The Bognor Institute of Laughter is back

A successful comedy project, it has been now revived thanks to funding from Comic Relief and will be running regular sessions, based at the Bognor Makerspace.

It all began when a group of local people came together back in 2017, supported by Making Theatre Gaining Skills staff, with the ambition to develop a comedy club for Bognor. The group quickly built up a reputation for hilarious stand-up and sketch comedy and presented a series of sell-out gigs at the Waverley and Lamb pubs. Sadly, the onset of Covid meant the group closed in 2020.

Now, with funding in place, the Bognor Institute of Laughter rises from the ashes and will be running fortnightly workshops in all things comic, working towards public four public performances within the next year, the first most likely in January. In between times there will be a number of open-mic nights at the Lamb as a great way for budding comedians to try out new sketches in a supportive environment.

The workshops will be led by director Alex Connolly, with the group exploring a range of comic styles as well as the more conventional stand-up. Alex said: “This group is open to anyone and we’re especially keen to provide a warm welcome to individuals who have always wanted to try their hand at comedy but have not had the opportunity.”

Free membership is now open to adults over 18 and anyone interested should check out the Making Theatre Gaining Skills website Bognor Institute of Laughter – Making Theatre or email [email protected]. The sessions are fortnightly on a Tuesday from 6.30pm-8pm at the Bognor Makerspace, 58-60 Longford Road, Bognor Regis, PO21 1AG.

Making Theatre Gaining Skills is a social enterprise established in 2013 that provides unique training courses at the Bognor Makerspace, led by former director of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Hilary Strong. Hilary said: “We’re thrilled that Comic Relief have come on board to help us re-launch the Bognor Institute of Laughter. I am convinced that there is a lot of comedy talent lurking in Bognor and look forward to revealing it over the next few months. The Institute of Laughter was such a success, and it was a very inclusive group. Some people were neurodivergent or had mental health problems and some people were just passionate about comedy. It was a really mixed group and by natural conversation we ended up with a form of comedy that was really quite family friendly. It wasn't very rude and that was down to the fact that some of our members were quite nervous about the aggressive forms of comedy which are basically someone shouting and using every expletive they can. And what that meant was that a lot of people wanted to come to our gigs just because they were family friendly. We were playing at the Waverley where you can fit 80 people maybe and were selling out. The comedy was a mix of sketches and stand-up and songs, and we were doing so well until Covid came along. It is great to be back now.”