Thanks to everyone that came out last night to raise funds for Macmillan Cancer Support. We’re sure you’ll agree it was an outstanding show.
As is common, we’re now fielding loads of questions about who the acts were and where they are playing. So here’s a handy breakdown of everyone that performed.
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Look who has just joined our line up!
We’re delighted to announce today, that Lee Nelson has agreed to make a rare additional appearance to close the The Big Comedy Gala in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support on August 12 at the EICC. Nelson, one of the most successful comedy characters to come out of the UK in recent years promises “A brand new show of qwaliteeee jokes, games and banter” on his UK tour which stops in Edinburgh for a limited run during the Fringe.
He’ll be stopping by after his George Square Theatre show to offer a closing set for the annual charity gala.
‘The hottest creation since Ali G and Vicky Pollard’ (Daily Mirror). ‘As comic inventions go, Simon Brodkin’s south London council estate geezer Lee Nelson is up with the best’ (Daily Telegraph).
Joining Lee on stage this year will be host The Boy with Tape on his Face, another silent act, Lost Voice Guy, Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Curb Your Enthusiasm alumni Caroline Rhea; Whose Line Is It Anyway star Greg Proops; Perrier Award winner Sean Hughes; Soho Theatre Stand Up Award winner Vikki Stone; Edinburgh Comedy Award nominee Joe Lycett; Show Me the Funny winner Patrick Monahan and Time Out London’s Queens of Smut, East End Cabaret.
Like past years, there will also be surprise guest performances from a host of other acts.
The Big C was set up in 2011 by Barry Church-Woods and Mhari Hetherington, in order to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support. The inaugural show, which was hosted by Ed Byrne, and the 2012 show, hosted by Roy Walker, both sold out – raising over £36,000 for Macmillan to date – with line-ups that included Josie Long, Frisky and Mannish, Fred Macaualy, Chris Ramsey, Danny Bhoy and Sarah Millican.
In the gala’s third year, the organisers hope to hit the £50,000 mark.
The Big Comedy Gala in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support is run entirely by volunteers with acts donating their time for free to raise funds for the charity. This would not be possible without the generous support of Suisse Design & Art Direction and Dupliquick.
Tickets are on sale at www.edfringe.com & www.venue150.com
LISTINGS
The Big Comedy Gala in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support
Monday 12 August at 21:30 (2hrs)
Venue150@EICC, 150 Morrison Street, Edinburgh,
Tickets: £20 (charges may apply)
Box office: 0844 847 1639 (Ticketweb) or 0131 226 0000 (EdFringe)
Buy online: www.edfringe.com
More information: www.bigcomedygala.com
Follow line-up announcements on Twitter: @bigcomedygala
“EastEnd Cabaret is a saucy mix of excellent live music, x-rated lyrics, strong vocals, and hilarious comedy – all wrapped up into a glossy package of 1930’s Berlin-style cabaret. Sex, songs, sass and LOLs…what’s not to love?!”
Bernie and Victy, opening The Underbelly launch at the 2012 Edinburgh Fringe
I was first introduced to EastEnd Cabaret at an Edinburgh Fringe Reception event in Adelaide, Australia, in 2010.
As a civilan hanger-on among the festival professionals, I was standing in the Garden of Unearthly Delights – the epicenter of the Adelaide Fringe – sipping white wine out of a plastic cup and feeling mildly out of place, when Jen (‘Bernadette Byrne’), Victoria (‘Victor Victoria’) and Tom (producer, writer and marketer) arrived.
At the time, I had no idea what EastEnd Cabaret was – I just remember being relieved to have found a trio of friendly and funny fellow Adelaide Fringe novices to chat to. Of course, Jen and Victoria weren’t in character at the time, or I might have creamed my pants.
Nowadays, the ‘Queens of Smut’ (as Time Out London called them) make me totally moist, but at our first encounter I was still finding my feet in the world of cabaret, and I’m not sure how well my constitution would have coped with the brash, multi-sexual filth factory that is Bernie and Victy.
Fastforward two years and a few months to last August, and I finally got the chance to cream my pants in a good way, when I went to see EastEnd Cabaret do their thing at the Edinburgh Fringe. Their thing, by the way, is very dirty, very funny, and very good.
For those of you who don’t know, EastEnd Cabaret is a saucy mix of excellent live music, x-rated lyrics, strong vocals, and hilarious comedy – all wrapped up into a glossy package of 1930’s Berlin-style cabaret. Sex, songs, sass and LOLs…what’s not to love?!
