Comedy / stuart laws
Stuart Laws: ‘I realised I could be more than a surreal maniac honking into the abyss’
Even by his own high standards, Stuart Laws has had a great year.
Known for his prolific output both as a comedy actor, writer, producer, and, for his production company Turtle Canyon, director of numerous acclaimed standup specials – among them James Acaster’s four-part Repertoire (Netflix) and Heckler’s Welcome (HBO) – Laws has been finding a new direction to push his own comedy.
His latest comedy special, a Turtle Canyon and 800 Pound Gorilla co-production of his 2023 show Is That Guy Still Going? directed by Nish Kumar, has just been released on YouTube – delving into personal territory including long-grief, vasectomies and child-free living.
is needed now More than ever
“That show was the transition,” he recalls. “It was acknowledging I was a different person and a better comedian and that I could be more than a surreal maniac honking into the abyss.
“Feeling audiences and peers react to that shift positively was a really good feeling, especially because a lot of the jokes and routines are still fundamentally stupid and silly. It’s just that the framework through which I tell them has shifted a few degrees, and that’s affected how the audience and I connect with each other.”
Laws’ recent autism diagnosis combined with his decision, as he puts it, to start “telling the truth on stage”, which, in the summer of 2024, led to the best-reviewed solo standup show of his career: Stuart Laws Has to be Joking.
Now embarking on a three-month-long tour of the show, Laws is set to visit The Alma Theatre on May 22. Speaking to Bristol24/7, he reflected on how audiences have been responding to a greater sense of openness in his comedy.
Stuart Laws
“For a good while I kept saying to myself and others that I wanted to be the comedian who got a big diagnosis and had the courage to not do material about it. But that’s obviously impossible; I was seeing everything differently and looking back at old routines that were clearly the expressions of an autistic person attempting to communicate their worldview.”
That said, learning how best to navigate the line between candour and vulnerability has been a process for Laws, who believes that within laughter – and the jokes do come first – a degree of healing can be found.
“I’m doing it now because I feel comfortable with it, competent enough to do it and am in a position where I can gauge how vulnerable is appropriate,” he says. “There are still a lot of media and art forms that encourage an unfiltered deposit of vulnerability and praise that as valuable. I disagree.
Stuart Laws performing at ARG Fest
“I think being free to be vulnerable and to express things unfiltered and raw should be supported and embraced, but I also think the artist should provide nuanced reflections, framed in a way that isn’t just trauma-dumping.”
Laws’ portrayal of a man reframing events of his life through the lens of his new autism diagnosis has resonated strongly with audiences around the country, and he regularly receives positive messages from people with their own experiences of neurodivergence. “That’s really nice,” he admits. “I’m glad it’s landing in that way – despite feeling really uncomfortable talking to people directly after a show.”
On the road in 2024, Laws was in Bristol having his most enjoyable show of the tour, when the sight of audience members starting a standing ovation prompted him to revert into “off-stage me”, and run off stage.
“I’ve learnt my lesson and this is me saying: Bristol, if you want to give me that standing ovation this year I’ll stay on stage and embrace it,” he says. “Cue me having the worst gig of my life in Bristol but a few people giving me a pity standing ovation amongst a group of bewildered hecklers.”
As to what comes next, Laws is typically full of ideas: from plans to film another standup special, to doing more comedy in the USA, and making a completely improvised show – injecting “an element of chaos” that sets the tone he wants to follow.
And “to counter that shift into the unplanned,” he smiles, “I’ve also been writing a play/monologues/standup show about me being the caretaker of an island of puffins and trying to solve the disappearance of one of the birds.”
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Stuart Laws Has to be Joking is at The Alma Theatre on May 22 at 7.30pm. Tickets are available at www.headfirstbristol.co.uk. Follow @thisstuartlaws on X and @stuartlawscomedy on all other socials.
Stuart Laws’ full comedy special: Is That Guy Still Going? is available on YouTube now.
All photos: Ed Moore
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