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Where is the fifth best comedy festival in the world?

Friday, February 15th, 2008

The mainly Victorian city centre of Leicester plays host to the longest running comedy festival in the UK. Now in its 15th year, the Leicester Comedy Festival opened its doors on Friday the 8th of February and runs through to the 17th of February 2008.

With 230 events taking place across the city in 60 venues, Leicester warms to the coming spring season offering up national, international and emerging artists as they fill every corner of the city with laughter. 60,000 visitors are testament to the fact that this is a significant comedy festival. In fact Leicester is one of the top 5 comedy festivals of the world:

1. Canada: Just for Laughs, Montreal International Comedy Festival.
2. Scotland: If Comedies (formerly the Perrier Awards).
3. Australia: Melbourne International Comedy Festival.
4. Ireland: Smithwick’s Cat Laugh Comedy Festival in Kilkenny.
5. England: Leicester Comedy Festival.

An insignificant but perhaps rather interesting fact is that Thomas Cook set up his first excursions from Leicester, and therefrom took his business world wide.

Happy 15th Birthday Leicester!

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Oliver Lansley – How to promote your show!

Thursday, February 14th, 2008

Who: Oliver Lansley

What: Performer, Writer, Producer, Director

Where: England, UK

1. What do you see as your biggest challenge in producing your show?

The first and most boring challenge is always financial. As a company we don’t receive any official funding. Plus for me it’s always important when producing a show that the money ins match the outs – This may sound like an obvious thing but the funding system in the UK means that so many shows are put on at a huge deficit, which will be impossible to re-coup. This is why with all the recent Arts Council cuts so many companies have gone out of business. The fact that we as a company are financially independent is something I’m very proud of, however it does mean we have to make a lot of sacrifices – chiefly on peoples wages! But unfortunately it’s the only way we can get by.

The other main challenges are the creative ones but that’s the fun bit!

2. How do you go about marketing your show (using both traditional marketing and internet marketing strategies)?

Marketing is always an essential part of making a show work – particularly in somewhere like Edinburgh and you have to really compete for people’s attention so it is important to cater your marketing strategy to suit where the show will be on – what may work for Edinburgh may be totally different for a run in London or an International tour. The obvious routes are advertising, flyers, posters etc but if budget is a concern you should try to utilise less conventional methods as much as possible. Emails, websites and networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace are all ways of getting information about your show out to a wide audience at little or no cost. It is also an opportunity to share images, music, reviews, even videos/trailers of your shows to encourage people to see your show. Marketing is all about standing out, getting your ideas across and giving people a reason to come and see your show above anyone else’s. Because of this it is extremely important to create professional looking publicity for the show as that is what people will use to make the decision as to whether they will see your show or not. Sometimes bad publicity is worse than no publicity! So the more professional your artwork appears the more professional people will think your show is. Even if you don’t have any money to spend on your publicity with a bit of inventiveness and work you can still produce professional results.

3. How do you time frame this for all the fringes/festivals you plan to attend each year?

We start thinking about marketing as soon as we start planning the show. Picking the right image to represent your show is extremely important. So as soon as you know what your show is and how you want people to view it you need to start planning your campaign, making sure you give yourself you plenty of time to get this information out to press, promoters and punters etc well in advance of the performances. this will allow reviewers etc to make a decision on whether they wish to see your show and to book it into their busy schedules.

4. How do you see the internet as assisting you in your profession?

The internet is an excellent networking tool and an essential way of getting information to a large number of people. It can also save you a significant amount of money on your marketing campaign. Emails, websites etc are all low cost, convenient ways of getting your marketing seen.

5. You are extremely organised in producing different Virtual Flyers for your show, The Terrible Infants, how do you approach this task?

The main thing to focus on is what you want to get across. The first thing to focus on is the information you need to impart. Then the best way in which to sell your show – images, reviews etc and finally the style in which it is put together. We are so used to marketing campaigns, trailers and adverts for films and TV that you need to make sure your flyers are stylish, well put together and convey a certain amount of production value.

6. How do you go about creating your video preview?

We usually produce short video slide-shows, which can be made very simply on basic home editing software. Video footage of theatre is very hard to get right and can often seem amateurish so we often simply use strong still images from the show as well as any relevant information or reviews.

