Producing a live comedy show
By Paul Holliday. I’m excited to be producing my first live comedy show, ‘A Little Bit Sketchy‘. And at the Lowry no less! It’s been quite a trek to get the show up and running and thought to share a few bits of my experience.
So essentially, I’ve been working at the Lowry (the theatre in Salford, Manchester) for over five years now helping out where I can on different projects, which has allowed me to form helpful relationships and get people to see my work from time to time as well.
As a writer, actor, creative – and in the last couple of years, stand-up comic – I know that you have to create your own work, and most importantly think outside the box to have it displayed. It’s no longer just sending scripts into competitions, it’s also getting them filmed off of your own back (like my entry into the annual Chorts competition, which got me on the Comedy Crowd’s radar and making a full web series). As a comic it’s also about social media content, learning how to edit, and working well with people.
Birth of The Idea
This project started years ago. I go to an acting class DNA (Manchester) with Darren R L Gordan. It’s a great class, a room full of actors, a creatives gold mine really. At one of these sessions, Darren challenged me to come up with a concept, to link them all together as a show.
I came back with ‘Anxiety in the workplace’, he liked it, people like it when I pitched it. I slowly added to my team. A writing partner and actor, a director, my friend who would help produce, a team of actors.
I then approached the Lowry after a show I was in called ‘The Big Sad’ which was a team of people who worked at the Lowry, had been put on in the studio. The programmer heard my pitch, liked it, offered me a date 5 April 2020.
We set about getting rehearsal spaces, improvising characters, playing games with the director leading, and trying to get the ideas out. The idea slowly changed. Originally it was going to be centred around a Theatre In Education (TIE) group going into a workplace and covering how to overcome anxiety. But over time we didn’t feel like quite worked, but also felt TIE comedies had been done.
It changed into a fictional workplace, covering characters from HR to IT, cleaning, security. We had some good scenes. But they weren’t’ quite sketches.
Pandemic Woes
Then the pandemic hit. It was only meant to be a month, then two months, then the show was rescheduled, we got 4 July 2020 (American independence day, it was fitting). And then it got pushed again. And again. Until, we were forced to put it on hold until we knew what was happening.
We took to Zoom. There were changes here and there in the cast. I lost the person I originally approached with the idea, as a working actor, they did a paid tour in London. Eventually they came back and re-joined due to the show now being rescheduled. However it wasn’t the original idea that they had their heart set on, as it had evolved. Eventually that came to the surface and lead to them departing, plus the fact that it is difficult to keep motivated on a project that’s over Zoom as well.
Eventually this spread through the cast, as Director and other actors dropped out. It was a difficult moment, I was now working full time from home, the team were working off a promise the show was still going to happen (but no fixed date) and it had now gone on for over 5 months on and off over Zoom.
From Bad to Worse
We got in a new director, we started from scratch. Totally different approach. Anxiety in the workplace was going to be a looser device. Start with characters. Go much slower. Don’t even think about sketches yet. However the director was in and out due to jobs and Uni work, and eventually departed.
With a new date in store, 2 October 2021, we were really up against it. We had spent so much time on cast, bringing in a director and constantly changing as you always have to adapt an idea to the creatives you work with in this type of show – we were a bit all over the place.
A third director came on board. Organised, with a plan and a voice of experience with their own idea of how to link the show. If I was being honest – I wasn’t entirely sure on the new concept of the show. But I trusted them and that notion that the concept wasn’t the important part in a sketch show – it was the sketches themselves.
At this point we were far behind on our marketing, producing, admin, because we had spent so much time dealing with these issues.
As is the case with post pandemic, one of our actors was ill for two weeks which meant they couldn’t be in the room straight away. Our director was ill, and eventually we parted company with the director due to illness and also in some part eventual creative differences (But I do need to note they played a huge role in getting the project to where it is and we thank them for that).
Our producer also became ill (and is still ill now). So a lot of roles fell onto myself despite having no experience of producing.
There was one point where my housemate walked in on me, with my head in my hands – so many times I actually wanted to cry but didn’t. It was one of the most stressful experiences in my life.
The Show must go on!
I even had a difficult talk about potentially having to pull the show. I’d say 3-4 years of my life, potentially gone.
But I couldn’t, I wouldn’t and I didn’t.
I went into battle mode, and that’s when I’m at my best, when times get tough, it happens, that’s the business we’re in, if it was easy everyone would do it.
I got a new director on board, locked in the cast, agreed to give out a flat fee from my own pockets, it’s worth the investment, and eases the pressure on people if they’re getting a fee. I get that. I get that having a budget to pay people is not always possible, but thought it needed to be done here. Hopefully in the future we can do a tour, or multiple nights so we can pay people properly from profit.
We continued to develop the script and sketches in rehearsals. I even brought in Vic Cook, an experienced comedian who’s worked a lot on sketch comedy professionally, who gave notes on the sketches in rehearsals.
Promotion and Admin
Marketing, was mostly creating posts on Instagram and Facebook, I lack a voice on twitter which is something I need to take too more. Most of all word of mouth. I did comedy gigs when I could, and did shout outs for the show at the end. Think creatively. Do videos of interviewing the Cast, doing different characters voices and impressions enticing people to see the show. Other people’s podcasts. Even trying to set up an interview with Radio Merseyside.
Emailing Casting Directors, Directors, Producers. Filling in health and safety forms, covid forms, technical scripts to send to Technical at the Lowry (which was difficult as a sketch show is constantly evolving) props, you name it.
Everything I’ve Learned
It was being thrown in the deep end, at the most unpredictable time, at a phase when word of mouth was difficult because you’ve not seen most of the people you’ve built relationships with for over a year, when the building itself is just opening up, when the usual way of things has shifted, on a limited budget, doing 5 different jobs without a producer. But I’ve learnt so much from it.
And the truth is, if we had done this show pre-covid, I don’t think we would have been ready. Because there were probably too many different voices of what to do, how to make the show, constantly changing. And what it took was somebody on the outside to read it, know my material, and help me understand the show I wanted to make, and getting the right team around me to help with that.
And we’ve landed with an awesome show, one that I’m really proud of and can’t wait to show people. Even if there was a day where I ended up sending the programmer three updated blurbs, one because the show changed with a new cast, another because we had to extra thank you’s due to rehearsal spaces, and a third because I spelt a company name wrong (which gave me a panic attack in the night).
I’m an organised, quite anxious, person, so it’s something I’ve really pushed myself on over the years. That’s as big a part of it as the creative work. My room has a wall calendar, lists over my cupboard and I have an academic diary, constant to do lists, and a whiteboard for a daily list. The important thing to realise is, you can be the most organised person in the world, but you have to be adaptable and prepared for plans to change. I’ve learnt so many skills whilst doing this.
As a creative, I know I need a producer and I need a partner who shares my vision. But this is how it is when you’re at this stage. You don’t just get given a platform. You have to work for it. And sometimes people don’t see how much you put in. They only see the finished product. But that’s how they get on board; when they can actually see that product.
Fingers crossed they’ll see that when my product, my 4 years in the making show, finally goes to stage on 2 October 2021.
Check out Paul’s show, A Little Bit Sketchy at the Lowry, Saturday 2nd October 2021.
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