBA

With a live piano accompaniment from Meg Morley and an introduction from internationally respected film historian Pamela Hutchinson

A rare chance to see an early comedy short by a director widely regarded as one of cinema’s all-time greats, Ernst Lubitsch.

In this raucous, flirtatious film, a boisterous teenage girl (Ossi Oswalda) becomes so tired of being bossed about she decides to pose as a man on a night out to see if it’s more fun, only to discover that while it does have its high points it also results in complications.

With a live piano accompaniment from Meg Morley and an introduction from Pamela Hutchinson.

12.30 PANEL DISCUSSION 

A unique panel discussion about gender representation in film with the internationally respected film historian Pamela Hutchinson, the award-winning performer, filmmaker and playwright Malaika Kegode, pianist Meg Morley and Bristol’s reigning City Poet Kat Lyons.

I Dont Want To Be A Man 1919

MICHAEL PALIN: Beyond Python

Rob Brydon and Michael Palin BOV slapstick
Rob Brydon and Michael Palin BOV slapstick
Rob Brydon and Michael Palin slider

Michael Palin: Beyond Python

In Conversation with Rob Brydon

Date: Sunday 19th February 2023
Time: 8.30pm
Venue: Bristol Old Vic
Price: £37.00/£30.00/£23.00

He may be best known for his work with Monty Python but Sir Michael Palin (80 in May) has a long and distinguished track record as a comedy writer and performer, from penning gags for the likes of Ken Dodd and Roy Hudd and being in TV’s Do Not Adjust Your Set ensemble in the 1960s, to roles in Armando Iannucci’s The Death of Stalin (2017) and the Michael Sheen/David Tennant lockdown project Staged (2021).

Here, Rob Brydon probes Michael for insights and anecdotes about this outstanding legacy and what comes next, promising illuminating conversation and laugh-out-loud banter.

RUNNING TIME 1 hr 20 mins

SOLD OUT

Monty Python’s LIFE OF BRIAN onscreen

Michael Palin image
Michael Palin image
Michael Palin slider

Monty Python’s LIFE OF BRIAN onscreen

with Sir Michael Palin and Stephen Merchant

Date: Sunday 19th February 2023
Time: 5.30pm
Venue: Bristol Old Vic
Price: £22.00/£18.00/£15.00

A big screen showing of the film that sparked international controversy – and hilarity – by telling the story of Brian of Nazareth, born on the same day as Jesus, in the stable next door, but who most definitely was not the Messiah.

Life Of Brian stars all six members of the Monty Python team portraying a total of 40 characters.

The screening will be hosted by Stephen Merchant and will begin with a brief on-stage chat with Sir Michael, sharing anecdotes from the making of the film, some home movie footage and explaining why he still considers it the most accomplished of the Python movies.

(Director: Terry Jones, UK, 1979, 94 mins, certificate 12A)

RUNNING TIME 1 hr 50 mins

SOLD OUT

Griff Rhys Jones: Why I still love Laurel & Hardy

Laurel and Hardy with Stephen Mangan slapstick
Laurel and Hardy with Stephen Mangan slapstick
GRIFF RHYS 2023

Griff Rhys Jones: Why I still love Laurel & Hardy

Date: Sunday 19th February 2023
Time: 3pm
Venue: Bristol Old Vic
Price: £20.00/£18.00/£15.00

Join the star of Not The Nine O’Clock News, Smith & Jones and Three Men In A Boat as he returns to Slapstick with an event championing his favourite comedy duo – Laurel & Hardy.

Fresh from his recent, critically acclaimed stand-up tour, Griff will present a mix of the Stan & Ollie clips and shorts he rates most highly and will provide insights into what drives his long-standing love of their work and why he thinks they won, and keep winning, fans worldwide.

RUNNING TIME 1 hr 30 mins

Please Note: Griff is now hosting this event due to an unforeseen change in the filming schedule for Stephen Mangan’s latest project.

A Hard Day’s Night

hard days night slapstick
hard days night slapstick
hard days night slapstick

Onscreen: A Hard Day’s Night

With very special guests Mike McCartney in conversation with actor Paul McGann

Date: Sunday 19th February 2023
Time: 12 noon
Venue: Bristol Old Vic
Price: £16.00/£14.00/£11.00

Ranked among the BFI’s top 100 British films and nominated both for a BAFTA and two Oscars, A Hard Day’s Night, in which The Beatles play cheeky comic versions of themselves, captures the astonishing moment when the band officially became the singular, irreverent, idols of their generation and changed music forever.

