Dave's Leicester Comedy Festival 2013 attracts industry's top names for Oh How We Laughed, a panel discussion on the rise of British Comedy since the birth of the Festival 20 years ago.
Dave's Leicester Comedy Festival and De Montfort University's ‘Playing for Laughs 2013’ present “Oh, how we laughed”, a panel discussion on the highs and laughs of British Comedy since the birth of Dave’s Leicester Comedy Festival, twenty years ago.
With Don Ward, Nica Burns, Kate Copstick and John Fleming, this special event will take place at 9.45am on Saturday 9th February at DMU’s PACE building on Richmond Street, Leicester.
The last two decades in comedy have seen momentous changes in the industry landscape and some enormous new talents roaming the scene, including Jimmy Carr, Johnny Vegas, Jason Manford and Rhod Gilbert – all of whom were Leicester Mercury Comedian of the Year winners or nominees.
Mirroring the stratospheric rise of comedy as a genre, Dave’s Leicester Comedy Festival, begun by its current director Geoff Rowe as part of his final year of studies at DMU, has grown and grown to an internationally acclaimed three week event and has become the longest-running comedy festival in Europe.
Among those coming to Leicester to help explain the meteoric rise of comedy is the “godfather of comedy”, Don Ward. Ward founded The Comedy Store, the cradle of ‘alternative comedy’, in 1979 and is himself celebrating a 20 year anniversary – two decades at the seminal club’s Piccadilly site.
Joining the “godfather of comedy” to discuss the comedy scene is “the godmother of comedy”, producer and artistic director of The Foster’s Edinburgh Comedy Awards, Nica Burns OBE.
In addition guests will include Kate Copstick, top Edinburgh Fringe reviewer and judge of ITV1 series Show Me Funny and the annual Malcolm Hardee Comedy Awards, and John Flemming, comedian biographer and producer of Edinburgh Fringe shows by Helen Keen, Charlie Chuck, and Lewis Schaffer.
The festival has gone from strength to strength, generating millions for the local economy, and has attracted sponsorship from national TV channel, Dave for the second-year running.
Top comedians from Roseanne Barr and Jo Brand to Jack Dee, Jimmy Carr and Lee Mack, have all starred at the festival over the years.
Roger Clegg and Tracy Cruickshank, lecturers in Drama Studies at DMU, who have been running Playing For Laughs for a number of years are delighted to see such key professionals involved in this year’ event.
Tracy said: “As Dave's Leicester Comedy Festival looks to celebrate 20 years of making Leicester laugh, we at DMU are inviting the city to reflect on the changing face of its laughter in the company of some of the most significant personalities in the industry.
“Incorporating documentary evidence from audiences and comedians, we’ll also ask industry specialists and festival insiders to consider how Leicester's laughter lines have developed and, importantly, what this tells us about the city both from a local perspective, and as compared to national developments in comedy over the past two decades.”
The Saturday morning event is free but places can be reserved in advance by visiting this link.