Over the years at Greenbelt we’ve been fortunate to welcome some of the best comedians around to the festival. And this year will be no exception.
Here’s a whistle-stop guide to what’s in store when it comes to putting a smile on your face this festival … including the re-birth of an age-old Greenbelt tradition: the after-hours comedy review.
Pictured at the head of this blog, Mae Martin is comedy’s most naturally charismatic young storyteller. Now based in London and originally from Canada, her solo show Dope enjoyed sell-out seasons in Australia, Edinburgh, London and across the UK on tour.
2017 Edinburgh Comedy Award – Best Show nominee
2018 Chortle Award – Best Breakthrough Act winner
Star of two award-nominated series of BBC Radio 4’s Mae Martin’s Guide
Star of her own stand-up special for Comedy Central, Mae Martin: Live at Soho Theatre
Star of stand-up special series BBC2 and Netflix’s Live at the BBC
‘Effortlessly amusing and seriously funny – Mae’s gentle charm is highly watchable’
The Times UK
Musical comedy sisters Flo & Joan present a brand-new hour of dark, witty songs. As heard on Radio 4’s Fresh From the Fringe and from their viral hit song The 2016 Song which received over 50 million views online.
Amused Moose Comedy Award 2016 finalists
Best of the Fest Selection 2016 and 2017 at Montreal Sketchfest and Toronto Sketchfest
2017 Now Audience Choice Award Winner
★★★★
Intricately crafted, flawlessly performed numbers will have you howling with laughter one minute, wiping away a tear the next.
The Telegraph
Bourgeois and Maurice
Style over Substance: A 10-Year Retro-Speculative
A lot can change in 10 years. 2007 was the year that Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone, Barack Obama announced his plans for Presidency, Tony Blair departed 10 Downing Street and, most importantly of all, Georgeois Bourgeois and Maurice Maurice were born.
This August B&M look back over a decade of social change in a musical retro-speculative that is part-fact, part-fiction and part-self indulgence. Picking highlights from their four albums of musical satire and social commentary, they attempt to make sense of a decade of rapid change, and work out whether they could, in fact, be to blame for it all?
It’s a show about all of us. But mainly about Bourgeois & Maurice.
Having played together in various forms for over 10 years now, World Poetry Slam Champion Harry Baker teams up with BFF/Jazz Musician Chris Read as the imaginatively titled ‘Harry and Chris’.
After sell-out runs of their 2016 and 2017 (and hopefully 2018) shows at the Edinburgh Fringe, Harry Baker and Chris Read have been featured on The Russell Howard Hour (Sky) and are excited to be back at Greenbelt – this time with their first and much-deserved Glade mainstage slot!
Making comedy-jazz-rap a thing, they bring love and laughter to a world that needs both more than ever.
Tony Law is a three-time Chortle Award winner, Amused Moose Best Show winner, and Fosters Edinburgh Comedy Award nominee.
His extensive TV and radio credits include: Have I Got News For You (BBC One), The Alternative Comedy Experience (Comedy Central), 8 Out Of 10 Cats (Channel 4), Celebrity Mastermind (BBC One), Celebrity Squares (ITV) Never Mind The Buzzcocks (BBC Two), Heading Out (BBC Two), The Culture Show (BBC Two), Charlie Brooker’s Weekly Wipe (BBC Two), Edinburgh Nights (BBC Two), Tony Law’s Surreal Guide To Surreal Comedy (Radio 4 Extra), Loose Ends and Infinite Monkey Cage (Radio 4).
In 2017 his BBC Radio 4 show, Tony Law: 21st Century Adventurer, premiered and he also starred in Tony Law & Friends in the Battle for Icetopia – a comedy play on ice. In 2018 he’ll be returning to the Edinburgh Festival with a brand new show.
“Imagine if Harry Potter was a Canadian non-wizard who writes very funny jokes with his big hands, that’s Tony Law.”
Sean Lock
★ ★ ★ ★
Chaos has rarely been so finely constructed and this much fun
The Times
Daphna Baram is a London based, Israeli-born stand up comedian. With background in human rights law and Journalism (Ha’aretz, The Guardian, BBC, AlJazeera, New Statesman, The Independent), she has been performing stand up comedy since 2010 in various clubs in the UK and Europe. Among others: The Stand Edinburgh, Glasgow and Newcastle, Yes Bar Glasgow, Beehive Edinburgh, Breakneck Aberdeen, Hampstead Comedy Club London, Gags on the Green Peterborough; Stand Up on the Strand in Kent, Wine Gums in Cambridge; The International, Dublin.
Personally political comedy. ‘An extremely sharp, caustic sense of humour and a very wicked streak.’ Despite all appearances to the contrary, Baram is “that” friend, who whispers bad ideas into your ear and has you constantly exclaiming “I can’t believe you said that!”
Imagine Tim Vine meeting The Beastie Boys and Ed Sheeran in an English cafe for a cuppa and a slice of cake, and you wouldn’t be far off thinking of what The Edi Johnston Bit is like.
The former Austin Francis Connection frontman has created a hat-full of silly songs with himself and his ukulele which talk about many of the crucial things in life – Aldi, cups of tea, conkers, Netflix, getting old.
Edi comes to Greenbelt 2018 on the back of a storming appearance in 2016 and having had a couple of years playing around the country, appearing in Nottingham & Derby Comedy Festivals as well as Equinox, Wychwood, Dot to Dot and Acoustic Festival of UK to name just a few. A regular on the live music scene in Nottingham, he is becoming more and more in demand as people seem to just need something to have a smile about.
Daft songs, audience participation, plus the very special appearance of a couple of VERY good friends to join him on stage all are adding up to make The Edi Johnston Bit at GB18 something not to be missed.
“Everyone needs a chance to have a laugh sometimes. Edi Johnston brings you just that”
Leftlion Magazine
The after-hours comedy review
After a few years shunning the limelight and having a lie down in a darkened room, Greenbelt’s very own homespun comedy review show makes a welcome return this year for one night only. Watch out for fresh young talent and an irreverent but affectionate take on the festival from those who know it through and through; enough to thoroughly deconstruct it and soundly mock it. In the spirit of Last Orders, this will be something completely new. A new show for a new age and a new site.