7. What would you say is your top marketing tip?

Pick the right images to represent your show and make sure they look good. Question whether or not you would see the show based on your marketing, look at movie posters, trailers, ads, figure out what works, look at the way they are laid out and think about what would work for your show and represent it well. Then focus on making a professional job of it. Also don’t over do it, simplicity is often a very effective tool.

8. Being a performer draws on many learned skills aside from your natural talent to perform. What are the most important skills you feel performers should acquire to produce and market a successful show?

It is exceptionally important, particularly when coming from a performers point of view to be prepared to put in all the hard work required. Producing can be a hard and thankless task and it is always tempting to spend the most time on the more fun aspects of your work and neglect the rest. As a performer it is natural to focus purely on the show and performances etc and to neglect the more boring tasks such as marketing, contacting press and administration. However there is absolutely no point in having a really great show if no one gets to see it. So many people are under the impression that if you have a great show people will find you, though this is often not the case – a well marketed ‘bad’ show will almost always get better audiences than a poorly marketed ‘great’ show.

9. Have you taken any educational courses that have helped you in your professional performing career?

Not really, I personally have always been very much of the school of learning from doing. To me there is no better way of learning, particularly as a performer, than being in front of an audience. However this is a personal choice.

10. What is your top motivational tip?

Keep going and make sure you believe in what your doing. That is the most important thing.

11. Where do you stand on a work/life balance? And, how would you express this as a percentage?

I’m a bit of a workaholic so my work/life balance probably isn’t great! This profession can be quite consuming, fortunately it’s also quite a social profession so the lines between life and work tend to merge. My work sort of is my life so it would be hard to split them up into separate percentages!

12. What do you believe are your 3 career milestones to-date?

Playing the lead in Steven Berkoff’s ‘Greek’ at the Riverside Studios in London.
My first play being published – ‘Immaculate‘ by Nick Hern books.
My first original TV writing work – ‘FM’ a comedy lab for Channel 4

13. Of all the things you have done in your career, what are you most proud of?

There are lot’s of things I’m very proud of, for different reasons so it would be hard to say one thing but I’m very proud of our current show ‘The Terrible Infants‘.

14. Where do you want to be professionally in 5 years time?

Happy, successful and working on projects I believe in.

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Where is The Great Harbour of Tara?

Monday, February 11th, 2008

The Great Harbour of Tara lies on the south-western tip of the North Island of New Zealand with the Cook Strait separating the North and South Islands, the narrowest point being 20 Kilometers/12 miles wide. [Check out the weather map below]. Being the most remote capital of the world, Wellington plays host to perhaps the most remote Fringe in the world!

The 15th New Zealnad Fringe Festival kicked off on Friday (8th February – 2nd March) with a fusion of comedy, live theatre, dance, music visual arts and outdoor events. The Fringe Festival runs for 3 weeks, with over 100 productions of pure entertainment to be enjoyed by 60,000 plus festival goers; after all, it’s summer and festival time down under! We have signed up to their Fringe Newsletter to read about what’s going on in beautiful NZ.

With the summer season in full swing, New Zealand’s weather map is worth a check before hitting the streets.

Have a great fringe festival Wellington!

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Is Sweeney Todd trailer trashed?

Friday, February 8th, 2008

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[Text of Video] In the G2 section of The Guardian newspaper on Tuesday an excellent article appeared entitled “What the Sweeny Todd trailer failed to tell us about the film”. Apparently the movie trailer failed to reveal that Sweeney Todd is not your anticipated gory, Gothic thriller but a musical instead!

Short film collages are indeed an art form in themselves. In the hands of marketing teams, getting you in the door to watch the movie its about disruption decibels, ping pong scenery, lighting extremes with nominations and awards for this and that. This seems to be the modern format but will it start to be used by performers producing their own Virtual Flyers?

Hard to say as festivals offer a different theatrical medium. The variety of Virtual Flyers is eclectic in the hands of many creative forces. Perhaps this creative medium, which is in its embryonic state, is waiting to fashion its own unique presentational form which will come from the performers themselves.

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10 Questions: An Interview with Kat Francois

Thursday, February 7th, 2008

Today I have great pleasure in interviewing Kat Francois. Kat is performing her one woman theatre show, SEVEN TIMES ME at the Adelaide Fringe this year. Kat won the BBC3 TV Poetry Slam Competition in 2004 and became World Poetry Slam Champion in 2005.

