Acclaimed alt-comedy stand-up Stuart Laws visits Bristol with his debut tour show

As a mainstay of the alt-comedy scene, Stuart Laws is known for many things, not least his joke rate, his esoteric standup show titles (among them 2013’s Stuart Laws Absolutely Will Not Stop, Ever, Until You Are Dead and 2016’s Stuart Laws: So Preoccupied With Whether Or Not He Could That He Didn’t Stop To Think Whether He Should) and his still unchallenged position as the UK’s self-styled “foremost gilet apologist”.

He is also a playwright, filmmaker, actor, and one of the co-founders and directors of award-winning indie production company Turtle Canyon, the makers of numerous hugely viral web series, short films, sketches, podcasts and comedy specials featuring comics including Ed Gamble, Lou Sanders, Joel Dommett and Harriet Kemsley.

The producer of James Acaster’s four acclaimed Netflix specials: Repertoire, Laws has also directed shows from Suzi Ruffell, Rhys James and Sindhu Vee among others.

His own comedy special Stuart Laws Is All In has recently been released by American comedy label, 800 Pound Gorilla.

Laws is now on his first UK tour with his new hour Stuart Laws? Is That Guy Still Going?, which he debuted at the 2023 Edinburgh Fringe.

Ahead of his show at the Alma Theatre on March 22, he explained to Bristol24/7 why this one feels a little bit different.

This show is your most personal to date. What was the initial impetus for it?

“I’ve been intending to write this show for a few years but always ending up veering away at the last second and doing my usual show of made up stuff. This time I think I’d finally found the distance and the way I wanted to talk about the themes in the show.

“Grief is something I consider to be fairly straightforward and it makes total sense to me: I lost someone significant – I am now sad. To me it was the concept of long grief that was way more fascinating. This intractable force that swarms you and creates unexpected reactions and emotions, from the least likely inputs. That sells the show as quite intense, but I’d argue it’s mainly very lighthearted, fun, stupid stuff that is framed by this deeper discussion – something I think is very valuable to discuss.”

For you, what’s the emotional impact of writing, and then performing material like this?

“I left it long enough that I can perform anything more exposing without having to reopen any wounds or have any emotions out of my control. Writing it was interesting; the show started over five years ago and there’s dozens of documents of essays and concepts and routines that have been abandoned or rewritten into material that sits wholly within the structure of this show.

“I find it really useful to write out concepts in longform, to explore the ideas and see where punchlines arrive and where significant reflections are valuable. Then through three years of trying out these routines on stage, rewriting and reflecting I honed it down to what people respond to, what gets the best laughs and tells the story most effectively.

“The opening 10 minutes I wrote out on a flight, in one go, when the idea fully formed suddenly. But that idea had been swimming around for a while, with me not quite knowing what it was and how I would talk about it. Crucially there’s also lots of just stupid jokes or ideas knocking about, but the overall show is way more written and longform than I’ve done before.”

Can you sum up your own comedic voice, and how you balance silliness, authenticity, and punchlines?

“For years it was: say whatever you want to talk about, even if it’s completely made up, as long as you believe in the internal logic and there’s a fun reason for doing so – whether that be a metaphor, a parodic quality or just the fun of messing about.

“Recently that has shifted to discussing personal things, stuff about myself but in ways that I think connect more broadly. I don’t want to be insular but I can only communicate my perspective on things, and if I can use the absurdity or silliness of my style and my natural comedy inclination (I love Harry Hill) then that’s the best and most fun way to do things. And if you can talk about grief and also be yelling ‘honk honk’, isn’t that the dream?”

What do you most enjoy about live standup, as opposed to all the work you produce with Turtle Canyon?

“I was just messaging a friend about this because I’ve been in the thick of producing a bunch of comedy with Turtle Canyon. I absolutely love working with comedians and bringing their shows to life; both on the development and the special filming side of things. But it takes a lot of brain space. And it often involves working with friends, who are obviously wanting it to be the best thing it can be – and that’s a lot of pressure. You don’t want to fuck up professionally and personally in the same moment.

“Making your own things can take so long to get anywhere close to a produced, finished thing, but by contrast, standup is close to instantaneous feedback and that can be great. Knowing that you can have an idea, write it up and know a few hours later if you’ve lost your mind or have hit on a really fun new routine or story or joke – it’s so difficult to rival that. Especially doing this show, it’s really resonated with a bunch of people and that’s felt great.”

How would you characterise your experiences of Bristol, and Bristol audiences?

“Crucially I remember being in Bristol and going to the casino, playing a bit of roulette and on a bored whim putting a £10 note down on 17. BAM. In it came and £350 came my way; I was absolutely buzzing, and walked away like I was Danny Ocean. I think I also watched Where The Wild Things Are at the cinema that weekend in the new shopping centre; what a time for me to go through.

“That’s not really answered the question but to make it crystal clear: Bristol is great, the audiences are always lovely and I actually remember opening for a bigger act on their tour and Bristol being the one place where they seemed to like me more, rather than just tolerating me till the person they paid to see comes on.”

Stuart Laws: Is That Guy Still Going? Is at The Alma Theatre on March 22 at 8pm. Tickets are available at www.chucklebusters.com. Follow @thisstuartlaws on X and @stuartlawscomedy on all other socials.

All photos: Ed Moore

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