Today is MoodyComedy’s third birthday and that warrants another catch up post to let you all know what has been happening behind the scenes, as well as recapping the advancements made over the past twelve months.
So what has changed? The most dramatic difference between life twelve months ago and life today is that I have completed my A Level courses in Art, English, Philosophy and Psychology and now live in a brand new city, in fact, a brand new country. It has been an incredibly tough year academically and personally, but my plans to study for a degree in Philosophy have led me to Cardiff, and as I settle in and gather my bearings the exciting possibility of discovering a brand new comedy scene is fast becoming a reality.
Broadly speaking, this past year has been a fantastic one for the British sitcom; despite the recent closure of BBC3’s television platform, online comedy pilots have been growing rapidly in their number and quality. In April of this year, Will Sharpe brought his discomforting and sinister sitcom Flowers to BBC2, featuring Julian Barratt and Olivia Colman, and this is without doubt the most impactful comedy I have seen in years. Golaszewski’s Mum also left a lasting impression on audiences and critics alike, as did Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Fleabag, which is set to return to stage in December. Man Down also returned for a third series, and Friday Night Dinner for a fourth, two examples of sitcoms with impressively high joke economy and originality, with a consistently strong cast to stretch the writing to its full potential.
And on a smaller scale, although the busiest and most stressful year so far academically, 2015-16 has also seen many interesting things happen on MoodyComedy. The Ask The Expert interview feature has developed into quite a fascinating series, allowing the likes of Friday Night Dinner writer Robert Popper, the filmmaker responsible for Noel Fielding’s tour documentary, Joseph Lynn, and writer and producer of Mum Stefan Golaszewski to shed light on their creative processes and influences. There have also been twelve further Comedian of the Month titles awarded to performers and there is now a total of over 80 Seven Questions With interviews in MoodyComedy’s archives.
Despite not physically being at this year’s Edinburgh Festival, throughout August MoodyComedy arguably provided the next best thing, with over two weeks of interviews with performers at the Fringe from all over the globe, performing a variety of different styles of comedy and from a wide range of backgrounds. This has left me enthusiastic to speak to even more people working within the comedy industry, in order to make MoodyComedy as diverse and distinctive as it can possibly be.
There are many more exciting opportunities for MoodyComedy to expand over the next twelve months, beginning with getting involved with Cardiff University’s Quench Magazine, seeing stand up shows and interviewing comics about their current and future projects. This will hopefully provide another platform to promote MoodyComedy and everything it represents, with the two publications having potential to work alongside each other as my time at university progresses. I am still (somewhat intermittently, unfortunately) writing and reporting for The Velvet Onion, which is another fantastic publication that is ever-growing in popularity.
Things are, as ever, incredibly busy, vibrant and exciting and I can’t wait to establish MoodyComedy in a new city and tackle the challenges associated with this task head on, meeting and working with even more innovative artists and performers along the way.
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