The Team
Festival Patrons:
Arthur Smith, Brian Hennigan, Helen Lederer, Loraine Morgan-Brinkhurst MBE, The Lord Hendy Of Richmond Hill CBE, Ralph Oswick, Robert Brinkworth, and remembering Barry Cryer OBE and Terry Jones
Nick Steel, Director - Bath Comedy Festival
Originally from Ilkley in Yorkshire, Nick started promoting events shortly after moving to Bath in 1997. A regular at Edinburgh Fringe since the turn of the century, Nick brought many comedic talents to Bath before taking over the fledgling Bath Comedy Festival as Director in 2010, having been involved in the organisation booking the comedy acts since it began.
He has grown Bath Comedy Festival from a weekend event into a fully fledged three-week festival utilising multiple venues and featuring hundreds of acts.
Nick also runs other comedy events throughout the year, including regular Bath Comedy Club shows in different venues, various tour shows and one-off productions, and tour manages US comedian Doug Stanhope's UK dates.
Outside Bath Comedy, Nick has worn many different hats, including running his own Web and Systems company, and having several other entertainment roles not least as co-organiser of the now legendary big Widcombe Rising street parties, and the associated fund-raising Bonbon Cabarets.
He is proud of his local area - as Deputy Manager of one of his local pubs, The Ram in Widcombe, he helped build the pub back to top form, with world class live bands on Friday nights and a regular Irish session on Sundays. The Ram is now run by a cafe, but Nick is busy programming live comedy at "proper pub" The Ring O Bells opposite, and still presenting top bands at The Belvoir Castle just down the Lower Bristol Road.
Nick was also instrumental in designing the new Widcombe Social Club as an arts venue, ran many shows there and was licensee for a number of years before the pandemic, when it was open regularly. He has usually been involved in local happenings, including organising Widcombe's Christmas Trees for 20 years, and is currently planning more revitalisation for the area.
Nick played Hammond Organ, Mellotron and other vintage keyboards in a Prog Rock band, and DJs with wind-up gramophones as The Wind-Up Merchant. As Radio DJ Andy Kershaw commented "You're even more old school than I am!"
Contact Nick - nick@bathcomedy.com
Nick was voted 4th /100 most influential person in Bath in the 2020 "Bath Power List".
Facebook | Bluesky | Twitter/X (deprecated) | Instagram
Ralph Oswick, Associate Director, Special Events
Ralph is a founder of the world famous Natural Theatre Company, serving as Artistic Director for 45 years.
As his alter ego 'Lady Margaret' he performed shows for Edinburgh Festival and Radio 4, and toured the acclaimed series of "Scarlatti" musical theatre shows with several residencies in Germany.
As an active Festival Patron, having previously worked with Nick on various projects including the legendary street party Widcombe Rising, and since retiring from the Naturals, Ralph has contributed significantly to the success of Bath Comedy Festival, not least as co-organiser of the flagship event The Wine Arts Trail.
Ralph is a regular columnist for the Bath Chronicle and a selected archive of articles can be read on his blog at https://www.ralphoswick.co.uk.
Brian Hennigan
Brian is a Scottish writer, producer, director and seasoned comedy professional with extensive experience in event management and production.
During several years as a comedy producer at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Hennigan was insrumental in inspiring Nick Steel to take on the Bath Comedy Festival, and has been a key advisor and mentor ever since.
Hennigan produced the UK debuts of stand-up comedians Doug Stanhope, Maria Bamford, Laurie Kilmartin and Dwight Slade. He went on to establish a production and management relationship with American stand-up comedian Doug Stanhope, with whom he has worked on multiple projects since 2002.
Before becoming all "artsy-fartsy" Brian worked with Nissan Europe, Pringle of Scotland, The Macallan Malt Whisky and Lend Lease. He has also taught Shakespeare in the People's Republic of China, and more basic English at a TDK factory in rural Japan. Originally from Edinburgh, Brian now splits his time between Los Angeles and Las Vegas.
Jem Roberts, Co-organiser, Bath Plug Award
Jem is co-creator of the Bath Plug Award, and is an author and historian with an encyclopedic knowledge of comedy.