The act has had a busy few years since we first met, picking up a host of prestigious accolades and awards along the way. These include the coveted ‘Best Cabaret award’ at the 2012 Adelaide Fringe Festival, for their show ‘Notoriously Kinky’; a nomination for the Edinburgh Fringe TOAST ‘Best Cabaret’ award, later the same year; and a nomination for the Perth Festival’s ‘Best Cabaret Award’.
EastEnd Cabaret is currently staging their brand new show, Dirty Talk, at the Edinburgh Fringe – and we’re lucky enough to have them performing at this year’s Big Comedy Gala as well. I got myself a delicious sneak peak (or should that be dick tease?) at the Underbelly launch a couple of days ago, and personally, I can’t wait for my full hour fix next week!
I highly recommend you cabaret fans out there get yourselves tickets to their show (link at the bottom of this page), as the five minute glimpse you’ll be treated to at the Big C is guaranteed to leave you wanting more.
In the meantime, below is Bernie and Victy’s answers to our regular Big Comedy Gala blog Q&A – enjoy!
What is your involvement in The Big C?
VV: We’re going to be playing a few songs from our new show, ‘Dirty Talk’.
Who is your favourite comedy hero, act or actor?
BB: My favourite comedy act is a drunk man that is always in a park in East London. He shouts ridiculous things at passers by, dances with pigeons and even got naked in front of some nuns once. I could watch him for hours.
Favourite comedy moment (your own or someone else’s)?
VV: We once watched a guy shoot a confetti cannon directly into his crotch. Onstage. By accident. It shouldn’t have been so funny, but it really, really was.
What in your everyday life always makes you laugh?
BB: Watching Victy styling her moustache in the mirror every morning always makes me laugh. She does a hilarious tongue poking out face of concentration.
Who is your secret celebrity crush?
VV: I’m a big fan of Tom Selleck – but it may just be moustache envy…
In five words, why should people come to (or support) The Big Comedy Gala?
BB: Good comedy and good karma!
Joining EastEnd Cabaret on the night are The Boy with Tape on his Face, Sean Hughes, Greg Proops, Caroline Rhea, Vikki Stone, Joe Lycett & Patrick Monahan, among others.
Follow @bigcomedygala on Twitter – #BigC2013
Book tickets for the Big Comedy Gala
Book tickets for EastEnd Cabaret’s Dirty Talk
Text and photo by Josef Church-Woods – web: www.josefchurchwoods.com, Twitter: @josefcw
Humor is infectious. The sound of roaring laughter is far more contagious than any cough, sniffle, or sneeze. When laughter is shared, it binds people together and increases happiness and intimacy. Laughter also triggers healthy physical changes in the body. Humor and laughter strengthen your immune system, boost your energy, diminish pain, and protect you from the damaging effects of stress. That’s why the Big C exists and why we’re staging the Big Comedy Gala in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support for the third time this year.
We’ll be at the EICC on Monday 12th August 2013 during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Our incredible host is Edinburgh Comedy Award Panel Winner The Boy with Tape on his Face and I promise you, it will be the first time a gala has ever been hosted by someone quite like this.
Did we mention that he is award winning and one of the biggest acts to hit the Fringe in years? He’ll also be joined by Caroline Rhea, Sean Hughes, Greg Proops, Joe Lycett, Vikki Stone, East End Cabaret, Patrick Monahan and Lee Nelson.
To date, we’ve had an incredible experience raising funds for Macmillan with over £38,000 profits donated to the charity from just two shows. That’s enough to run one of their information centers for four months. But we can’t do it without volunteers. All acts offer their support for free, we get the venue at cost and all production staff give their expertise in the middle of a festival where they could all be paid for their time. We have a print sponsor and an incredible art director and designer…all donating their time to maximize the potential income.
Cancer is shit. There’s no denying it. We’ve all been affected by it and it’s absolutely devastating. Services provided by Macmillan Cancer Support, Marie Curie Cancer Care and others like them mean the world to those affected.
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is one of the most difficult places to sell tickets, regardless of the quality of your show. Last year we were pick of the week in the Scotland on Sunday, pick of the day in the Scotsman, hit-listed in the Evening News, top ten in the Daily Record, featured almost weekly in TFN and given diary coverage in the Herald. There were still a few tickets left on the night. We were lucky. Long standing events similar to ours for different charities played to very small houses and at least one that I know of isn’t happening again this year.
That’s why I’m writing this and hoping that you are reading it. I need a favour. Will you take responsibility for selling some tickets for us? 10 perhaps? More if you’re up for the challenge. You could organise a night out with your friends, family or work colleagues. You could buy them as gifts. I promise, it won’t be a shit gift. I know the line up.
