A Weirdness Binge at Brighton Fringe
Published: Thursday 18th May 2023
Strange goings-on at the Spiegeltent.
Brighton is definitely the place to stay, in May. Great swathes of the cutting-edge music biz have just partied hearty at the Great Escape festival, and now the Brighton Fringe welcomes every other artform you can think of, including heaps of comedy. Some of it seriously weird.
This annual south-coast coming-together is a big deal, with over 850 events across 124 venues, about 40% of it comedy. And one notable new development is the Weekend of Weird, co-helmed by Brighton's own Ben Alborough.
That takes place from 26-29 May, and features the likes of Mark Silcox, Siân Docksey, John-Luke Roberts, Siblings, Sleeping Trees, Foxdog Studios and lots more besides. All in one evocative venue which inspired the whole weekend.
"I found myself last year, for the first time, on the grounds of the Brighton Spiegeltent", says Alborough. "There's something mesmerising about a trendy modern crowd bustling in front of a venue with the interior decor of pre-Kaiser Europe.
"The Brighton Spiegeltent has an amazing ethos of encouraging new ideas, collaboration and risk taking. I pitched the idea to them with [WOW co-founder] Ellie BW and they were really keen. We cemented the deal with a quick game of Russian roulette."
Ben will be doing his own show on the Saturday - Absolute Monopoly - while away from Brighton he and Sean Morley have developed a show about a certain former Eurovision host, which will soon be filmed for Go Faster Stripe. More on that below. But first: he's absolutely in-tent.
Where do you begin curating a weird-themed line-up? Any particular criteria the shows had to hit?
I don't think you can measure it. When programming a festival you approach it with your own set of sensibilities; Ellie and I are big fans of all the acts that are on, which means it's going to have a certain flavour.
A lot of them would describe themselves as clowns or sketch comics or alternative acts, but the self-categorisation is much less important than us all collaborating on good shows.
Broadly speaking, we're interested in fresh formats, unique performance styles and ideas that sound terrible on paper.
What's the weirdest thing you've got on?
I am not totally sure what I'm going to get with An Evening with Charles Quarterman for One Hour. But I'm really looking forward to it.
How would you describe Absolute Monopoly - and what compelled you to create it?
I would describe Absolute Monopoly as a sort of 'fucked gameshow'. I played hundreds of hours of Monopoly as a youth, completing well over two games, but it is quite obviously terrible; it's luck based, it takes ages, if you get kicked out of the game you just have to sit around watching everyone else play.
An hour feels like a good game length and posting a ticket link is much easier than asking friends to come over, so I took on trying to fix it.
The show is very fun to host and is different every night. It's essentially an adaptation of the board game - you buy properties and travel around the board, drawing chance cards that can change things suddenly. The big difference is that the audience are the players, the game board and an omnipotent voting body, unconditionally incorporating any rule that wins a simple majority vote.
The most interesting contestant, so far?
A guy who said he didn't believe in space. But I've also had people show me their mortgage statements live on stage, throw credit cards at me, scream at me to do the worm - I have personally drunk two litres of milk on stage as the series of rules that were enacted meant it was the only way the show could legally end.
Brighton Fringe has a really interesting line-up this year - it feels a bit like Edinburgh might have done in the early days...?
This is the goal! Brighton is a fantastic city and I'm very proud to have grown up there. So long as venue managers prioritise good deals for artists, the rooms themselves are good to perform in and the locals are happy to take a chance on things (which they are) then the only way is up.
The goal of the Weekend of Weird is to provide a bit of structure to the month; I'd love to see some other promoters trying similar things. Theatres programme seasons, why not Fringe festivals?
You're filming the new show Terry Wogan Screams at London's Moth Club soon - why tackle Wogan? And what does co-creator Sean Morley bring to it?
The show is unequivocally mine and Sean's equally - it may as well be called Alborough & Morley: Terry Wogan Screams, if that title wasn't so rubbish. I find Sean very easy to work with which is great considering that he's one of my favourite comics. The combination of his total commitment to strange ideas, his legalistic audience work and his editing skills make him a formidable comedy partner.
I've been doing Wogan for years but a while ago Sean and I started doing an online Eurovision community arts stream called Morlvision. What began as a relatively straightforward impression of Terry Wogan morphed into a very unique character obsessed with returning to light entertainment by any means necessary.
The mind boggles...
When we did a prototype version of the show at Vault Festival 2023, we really leaned into that. But for this filming, we've changed tack a bit to focus on something that will, in Sean's own words: 'evoke the feeling of the abandoned working men's club and the crumbling history of live light entertainment. The show's humour will be dreamlike, futuristic & politically uncontentious'.
Also, the show will be filmed with head-mounted GoPro cameras. I think it's going to be quite unique.
Also, also, Joz Norris and John-Luke Roberts are filming their shows on the same day, July 16th at Moth Club, and it's very cheap to buy a ticket to all four. I've seen their shows and they're fantastic, a great full day out.
Any other weird plans this year?
I'm always trying to do fun things in strange places with cool collaborators. It looks like I'm
going to be programming a series of lates at Edinburgh this year with a venue that's yet to be announced - be on the lookout for that.
I've programmed a Comedy Festival at the Bridge House Theatre in Penge on July 15th, the day before the filming, which has a fantastic line-up. Please do check that out.
More things will manifest once I've had my breakfast (sausage, eggs, white rice, beans).
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