Poetry is a personal, intimate, and even introspective activity. Rather than read with the naked eye it is meant to be performed and heard. Trained voices like Kat’s are rare and not to be missed, but enjoyed for the sheer depths to which she can take us. Using theatre, dance and music Kat takes her audience on a wonderful journey exploring the universal topics of life. So lets start our journey and find out more about this young talented poet…

1. What inspired you to become a writer, performer and artist?

I have always been interested in reading, writing and performing. I read early as a child, always had a book close to hand and a piece of paper. I would pretend to be a journalist and keep notes on things I saw going on around me. I also kept diaries and had many pen pals. Writing and performing is a natural talent, which has had the opportunity to be nurtured.

I am inspired by true stories and becoming a performer has allowed me to explore my own story on the stage. I felt this was important before I went on to write more plays.

2. What is your show about and what should the Public expect from your show?

The show is an autobiographical piece exploring poignant moments in my life, both sad and humorous. It is a piece, which uses an array of mediums including, theatre, dance, performance poetry, visuals and music. The audience should expect to be taken on a journey, a journey through time, from childhood to adulthood. It is a piece, which can transcend age, culture, class and religion. Tackling universal topics, such as puberty, siblings, relationships, domestic violence and racism. It is ultimately a story of triumph over adversity.

3. What is your favorite Festival or Fringe and why?

I have traveled a lot as a performer but Adelaide will be my second fringe festival, my first being Edinburgh fringe where I performed SEVEN TIMES ME in 2007. It was an amazing experience, challenging and crazy, but worth every bit of stress and sweat. I am looking forward to the difference in weather, it will be nice to run around the street promoting the show with the sun beating down on me, rather than rain!

4. What’s your best advice for aspiring Writers,artists and performers on the Festival/Fringe circuit?

Believe in your product, you have to be able to sell it, to rise up day after day trudge the streets and promote your show. Look around for a venue which will support you and learn as much as you can. Promotion is a big thing try to spend time and money on targeting your audience. Try not get caught up on numbers of audience and money, it’s about learning your craft and obtaining the opportunity to perform in front of a varied audience . Most of all enjoy, enjoy enjoy.

5. What are your funniest and also, your worst experience performing or attending a Fringe/Festival?

Worst experience I had was leaving the first flat I rented during the Edinburgh fringe due to a leak in the roof, which caused the bedroom ceiling to leak. It also caused the shower to spark almost electrocuting my stage manager. Luckily she was fine. I was too scared to touch any electrical appliances, even the iron blew, after that I knew it was time to leave. We managed to find somewhere else, which was not a health hazard. The landlady came to see my show and offered me the use of her flat for free for a few extra days. I took her up on her offer and ended up spending a few extra days in Edinburgh relaxing and discovering the city.

The best experience was in the final few days of Edinburgh after working really hard, almost starving myself to get there. Ignoring calls from the bank, driving 400 miles across England in my little burgundy polo called ‘Ruby’ and questioning my sanity, SEVEN TIMES ME sold out. It was an amazing experience looking around and seeing not a spare seat, those last few days made all the hard work worth it.

6. As you travel performing at different festivals/fringes, what is your favorite place to vacation and chill out and why?

Favorite place to vacation has to be Grenada, although I was born in England, my family come from Grenada. Coming from a busy metropolitan city like London, Grenada is a wonderful place to chill,eat good food, connect with nature, relax and catch up with family I do not get to see very often. It is a beautiful tropical Island and will always be home to me.

7. Who is the person you most admire and why?

I admire many people but top of the list is my mother, the only parent I have known. Who raised me to believe in myself. I saw her raise 7 children practically single handedly and deal with whatever life had to throw her way with grace and courage. She has a quiet strength and humility which is humbling.

8. What is the best tip you have ever been given?

Believe in my talents and myself.

9. What is the best book you have read and why do you like it?

Cannot choose just one but ‘The Colour Purple’ resonated with me as a young girl. It was a well-written book, simple language that oozed emotion. Recently I read ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’ by Kahled Hosseini, and loved the portrayal of woman, the depiction of strength, friendship and motherhood.

10. If you could change one thing about the world what would it be?

So many things need changing, but I think if people had more respect for each other’s differences that would be a start to changing things for the better.

—

Thank you Kat for the great interview. We wish you every success at the Adelaide Fringe. Kat is performing at The Garage International venue in Adelaide.

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