Drop us a comment here or message on Facebook/Twitter and we’ll let you know the various routes to tickets.
Alternatively, just click through and buy them now: TICKETS FOR THE BIG C
If like many of us, you are skint and unable to come to the event, you can still help us promote the show by ‘pimping’ your social media profiles with our artwork.
Or if you’re feeling generous and are in Edinburgh; why not donate an hour of your time to help flyer on the High Street next week?
“Imagine being in a room with Lily Allen without the fear of being glassed. Except she’s funny and actually really talented”.
This is how Vikki Stone’s show was first described to me by a colleague.
I first became aware of her when I tweeted that she looked a bit like a young Josie Lawrence. She didn’t tell me to get fucked. In fact, she said something nice back about the Big Comedy Gala.
Last year, I finally met her at a fundraiser where she absolutely charmed the room, and I fell in love. (But in a gay man to pop diva way. Not the creepy ‘I’m in your garden’ sort of way).
For those of you living under a rock, Vikki Stone is a multi-talented comedian, actress, singer and musician and winner of The Soho Theatre One Night Stand Up Award.
Her unique mix of stand up and musical comedy has made her one of the fastest rising stars of British comedy. She performs regularly across the country at major clubs, festivals and theatres, as well as appearing regularly on television.
Her debut Edinburgh show, Big Neon Letters, played to sell-out audiences and received critical acclaim, including The Observer’s Comedy Top 5 Edinburgh Shows 2011.
Her follow up show, Hot Mess, sold out its entire run at the Edinburgh Fringe 2012, and four extra shows were added due to phenomenal public demand.
This year she’s back with ‘Definitely’.
Her Phillip Schofield Song became an internet hit and was listed in The Huffington Post as The Top Ten Viral Videos in 2012.
You may also recognise her from fronting major ad campaigns for Yakult, Fiat and…..Tena Lady!
Hot off the stage at Latitude, she took a minute to answer a few quick questions for the Big C.
What is your involvement in The Big C?
I’m going to be doing ‘my thing’, and if you’d like to know what that ‘thing’ is, then you best get booking!
Who is your favourite comedy hero, act or actor?
Bette Midler. Don’t think I need to explain why.
Favourite comedy moment (your own or someone else’s)?
This is a tough one, but I think it has to be the time my friend, who is a grown man, accidentally shat himself on Clapham Common. I couldn’t stop laughing for days.
What in your everyday life always makes you laugh?
See above.
Who is your secret celebrity crush?
Phillip Schofield – but I don’t make a secret of this. I wrote a song about him, which I ended up performing right to his face on ITV’s This Morning last year!
In five words, why should people come to (or support) The Big Comedy Gala?
Good laughs and good cause!
Joining Vikki on the night are The Boy with Tape on his Face, Sean Hughes, Greg Proops, Caroline Rhea, Joe Lycett, East End Cabaret & Patrick Monahan. Other acts will be confirmed in the coming weeks.
Follow @bigcomedygala #BigC2013
Organisers of the Big Comedy Gala in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support today announced the majority of the line up for the show which takes place on Monday 12 August from 21:30 at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre.
This year’s Big C comes with a twist as silent comedian, Fringe sensation and Foster’s Edinburgh Panel Prize winner, The Boy with Tape on his Face (aka ‘The Boy’), takes over the host’s mantle. It’s thought to be the first time a silent act has hosted an event of this nature during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
Joining The Boy on stage this year will be another silent act, Lost Voice Guy, alongside Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Curb Your Enthusiasm alumni Caroline Rhea; Whose Line Is It Anyway star Greg Proops; Perrier Award winner Sean Hughes; Soho Theatre Stand Up Award winner Vikki Stone; Edinburgh Comedy Award nominee Joe Lycett; Show Me the Funny winner Patrick Monahan and Time Out London’s Queens of Smut, East End Cabaret.
Like past years, there will also be surprise guest performances from a host of other acts.
The Big C was set up in 2011 by Barry Church-Woods and Mhari Hetherington, in order to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support. The inaugural show, which was hosted by Ed Byrne, and the 2012 show, hosted by Roy Walker, both sold out – raising over £36,000 for Macmillan to date – with line-ups that included Josie Long, Frisky and Mannish, Fred Macaualy, Chris Ramsey, Danny Bhoy and Sarah Millican.
In the gala’s third year, the organisers hope to hit the £50,000 mark.
The Big Comedy Gala in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support is run entirely by volunteers with acts donating their time for free to raise funds for the charity. This would not be possible without the generous support of Suisse Design & Art Direction and Dupliquick.
