A Shot in the Dark: Comedy in Ruins
Emily Bampton describes nurturing a comedy franchise from Oxford to London and how it became a local, queer, comedy party.
I started doing stand up in Oxford two weeks before lockdown. It was a rocky start! After a couple of years it became apparent that the main open mic that we had there was not very good or inclusive and actually wasn’t safe. People were openly racist and sexist. I've been sexually harassed from the stage and seen the same happen to audience members. Really dog-shit behaviour. Although I believe it's better now, it was really bad for ages and a lot of people felt like our concerns weren't taken seriously.
Subsequently despite being based in Oxford, I gigged mostly in London. Generally, if you're a guy, the principle around comedy is: stage time, stage time, stage time. You’re told you should be trekking halfway across the country to be spat on by people who hate your work, for five minutes of stage time, baby! I understand the principle, but ultimately, if I have so much anxiety about getting on stage because these awful things have happened, or I know x, y, z, about this booker - or he or somebody else says something gross to me - and I know that everybody in the audience doesn't want to hear or care about what I have to say… Well, what’s the point in me going on stage as a black queer woman to hone material for people who don't even want to hear it?
So what we really had a hankering for in Oxford was a new material night where we could perform in front of an audience who didn't hate us. So myself and Anna George, Caitriona Dowden, Jamie Mykaela, Alex Burgar — five queer women who’ve all come to comedy from different avenues with different backgrounds — decided to set up a night for us. I wasn’t involved in organising the very first one but they asked me to host the debut show TBD - To Be Decided - which was our new material night at the Jolly Farmers in Oxford. It’s a beautiful gay pub with all of the ethos and magic that we had and wanted in our night. That spiralled into becoming a semi-pro night: Undercover Comedy. It was obvious there was a hunger for what we were doing: centring women and queer people with a focus on local Oxford talent. Often for local gigs, bookers pay for people to come in from London, which I understand, but there’s a wealth of talent in the Oxford comedy scene that should also be getting support and paid opportunities, and feeding that support back into the local scene is really important.
I moved to London just over a year ago. I had friends who were working at a venue called Mother's Ruin, which is a beautiful independent gin distillery in Walthamstow which wanted a comedy night. That’s how Comedy in Ruins became a thing, as a kind of franchise of Undercover Comedy and run with the same ethos. The night is queer and POC run and centred and because I book the people that I really want to see, I've cultivated an audience that trusts me with that line-up. We also have a slot for an Oxford-based comedian to come every month too. They get a paid spot like the rest of the acts and get travel covered. On our first night Jamie Mykaela ended up crowd-surfing at the end of the gig. I feel like that really sets the tone - it's a bit of a party! So much so we've actually moved to Fridays. The tough thing about Fridays is that people have other non-comedy options so you’re competing with a lot. But I like it because those shows are more wild afterwards and I’m excited to start experimenting with more games during the night too.
I live close to where we host the night and the idea is that it's run by locals, for locals. We want it to be something people feel they can just pop round to. I’ve worked hard to make it affordable in various ways so that everyone who wants to attend can. We've had a lovely local turnout which is a testament to the venue’s ethos, the estate it’s on and I hope the approach that I've taken to marketing. I do a lot of paper marketing, a bit of social media stuff, and a lot of word of mouth in group chats, particularly queer groups so we can find local people and people interested in what we do because we’re representing voices similar to theirs.
I actually didn’t realise until I moved to London how horrific Whatsapp group chats are. I went from being part of two to being in 200. But there’s always an opportunity to plug things locally. Case in point, we currently have a mouse in the house. It's our second one of the year. The last one was called Thomas. This one’s Jerry. He's been living in my room and he's a lovely guest. Unfortunately the Mouse Man (who is weirdly sexy) can't come for another few days meaning it will be coming up to a week now without any professional mouse help. So I reached out on our local queer Whatsapp group to ask if anyone had a humane mouse trap I could borrow. A kind person saved me so I cycled over and I bought a flyer for the show. I thought, I'll pinch it as, you know, you've so graciously lent me this mousetrap, would you like a free ticket to the show? What else can you do after you've been given a mousetrap? Thinking back on it, I really should have brought posters…
Catch Comedy in Ruins’s next show on Friday 20 September. And whilst you’re at it, why not save the date for shows on 25 October and 29 November? See you there…