Hi Craig. Who are you and what do you do in comedy?
I'm Craig - I'm a writer of just about anything I can think of and/or get paid for.
Tell us about how you first became involved in the comedy world.
Instead of revising for my final exams at uni, I was reading books about comedy. Despite this, I got both my degree and an office job. This was a mistake (the job, not the degree).
After a few years of being miserable, I signed up for the British Comedy Guide's Big Comedy Conference in 2013. This was *not* a mistake - I grained incredible insights, learnt valuable skills, but mostly realised that a career in comedy is an actual thing people can do.
I also won a competition BCG were running at the event and got my first ever press tickets to see some of my comedy heroes perform.
Since then I've interviewed actors and comedians for BCG, written features, organised gigs with some of the biggest names in UK comedy, performed comedy to a crowd of 250 people (for charity), and won some awards and prizes for my writing. Which is all lovely.
Who do you most admire in the business?
In a weird way, I kind of owe my career to Lee Mack.
The comedy books I was reading at uni? That's because I saw him perform live for the first time and was inspired.
That BCG competition I won? It was for a review of that same gig.
The gigs I organised? It all started with me convincing a charity to let me try comedy nights (and putting his name at the top of the list...).
As a writer and performer I think he brings a wonderful balance of heart and humour to everything he does.
(I've met him a few times since including, bizarrely, getting him to talk at the House of Commons. He was exactly as warm and funny in person as I'd hoped he'd be all those years before when he changed the course of my life).
What's your proudest moment, in terms of your comedy work?
There have been a few along the way - getting my first cheque from the BBC, selling out a West End theatre as a promoter, getting one of my comedy heroes to meet me for a pint at the pub...
But one stands out above all the others.
I'd written an article for BCG about trying stand up comedy (this article: https://www.comedy.co.uk/pro/inside_track/craig_beadle_standup_course_blog_part_1/).
One of the things I really wanted to convey is that if I can do it, *anyone* can do it. I wrote it, sent it out into the ether, and that was that.
A few months later I was at a comedy event, and a complete stranger came up to me. He said that reading my article was what finally convinced him to give comedy a go. And here he was, at an exclusive comedy event as a result.
I'm not sure anything will ever top that.
What's the best advice you've ever been given, read or heard?
Have a laugh. The tortured artist thing ain't fun for anyone involved.
Where would you like to be in 10 years' time?
I'd love to write a sitcom about love.
Something that can have the same kind of impact as some of the wonderful pathos-driven comedy that's around, but in a way that feel profoundly uplifting and inspiring. Something that stays with you long after you've finished watching it.
That's the dream, right?
What's been the most significant plot twist in your own life?
My engagement was the number one story on Heat Magazine's website.
(Until Andy Murray got engaged a day later. The bastard.)
If a genie offered you one wish, what would you ask for?
More genies.
Published: Friday 6th March 2020