Tickets are on sale at www.edfringe.com & www.venue150.com
CONTACT
For press enquiries, please contact Josef Church-Woods on josefchurchwoods@live.co.uk or ring Jo on 07 887 811 091.
LISTINGS
The Big Comedy Gala in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support
Monday 12 August at 21:30 (2hrs)
Venue150@EICC, 150 Morrison Street, Edinburgh,
Tickets: £20 (charges may apply)
Box office: 0844 847 1639 (Ticketweb) or 0131 226 0000 (EdFringe)
Buy online: www.edfringe.com
More information: www.bigcomedygala.com
Follow line-up announcements on Twitter: @bigcomedygala
Thursday 18 July 2013
Madam,
It recently came to my attention that when you awarded Nica Burns an OBE for services to entertainment, your brief conversation resulted in you registering your surprise that the Edinburgh Festival Fringe (the Fringe) had existed for more than 20 years.
I feel quite certain that you went home immediately to research the largest arts festival in the world and discovered that it actually came into existence in 1947, as a response to the Edinburgh International Festival, and has flourished ever since. Indeed, just last year, the Fringe was said to generate some £141million for the local economy.
I’ve seen your wonderful crown and palace and shan’t assume that you will necessarily be able to appreciate the enormity of this, so for purposes of clarity, let me state that for your typical Edinburgh resident in Dumbiedykes, £141million is A LOT of money.
It struck me that though in recent years I’ve seen images of David Hasselhoff, Ricky Gervais and Miriam Margolyes enjoying all that the Edinburgh Festival Fringe has to offer, I have never seen a photograph of your Majesty in a festival beer garden. Nor have I ever read a ‘fun’ Herald diary piece about you inadvertently falling asleep during a production of Hedda Gabler in a hotel loft.
Then it struck me.
As your humble servant, it is my duty to ensure that you experience the first and best Fringe Festival the world has to offer. Particularly as it happens annually in your land. So I put this to you:
I am currently producing The Big Comedy Gala in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support. It’s exactly as it sounds and aims to raise money for the wonderful charity by showcasing a veritable smorgasbord of light entertainment.
It’s on a school night – Monday 12th August to be precise – but as you’ll no doubt be aware, in Edinburgh in August, there’s no such thing as a weekend.
Madam, I would like to invite you and the Duke of Edinburgh to the show to experience fourteen of the best comedic acts that the Edinburgh Festival Fringe has to offer.
As luck would have it, the Gala is being staged in the Edinburgh International Conference Centre, a venue synonymous with high quality events and very much used to welcoming global dignitaries and their security cartel.
I do not want to assume that you will be available to attend, and as such I have not included any tickets with this correspondence. Instead, inspired by the classic film Never Been Kissed, I have reserved two seats for you in the middle of the auditorium and will wait by them until 21:25 on August 12th, hoping that you can find it in your heart of hearts to show up.
Please, your Majesty, be a very wealthy Michael Varnan to my oddly shaped Drew Barrymore.
Of course, the Fringe is not all about comedy; there’s a massive programme of dance, theatre, music and visual arts to choose from too. If you do come to Edinburgh, the day after the gala I’m sure I can hook you up with some tickets for one of the many student productions. Just let me know in advance.
Now, let’s get to the nitty gritty of it all.
I know you have a wonderful home in Edinburgh; indeed, two years ago you invited me to your garden party. Alas I was somewhat in the huff with you and didn’t attend due to your rewarding famous homophobe Brian Souter with an OBE – but I’m ready to move on, if you are.
If you would like the full Fringe experience, I would be more than happy to welcome you into my home to stay for a couple of nights. As it’s you, you and the Duke can have the room with the en-suite, though you will need to share a kitchen with the cast of Briefs and Corey Feldman.
I can guarantee that if you make the trip to Edinburgh, you will not regret it. Indeed, many of the people on the bill have also performed at the Royal Variety Performance, including our wonderful host The Boy with Tape on his Face, and don’t even pretend you won’t absolutely lose your shit when Caroline Rhea from Sabrina the Teenage Witch comes on stage. She is truly one of the greatest comediennes out there.
Tickets are normally £20, though I’m happy to cover the cost if you throw a ring or bracelet into the Macmillan bucket at the end.
So there we are.
If you would like to attend the Big Comedy Gala in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support, it’s on Monday 12 August 2013 from 21:30 at Venue150@EICC.
I very much hope to see you there.
I have the honour to be, Madam, Your Majesty’s humble and obedient servant.
Barry Hetherington
#BIGC2015 