My Comedy Career: Andy White
We speak to promoter Andy White as he prepares for the 2021 Cambridge Comedy Festival. Running across three days and four stages, over 150 acts will appear across the July weekend. The programme includes headliners such as Al Murray, Dara O Briain, Kiri Pritchard-McLean, Rob Beckett, Nina Conti, Russell Kane, Tom Allen and Milton Jones, plus the very best acts from the club circuit, live podcast shows, and even a first live performance of Radio 4's The Skewer.
Tell us what you do in your job.
Well I have two jobs... the one that's relevant here is I'm a promoter which I've done/been for 18 years.
I run the Jesterlarf Comedy Club which hosts regular club circuit comedy shows up and down the country in various locations and venues and, under this umbrella, also do some touring shows and work-in-progress shows. Plus, of course, the annual Cambridge Comedy Festival.
So I work with the full range of comedians from grassroots up-and-coming to established circuit acts to household name theatre-fillings big hitters.
And my second job, which I've done for 30 years and came before the comedy, is I'm a bin man - obviously I glamourise it slightly and run a waste and recycling company that primarily clears up and sorts all the crap people generate and leave at big music festivals.
How did you first get involved in the comedy industry?
I started off in live music promotions but soon gave that the swerve as annoying middlemen/women management, hyper inflated demands, ridiculous prima donna behaviour and my unwillingness to tiptoe around delicate eggshell sensibilities and deluded egos wasn't going to end well; plus music is my passion so I didn't want it to taint my love of it...
So, I was on the dole and broke. The two years I did as a building site labourer wasn't my cup of tea and then I stumbled into comedy by putting on a show in 2003 at my old comprehensive school hall with Paul Zerdin, Russell Howard, Smug Roberts and a 5-minute new act open spot from Gary Delaney. The hall was rammed, they drunk the bar dry, tore the roof off with laughter, couples sneaked off to their old classrooms for a retro tickle and that was it, comedy was the thing for me.
What key skills do you need to be able to do your job well?
Well it used to be telephone skills, negotiations and banter and the ability to sharpen a pencil mid conversation as you scribble down dates, fees and biog blurb stuff but now it's typing skills, Photoshop and #hash-tag-anything-that-moves apparently!!!!
What has been your biggest career achievement to date?
Be my own boss and not have to do a 'Dolly Parton' - that's a 9-5, in case you wondered.
And what has been the biggest challenge/disappointment?
Just running the club and the shows really - it's always a challenge, you never know if it'll sell.
You have nights when you go to work knowing you've lost a shed load of money but you've got to make it a top quality show and a top quality night of entertainment for the people who have bought tickets. If you know in your heart of hearts you've done a proper professional job on the show but financially taken a kicking then I always looked at the bigger picture and it'll be better tomorrow; keep your foot on the gas and keep on trucking!
Talk us through a typical day.
I get my kids up and off to school, then breath, drink coffee, shuffle piles of paper around my desk, check football results, read news, send gig work emails out then realise comedians never get up early, and/or reply to emails... back to bed for a nap.
Lunch time...more emails, press marketing, hassle my wife to create some marvellous designs for flyers and posters... school run pick up... more emails... dinner... TV... late night work emails.
Tell us a trick/secret/resource that you use to make your job quicker/easier.
No idea - if you know of one, please share.
How are you paid?
The glory days of cash are long gone - it's all bank transfer now via venue box office or ticket agents.
If you could change one thing about the comedy industry, what would it be?
Make tickets cheaper so it's accessible to more people. Top dollar for the top end touring acts is fair enough, but lesser known acts trying to break into touring shows are overpriced so audiences are often tiny, which is counter productive. Sell cheap and fill the venue - if you're good, audiences will come back and bring their mates - comedy just for affluent people is rubbish.
What tips would you give for anyone looking to work in your area of the industry?
There's no get rich quick route, build from a grassroots foundation - there's a multitude of wannabe promoters out there looking to fill gigs with the following request: "Looking for a headliner for gig XYZ, must have TV credits and a profile"... there's so many really brilliant circuit acts out there that audiences would love and chuckle away all night to... you don't need celebrities you need entertainers that make people laugh.
Oh, and if you're going to run a gig, do it properly and make it look professional - stage, good lighting, good quality PA so the audience are treated to a sense of entertainment. And get them facing the stage, so sack the large round tables in the golf club or conference room where half the audience have their backs to the stage and people getting up to get drinks from the bar during the show - it's a false economy, as the venue will sell just as much in the interval, plus it ruins the show and is disrespectful to the performer.
And, finally, look after the acts like they're guests in your house - a fridge full of beers, wine, soft drinks, snacks and I recommend either a tin of Quality Street or top notch biscuits.
Jesterlarf's website is jesterlarf.com
