What is laughter? Why do we laugh at others? Dr Ollie Double, Reader in Comic and Popular Performance in the School of Arts and Architecture, aims to answer these fundamental comedy questions in a new podcast launched at the end of September which is already making a bit of a splash. He tells us all about it.
‘Almost exactly a year ago, I received a message from the comedian Laura Lexx – a Kent Drama graduate. Once upon a time, Laura took my stand-up comedy module. I knew she was going to be good when the students did a project in which they had to find themselves a minimum of ten gigs to perform in. Laura did 43.
So I read her message with interest: ‘I’ve had this idea rattling around in my head for a while and I wondered if you might be interested in working on a little project together?’ I replied as soon as I saw this with a firm ‘YES’.
The idea was for us to create a podcast and YouTube series which would be, as Laura put it on WhatsApp, an ‘analysis of comedy and talking about comedy theory/history/psychology in little digestible episodes.’ This is what we came up with:
‘Deep in the depths of the University of Niche Interests lies The Comedy Bureau – a long-forgotten department dedicated to studying the ins, outs, whys and wherefores of all things comedy. Staffed by Laura Lexx (Live at the Apollo, Mock the Week, Roast Battle) and Olly Double (Getting the Joke: The Inner Workings of Stand-Up Comedy) The Comedy Bureau helps comedy lovers around the world uncover answers to the art form’s biggest questions. What is laughter? Who was the first stand-up comedian? And why do we laugh at others?
We started recording our first episodes back in January and the first three launched on 25 September, with seven more to come in the first series. We record in the same room, normally in Brighton, and a for a couple of episodes Laura’s actually coming to campus to film.
The Comedy Bureau has only been out there for a few days, but it’s already making quite a splash. We’re in the Apple UK podcast charts, we’ve had a big thumbs-up from Greg Jenner (Horrible Histories, You’re Dead to Me) and been named as one of the Best Podcasts of the Week by Amazon Music.
Listen to The Comedy Bureau, watch along on YouTube and follow the show on Instagram and TikTok.’
Photo by Karla Gowlett