Fancy Meeting You Here - Comedy's Culture Club

Written by: Si Hawkins
Published: Sunday 20th April 2014

Comedy events are not exactly renowned for taking place in nice environments. From damp 'n' cramped pub backrooms to the sometimes shabby provincial theatres and vast, soulless arenas your bigger stars play, it's a rare show that occurs somewhere really, unquestionably classy.

Step forward Carl Arnheiter, who - along with his compatriot Dave Hill - runs Fancy Meeting You Here, a roving happening in which the two New York-based comics and a revolving team of 'guides' lead unique tours around some of the world's finest cultural institutions. This week FMYH visits the British Museum (Friday 25th April) and Tate Modern (Saturday 26th), before moving on to famous museums in Stockholm, Oslo and Amsterdam. Not that they envisaged taking on such establishments, originally.

"We were looking for a venue for a weekly stand-up show, just a place to experiment a bit: the back of a bar, a coffee shop, somewhere like that," Arnheiter explains. Instead, lurching in the other direction, they decided to make use of the city's bigger public spaces. The initial concept was just a regular comedy club, "then the idea evolved into a walking tour," he goes on.

"The group would meet in Washington Square Park, say, and we'd wander along a defined route, meeting comedians and musicians along the way - 'Oh, Todd Barry, fancy meeting you here!' and ultimately end up in a bar. But before we took it to the streets, we thought we'd try it in a controlled space first. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which is open late on Fridays, also has a rooftop bar. Perfect!"

The Met became FMYH's regular home, but the founders soon looked further afield. Indeed, they've played the British Museum before, in 2012, the first comedy show ever staged there (although UK duo The Gentlemen Of Leisure apparently held the first official, commissioned-by-the-museum comedy show a few months later, much to Arnheiter's mock chagrin). If you can call Fancy Meeting You Here a 'show', that is - the set-up is somewhere between a school outing and something by Andy Kaufman.

"We meet the group, do a quick introduction, and we're off," the curator explains. "From the outside it looks no different than any other museum tour, it's just that our group is laughing. The comedians select which exhibits they'd like to present, so that determines our way through the line-up. That and preparedness. Once we've arrived at a destination, we hand the group over to the new guide."

Appearing at both these latest UK events will be Lars Berrum and Martin Beyer-Olson, the 'Norwegians of Comedy', plus the Cork-born, now NY-based Maeve Higgins and British actor/comic Tom Meeten (who you can imagine starting his own spin-off event, Fancy Meeten You Here). Harry Deansway is also on board for the British Museum, with Josie Long and John Kearns rounding off the Tate Modern bill; a slightly random line-up, you might think, but only certain acts can pull it off.

"The show works best with people willing to take risks," says Arnheiter. "It's not always comfortable, there are long pauses as large groups amble in, you're doing it in the round. Basically, the audience has to be close to hear you in large halls: you're surrounded and people are 'make-out' close. Not every stand-up - or actor for that matter - is comfortable in that space. It's surprising who's turned it down for that reason."

How much of the tour is improvised? "That depends on the comedian. Some find a nice game to play and improvise it. Some slavishly write material. Our only ask of the comedians is that they leave their usual material behind to create site-specific sets. For my part, it's usually half improvised."

Arranging these events varies from minutes to months, depending on the enthusiasm of the venue, and "plenty of museums have turned us down," he admits. Generally speaking though, this simple idea can make a worthy institution much more accessible, to previously ambivalent punters.

"Museums get an immense benefit from FMYH - it introduces a wholly new audience to them," Arnheiter agrees. "I'd say 80% of our audience are not regular museum-goers, or they haven't been to the museum since they were in school. Some museums - especially those in London - understand that."

These London events are both free, although reserving a space is very much advised (see link below). If not, they'll no doubt be back in the near future. Are there European venues that FMYH still dream of conquering?

"I'd love to take on the Louvre. To me that's as elite as it gets, the Carnegie Hall of comedy shows masquerading as museum tours. Also high on my list is the Musee des Egouts de Paris, the Paris Sewer Museum. That place is amazing, pure genius to open a museum centred over a working sewer." Expect some top-hole toilet humour that day.

As for the project's best moments so far, Arnheiter suggests that "almost being arrested at the Met is certainly near the top," intriguingly, while he also graciously gives much praise to the various guides' sets. His standout memory, though, is of a tour by his fellow host, the risk-loving Dave Hill, at the Asian Art Museum during last year's San Francisco Sketchfest.

"Dave was in the midst of graphically though colourfully describing some after-hours activities that take place in the space, only to turn back to the group to see a 10-year old kid right in front of him. His reaction still cracks me up: pure horror."

Hill managed to turn the anecdote family-friendly, which takes some skill. But is it art?

[i]Fancy Meeting You Here takes place at the British Museum on 25th April 2014 and Tate Modern on 26th April 2014. Visit www.fancymeetingyouhere.org for further details, and to reserve a space.