Students Learn Comedy

A comedy group who have attracted over a million hits on the internet are visiting Leicester to work with students from Regent College. Participants in the workshop are due to learn how to become comedians when they participate in a special workshop on Monday 9th November.

The workshop, part of Leicester Comedy Festival’s Make Me Happy programme supported by John Lewis Leicester, will be led by comedy troupe Idiots of Ants who have returned from a successful run at Edinburgh Fringe. The groups most recent success has been their Facebook sketch, “Facebloke in real life”, which has become an ‘internet phenomenon’ (BBC Online) with over a million YouTube views and counting. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrFdOz1Mj8Q

Students will learn about comedy skills, timing, physicality which will help inform their modules around classic performances including “Waiting for Godot” and “Berkoff”. They will also learn about the comedy industry and how to progress as performers. The workshop is part of Regent College’s preparation for Leicester Comedy Festival 2010 which takes place from 5-21st February. Details available at www.comedy-festival.co.uk

The Make Me Happy programme aims to increase participation in the annual Leicester Comedy Festival and allows thousands of people from across Leicester and Leicestershire the opportunity to get involved in different projects. Young people get involved from colleges across the county and their involvement involves performing as well as promoting and organising events. Regent College have been involved for the past few years and have hosted professional comedy shows, performances by their own students and visiting students from other colleges.

The Idiots are Benjamin Wilson, James Wrighton, Elliott Tiney and Andrew Spiers. They formed in 2007 and, after a sell-out Edinburgh Festival debut, they have gone on to perform at festivals and gigs all over the UK, including a show as part of Leicester Comedy Festival 2009. Their unique blend of fast-paced sketch comedy has invigorated the genre (‘Sketch comedy is officially back’ The London Paper) and they’ve attracted a large following both live and online. The Ants TV work was pilotted as part of BBC3’s The Wall. They have also just shot a short film for Friends of The Earth with Tomboy Films and have written material for shows such as Channel Four’s School of Comedy.

Regent College pupil Asiyah Jassat will take part in the workshop and said “Idiots of Ants are absolutely fantastic. I have been waiting for this since they performed last year. I am ecstatic.”

Sarah Oldfield, Division Leader, Arts Culture & English at Regent Culture, said “We are hugely excited about having the Idiots of Ants perform for us again this year as well as supporting the learning of our students with a workshop. The students are really looking forward to the comedy workshop as some of them aspire to get in to this area of performance.”

Leicester Comedy Festival Director, Geoff Rowe, said “It’s great when we can arrange these sorts of workshops, allowing young people the chance to get a taste of what it’s like to be a comedian. They not only get to practise their own performances skills but also get to find out how the comedy industry works. Fingers crossed one day these students will become household names and be the next Jimmy Carr or Jo Brand.”

Leicester Comedy Festival 2010 will take place from 5-21st February and full programme details will be announced later in the year. The Idiots of Ants will perform at Regent College on Wednesday 10th February. The festival will be launched on Friday 15th January with The Preview Show at De Montfort Hall, Leicester. Full details are available via www.comedy-festival.co.uk

More information and interviews contact: Geoff Rowe 0116 261 6812
geoff@comedy-festival.co.uk

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
•