Their natural comic talent is self-evident throughout, including in several nods paid by the director to his favourite filmmaker: Buster Keaton. It is packed with hit songs and features appearances by many of the 20th century’s best-known entertainers.

This newly restored version will start with a short ‘in conversation’ with Liverpoor born actor Paul Mcgann and Mike McCartney, the younger brother of Sir Paul, a guest at the 1964 Liverpool premiere and lead singer of legendary chart-topping comedy trio, The Scaffold.

(Director: Richard Lester, UK, 1964, 87mins, certificate PG)

RUNNING TIME 1 hr 50 mins

Ode to Joyce

Ode to Joyce

A one-woman homage to Joyce Grenfell

Date: Sunday 19th February 2023
Time: 11.30am
Venue: Bristol Old Vic
Price: £12.00

Cheryl Knight stars in a must-see tribute to Joyce Grenfell (1910 – 1979) whose hilarious and acutely-observed monologues and songs made her a global comedy star last century and inspired many other entertainers including Miranda Hart and the late, great, Victoria Wood.

With a live piano accompaniment. “A wonderful show… leaves you marvelling at Joyce’s wit and wisdom” – Daily Telegraph.

Read more about Cheryl Knight’s Joyce Grenfell here

RUNNING TIME 1 hr 20 mins

SOLD OUT

Cheryl Knight Joyce Grenfell

The Scaffold: A Celebration

The Scaffold: A Celebration with Harry Hill

With John Gorman, Roger McGough, and Mike “McGear” McCartney and special guest host: Harry Hill

Date: Sat 18th Feb, 2023
Time: 20:30 hrs
Venue: St Georges, Bristol
Price: From £15.00

There’s never been a satirical performance group quite like The Scaffold. In the sixties and early seventies their unique blend of comedy, music and poetry packed out theatres at home and across the world and their frequent appearances on prime-time TV ensured that John Gorman, Roger McGough and Mike “McGear” McCartney became much-loved household names.

Equally loved by the mainstream and 1960s counter-culture, they produced hit after hit of chart-topping perennial favourites, including Thank U Very Much (for the Aintree Iron), Lily the Pink and Liverpool Lou.

With superfan and guest presenter Harry Hill onboard you can be sure of an evening of hilarious stories, sketches, poems, and rare footage including a screening of their short film Plod (1972), and possibly even a song or two, all celebrating the fascinating history of The Scaffold.

EVENT RUNNING TIME APPROX 2 hrs

Photo of The Scaffold (colour), courtesy of Mike McCartney.

Harry Hill: Breaking the Silence

Harry Hill: Breaking the Silence

Date: Sat 18th Feb, 2023
Time: 12:00 hrs
Venue: St Georges, Bristol
Price: From £15.00
Cert 12

The irrepressible Harry Hill makes a welcome return to Slapstick, this time to screen and talk about his Lonely Island short film series, including a screening of one never before seen.

Harry wrote, produced, directed and starred in all four black & white, silent, slapstick comedy shorts, with each one located on the same island in a different historical setting.

We also have the bonus of extracts from the ‘work in progress’ extension of his Cavemen episode, and an opportunity for a live Q&A .

Hosted by Robin Ince.

EVENT RUNNING TIME APPROX 1 hr 10 mins

A BSL Interpreted Event

harry hill event caveman

Harold Lloyd in Speedy (1928)

Harold Lloyd in Speedy (1928)

Silent Comedy Classic with live music hosted by Kevin Brownlow

Date: Fri 17th Feb, 2023
Time: 20:30 hrs
Venue: The former Bristol Imax Cinema, Bristol Aquarium
Price: £18.50/£15.50/£10.00 under 16
Dir: Ted Wilde
USA (1928), 85 mins, cert U

Harold Lloyd’s last great silent masterpiece.

Journey back in time to 1920s New York via this Oscar-nominated comedy starring Harold Lloyd as he embarks on a David v Goliath battle to save the city’s last horse-drawn streetcar, operated by the father of his sweetheart (Ann Christy).

Includes a cameo by baseball legend Babe Ruth, evocative scenes shot at Coney Island and – pay attention – the first known use of the middle finger gesture, later banned under Hays Code rules.

With an introduction from the veteran filmmaker and historian Kevin Brownlow and live music from the peerless Ensemble ImproCinema.

EVENT RUNNING TIME APPROX 1 hr 35 mins

Speedy poster