How a rural county hopes to grow its comedy scene

The appetite for comedy does not seem to be dying down, with hundreds of thousands of people tuning in to watch Last One Laughing, Saturday Night Live UK and a reboot of Mock the Week. But in Cumbria, where opportunities to become a big name in comedy can seem scarce, what is being done to keep the laughs coming?

Appearing on high profile TV comedy shows comes with years of practice in grassroots clubs, late nights and a good pinch of trial and error.

In north and west Cumbria, so far away from big cities, it can feel unachievable - but comedians and comedy lovers are trying to change that.

"You need to be out as many times as you can a week and doing as many gigs as you can to learn your craft," says actor and comedian Steph Bradshaw, who grew up near Workington.

While there was "a little bit of a scene" in Kendal where she tried out stand-up when she started out in 2018, she soon found herself forced to travel to Manchester every week for open mic nights - a four-hour round trip for five minutes on stage and a petrol bill to foot.

It provided the motivation for her to set up her own comedy nights in Cumbria, not just to give newcomers an outlet, but also to give audiences a chance to see how the big comedians earn their stripes.

"We can lose people quickly [in comedy] if they're having to travel miles while doing a full-time job," she says.

Big Fish Comedy started in 2022 as a small affair at the Lake District Wine shop in Keswick, where Bradshaw worked.

It has since expanded, with events now hosted at the town's Theatre By The Lake and the Reghed centre in Penrith.

"I've built it all with progression in mind, so that people can start off with new stuff at the wine bar and then move to doing longer sets," she explains.

While many of the performers at the Big Fish nights are not local, she hopes by creating more opportunities, more Cumbrians will feel encouraged to give stand-up a shot.

"Hopefully it will be encouraging to Cumbrian comics, as well as other comics from across the North West scene, that there's this really engaged audience and opportunities to perform and build your skills."

Out of 200 shows hosted at the Old Fire Station in Carlisle every year, 70 of them are comedy performances.

"There's a huge appetite for comedy," says managing director Will Morgan.

"With the backdrop of how the world is over these last few years, I think it's a really important thing to have things like this on because it just gives people a break from the harsh realities of the world that we're in."

The venue has just announced it will host its first Just the Tonic comedy night in June, a comedy club that travels to major cities including Edinburgh, Manchester and Birmingham.

The mixed bill event features established and newer comedians and will return to Carlisle with fresh line-ups every three months.

Paul Foot is due to headline the first Cumbrian gig, after performances from Nina Gilligan, Peter Brush and Dean Coughlin.

Morgan says the format means audiences can discover new talent they might not have gone to see without knowing them first.

"If you're a fan of comedy, then you end up seeing people that you've never seen or heard before, that are on their way up," he says.

Tom Little says he felt he had no choice but to move from his Flimby home in 2013 when he decided he wanted to do stand-up professionally.

"I had to move to Manchester to start, I didn't even know where to get my first gig in Cumbria," he says.

Now he lives in Birmingham, where he can easily travel around the country for gigs and shows.

"You do have to travel around, you can't really do the same gig over and over because the audience have heard all these jokes already so you have to keep travelling to find new audiences," he explains.

He says building the audience's trust is key to making mixed bill comedy nights work for both performers and punters.

"You don't need to know the comedians in advance, because you just trust that the gig will have booked good comedians," he says.

Little is due to return to perform in Cumbria in July, as part of the West Coast Comedy Festival at Rosehill Theatre in Whitehaven.

He will gig alongside fellow Cumbrian comedian Pete Otway, with more acts to be announced.

Unlike in Little's early days of comedy, there are other nights that now run across the county, including at The Brickyard in Carlisle and the Kirkgate in Cockermouth, giving audiences a chance to see a comic's growth.

Bradshaw says renowned brands like Just the Tonic coming into the county give them something to aim for on home turf.

"Silly as it sounds, it also helps that audience grow in confidence in terms of going to events like that," she says.

Morgan says it can also be a great opportunity to see someone in a smaller, more personal setting.

"A lot of people that do these comedy nights within a couple of years become a lot more famous, a lot more mainstream," he says.

And just like Maryport built a name for itself in the music scene by hosting its renowned Blues Festival for two decades, the same can happen for comedy, Little hopes.

"People in Maryport will go and see a blues band they haven't heard of because there's that culture established now," he says.

"You can absolutely have the same thing with comedy - it's just a question of building it."

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