Chortle Conference: Brendon Burns
I attended the Chortle conference today at The Pleasance. It started with a keynote speech from Brendon Burns, who arrived late from the Soho Theatre (where the conference took place last year). He initially seemed very much in stand-up mode, regurgitating a few stories I had heard elsewhere and laying into Russell Howard and Stewart Lee ("He invented the pause") prior to establishing his credentials as "the least successful Edinburgh award winner ever".
Gradually we settled into what was to me more interesting territory, but not before the observation that Steve Bennett "looks like Rik Mayall fucked a frog" and making an allegation against the Chortle head honcho that was undeniably libellous. Without any advertising or promotion, Burns performed at the Free Fringe last year and was reinvigorated by the experience, noting "If I make you laugh, you pay me. If I don't, you don't. It's the closest I've come to an honest day's work".
This clearly spurred his recent "Outside The Box" tour, taking in 50-80 seater venues of anything but conventional comedy clubs, citing a refusal to compete with the 100 other stand-up comedians touring the UK this year.
There were a couple of interesting points that I would have liked further discussion of, like the salient observation that Jongleurs "Eat, drink, dance, laugh" slogan places stand-up comedy at their clubs as the lowest priority and the issue of race in comedy. The acerbic Aussie undeniably jolts a room into life, which is probably what we needed at the kick off. Bennett had the last word, referring to Burns' experience with the late Patrice O'Neal in America where he informed him (in relation to the US stand up scene) "Motherfucker, you're 15 years behind me".
"If Brendon Burns is 15 years behind Patrice O'Neal, he'll be dead in ten"
Gradually we settled into what was to me more interesting territory, but not before the observation that Steve Bennett "looks like Rik Mayall fucked a frog" and making an allegation against the Chortle head honcho that was undeniably libellous. Without any advertising or promotion, Burns performed at the Free Fringe last year and was reinvigorated by the experience, noting "If I make you laugh, you pay me. If I don't, you don't. It's the closest I've come to an honest day's work".
This clearly spurred his recent "Outside The Box" tour, taking in 50-80 seater venues of anything but conventional comedy clubs, citing a refusal to compete with the 100 other stand-up comedians touring the UK this year.
There were a couple of interesting points that I would have liked further discussion of, like the salient observation that Jongleurs "Eat, drink, dance, laugh" slogan places stand-up comedy at their clubs as the lowest priority and the issue of race in comedy. The acerbic Aussie undeniably jolts a room into life, which is probably what we needed at the kick off. Bennett had the last word, referring to Burns' experience with the late Patrice O'Neal in America where he informed him (in relation to the US stand up scene) "Motherfucker, you're 15 years behind me".
"If Brendon Burns is 15 years behind Patrice O'Neal, he'll be dead in ten"
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