Slapstick: More engorged with mirth than ever

No one in the entire history of festivals has ever claimed their event to be smaller and slightly less impressive than ever before. But the annual Slapstick fest that brightens our lives with a feast of silent and visual comedy every January has empirical evidence that its 12th bash really is more engorged with mirth than ever before. It now unfolds over six days, with 25 events in four venues – the latest addition being St. George’s.

As a not-for-profit social enterprise with little sponsorship, Slapstick relies on ticket sales for 80% of its funding, which tends to concentrate minds on creating enticing events that audiences actually want to attend. “I know there are some festivals that would still be around next year if they didn’t sell any tickets,” says Slapstick director Chris Daniels, “but we’re always struggling for funds. Even if they do very well, we lose money on all the events we run at the smaller cinemas. So we have to think of creative ways of building a bigger audience while retaining our integrity.”

In addition to the traditional gala at the Colston Hall – hosted this year by Robin Ince and featuring a new version of Chaplin classic The Kid‘s original score performed by the European Silent Screen Virtuosi – the St. George’s events have plenty of potential to pack ’em in, relieving the pressure on those festival coffers. Each has added value in the form of celebrity enthusiasts. You’d probably get no more than 50 people turning up for a celebration of little-known (but fabulous) silent comedian Ben Turpin, for example. Book a (soon to be announced) big name to present it and title the show Why I Love Ben Turpin, and you’re onto a winner. Other St. George’s highlights include Tim Vine on the great Sgt. Bilko; best mates Ian Lavender and Rick Wakeman sharing their love of Buster Keaton, with Portishead’s Adrian Utley making a special appearance; Marcus Brigstocke interviewing festival stalwarts The Goodies; and 88-year-old Ken Dodd receiving the Comedy Legend award.

A successful Kickstarter campaign has also raised £5,000. That’s a fairly modest sum, but it makes all the difference to providing added value, enabling the festival to use better quality prints and projection and to book more musicians rather than relying on recorded scores.

Local heroes celebrated this year range from Cary Grant (a rare screening of his early screwball comedy The Awful Truth, in conjunction with the Cary Grant Comes Home for the Weekend festival) to Stephen Merchant, who’ll be revealing his Top Comedy Moments. Merchant has attended Slapstick incognito in the past, but agreed to take a more active role this year. “He said, ‘I’m going to be in the UK and my parents have already got tickets for the gala, but I’d like to go too’,” reveals Chris. “So he was coming as a punter anyway.”

As so often with Slapstick, many of the more fascinating events are the niche ones tucked away in the margins, with introductions by film historians. This year, for example, they’re showing the banned saucy Soviet menage a trois comedy Bed and Sofa and the original silent version of Chicago. Elsewhere, Lucy Porter explores the life of pioneering screenwriter Anita Loos and there’s a festival-wide focus on silent comedy westerns, which even extends to the Goodies event. “You don’t get that programmed very often,” observes Chris drily.

He acknowledges that Bill, Graeme and Tim turn up every year now, which could potentially lead to Goodie fatigue, but points out that only in Bristol can you see them on stage together. Bill Oddie is also one of the few guests guaranteed to pull a sell-out crowd for a 9.30am screening. This year, he’s got a special treat for children of the 1970s with his Saturday Banana featuring the Banana Splits (clearly hippies on very strong drugs out to blow tiny minds), the Adam West Batman and Here Come the Double Deckers! Two of the Deckers (but not Brinsley Forde, alas) will also be present for a separate reunion, for which Slapstick has arranged a double decker bus to be parked outside the Watershed. D’ya see what they did there?

The Slapstick Festival runs from Jan 20-25, 2016. Go here for our detailed daily film listings, which include full details of all Slapstick events with trailers where available.