Aberystwyth Comedy Festival 2021

I’ve just returned from an amazing festival in the best town in the world.

Let’s start with an update.  Has it really been nine months?  I’m still developing sitcoms in the background, but when the word opened up, I returned to standup comedy, and my priorities changes.

Short version: my career suddenly started going very well, so I struck while the iron was hot, and I’ve been doing gigs, performing full shows, and sleeping on public transport.  Maybe I’ll talk about the highlights some other time.

For now, let’s talk about Aberystwyth.

It’s my old university town, which makes it objectively the best town in the world.  And in October, it hosts a comedy festival by Little Wander, which makes it one of the best comedy festivals in the country.  In the world?  Probably in the world.

Here are my highlights:

The accommodation!  I stayed with my wonderful friend Phil Cooper, who somehow managed to find an incredibly cheap but incredibly lavish flat for the two of us.  Three bedrooms!  Two bathsrooms!  A kitchen nicer than my own!  Seven minutes from the centre of town!  Glorious.

The friends!  So nice to catch up with friends.  Particularly my friends from the Welsh language comedy scene.  We’re all mostly doing English gigs at the moment, but Little Wander’s festivals have always been incredibly supportive of the Welsh language scene.  So lovely to hang out in Aberystwyth pubs.

The buzz!  This wasn’t my first festival post-pandemic, but it WAS the first one that had the buzz and excitement of NEW WORK.  So many comics performing work-in-progress shows, including several preparing their first EVER solo shows.  I love being surrounded by people working hard, scribbling in notebooks, generating ideas, discussing their new concepts.  It’s contagious – I went home inspired to work even harder at my own new stuff.

My shows!  Okay, two of those, really.

Firstly, S Club Steffan.  This was my 2018 Edinburgh show, which I dusted off for festivals and theatres this year.  Normally I’d be touring my most recent show – but after two years off Edinburgh, I’ve instead brought back my most popular one.

I had a lovely time doing it in Aber.  A lovely theatre room full of enthusiastic comedy fans.  I’ve updated the show a bit – all comedy’s a constant work in progress – and I really felt that the new changes went incredibly well.  I do think audiences have a sixth sense for fresh new jokes, and once again, I can’t wait to get on with developing a full new show over the next year.

Secondly, Comedy (With Translation).  Since I was a translator before comedy, I came up with the idea in 2017 of putting on a Welsh-language comedy show, with live translation for non-Welsh speakers.  Originally intended for accessibility, the show ended up as an anarchic show full of improvisation, as comedians try and trip up the translator – and later, as other comedians take a turn translating.

It’s so much fun.  It’s practically a series of double acts, with the translator and comedian bickering throughout each set.  It felt particularly chaotic this year, and the amazing acts, tech crew and venue staff really rose to the occasion.  Huge thanks to Phil Cooper, Esyllt Sears, Eleri Morgan, Calum Stewart and Siôn Owens for being brilliant.

Oh, and I also got to be in The Delightful Sausage’s show as an evil ice cream.