Gobby Flicks Comedy Night in Birmingham
On the 24th of April, the Midlands Art Centre opened its doors to Gobby Flicks Productions for a night of live comedy. Proceeds were raised towards the production of new short comedy films, directed and written by women.
A study in 2018 found that only 18% of sitcoms were written by women and another in 2022 found only a third of UK television directors are female. The Gobby Girl Film Fund aims to redress this balance.
The event, which kicks of a series of monthly comedy events was put together by Dan Trueman and Zoe Hopkins, who first met Gina Lyons (founder of Gobby Flicks) during the production of Burger Van Man.
“We were working with Nick Helm to produce and sell his merch, and he readily agreed star in the film,” explains Dan. “Gina came on board late in production to look through the script, and to give us some advice.”
Burger Van Man headlined the trial comedy night back in February, with live sets from Mark Silcox, Janice Connolly and Alex Horne, all of whom had roles in the short.
“It’s difficult to draw attention to short films, unless the audience is already working in film,” Dan says. “The idea was to develop a night out that everyone could enjoy. People go to live comedy shows all the time, and putting a short film at the end helps to get eyes on the production.”
Comedy at the MAC
I should caveat my review of the night by pointing out that my knowledge of contemporary comedy starts somewhere around George Carlin, Richard Pryor and Bill Hicks, and ends with Joe Wilkinson’s I Just Named Your Penis skit. This means I’m probably not the authority to say whether the acts were technically good. What I do know, however, is that every performer on the night had the audience is hysterics at one point or another.
Host comedian Kate Barron focused on crowd work – for which, thankfully, I was far enough back to avoid. She knew exactly how far to take the jokes with each audience member and mixed it with a dose of self-deprecation that kept everyone on the same page. She was a great counterbalance to the more observational humour of Kwame Asanti and Naph.
Kwame was more confident on the stage, addressing the culture shifts between Ghana and the UK, as well as London and the West Midlands, and sprinkling in anecdotes about working as an A&E doctor. Naph was clearly more nervous, but never completely faltered, instead embracing it and making it part of her act. Every joke she told landed, as she drew on her Muslim background to discuss parental disappointment and career prospects.
Headlining the event was Spencer Jones, whose bizarre, prop heavy humour brought the audience to a fever pitch. Fully aware of just how silly it was, he took the audience on a journey of imaginary dogs, soup varieties and sound samples, that gradually become so ridiculous that it was impossible not to laugh.
DOSED
The night concluded with a screening of DOSED, directed by Nadine O'Mahony, written by Lily Portman and produced and starring Georgia Neath (who went on to win Best Supporting Actress at the Midlands Movies Awards 2023). Mike has already put his thoughts about the film to paper (which you can read here) but this was my time viewing the short and it was just as good as others had said.
Lily’s script is full of dark flourishes that add humour to the grim subject matter, while the direction from Nadine is kinetic, capturing the literal highs and lows that come in the aftermath of a wild night out. This all blends with excellent performances not only from Georgia, but also Emily Dilworth and Karendip Phull.
Speaking to Georgia and Lily after the event, they mentioned that they were in post-production on another short, while Dan and Zoe were also putting a new idea together. Two projects for Midlands Movies fans to keep an eye out for.
The next Gobby Flicks Comedy night will be held on the last Thursday of April at the Mockingbird, headlined by Nick Helm, with Eryn Tett, Mary Flanagan and Kathy Rivett. Nights will run all the way until the end of the year.
Tickets are available and you can see the full listings below.
- · June – MAC - TBC
- · July - Mockingbird - Lindsey Santoro & Josh Pugh
- · August - MAC - Laura Lexx
- · September – Mockingbird – TBC
- · October – MAC - TBC
- · November - Mockingbird - Iain Smith
- · December - MAC - Rosie Jones