Born in Ludlow in 1978, Jem first earned money as a writer at the age of 13, reviewing NES games out of five Christmas puddings for N-Force magazine. After graduating from Aberystwyth University in 2000 with a BA in English Lit, Film & TV, Jem began performing comedy professionally from Edinburgh to Brighton and back, while editing games, kids and film magazines in the daytime.
All these pursuits came together when Barry Cryer suggested he expand articles written for comedy fanzine Kettering into the full first ever I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue Bible, which was published by Preface in 2009. Given carte blanche to decide his next title, The True History of The Black Adder followed in 2012, and in 2014 Jem became the official biographer of Douglas Adams and the Hitchhiker's Guide when the Adams estate invited him to write his third book, The Frood.
Jem lives in Bath, hopes to write a fourth work of comedy non-fiction as well as a huge collection of British folktales, still performs comedy when he can't not perform comedy, both solo and with his troupe The Unrelated Family, and occasionally has the honour of interviewing comedy royalty on stage.
Visit Jem's web site and blog: http://jemroberts.com/
Other Team Members
Kerrianne Gauld OBP: Social Networking, New Act Competition
Jennifer Ballantyne OBP: Front Of House
Nigel Fryatt OBP: Production Assistant
Note: OBP = Order of the Bath Plug
Colin Callan, "The Gnome", Chief Sound Engineer
Colin has been chief sound engineer on all Bath Comedy projects since 2010.
After running theatre sound and light for school productions in his home town of Liverpool, Colin moved into the rock n roll UK touring circuit in 1978 and never looked back, working with bands such as Elvis Costello, Stiff Little Fingers, U2, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Siouxie & the Banshees, Dead Or Alive, John Cooper Clark & the Invisible Girls, Joy Division, The Teardrop Explodes and Echo & The Bunnymen, plus comedians such as Mickey Finn, Bob Monkhouse, Freddy Starr, Tommy Cooper, Ken Dodd, Tom O'Connor and Russ Abbot.
In 1985 he moved to Bristol to run a sound & lighting company, quickly became the house engineer on The Thekla, then worked with Duran Duran, Erasure, Nuclear Assault, The Seers, The Vibrators, The Damned and The Inmates to name a few.
Colin moved to Bath in 1991 after spending time living in Bristol and passing this beautiful city many times on the way home and thinking "Bath looks lovely, I love the colour of the city as the late night sun shines on the stone of all the buildings".
After spending the 90's touring all over the world with music, theatre and comedy as a sound engineer, tour manager, pre-tour production tech, set designer and producer with Galliano till 2006, Colin finally settled here to get more involved with Bath's indiginous talent.
Adrian Feeney, Live Streaming & Videography, The Fez Comedy Club
Adrian has a very colourful, and some may say chequered, history.
He started lighting school productions at the age of 11. An ex-street performer, he stage managed shows at Edinburgh Festival, booked bands for West Holts backstage bar at Glastonbury Festival and currently manages a local Facebook Group with over 2,600 members.
From the late 1990s to 2004, Adrian ran the legendary Fez Comedy Club in Bath, and exported the club into Europe with monthly shows in Prague, Warsaw and Budapest. It was here that he discovered Russell Howard, giving him his first paid work, employing him as The Fez's regular compere and sending him on tour with the likes of Phil Kay.
Adrian also has 40 years experience behind the camera, developing at home his black and white medium format films shot through his rather heavy Mamiya RB67 camera.
About The Fez Comedy Club
Many of you will remember, way back in the 1990s, venturing down the sticky stairs into Cadillacs nightclub on a Tuesday evening to attend Bath's original stand-up night at The Fez Comedy Club, run by Adrian Feeney. We at Bath Comedy HQ certainly do - in fact it was The Fez which helped kick-start our love of promoting comedy.
Stars who graced their stage back then include household names like Russell Howard, Lee Mack and Johnny Vegas, with the occasional special guest like Mrs A from Beaufort Stores. Well, after hibernating for 20 years, The Fez Comedy Club is back in business and has partnered with Bath Comedy to help expand and enhance the stand-up comedy offering in the region.
While emerging from lockdown, Adrian came on board and helped us live-stream Bath Comedy Club shows during the Covid years, producing some top quality videos of comedy performances.
Adrian has re-awakened The Fez Comedy Club brand and now promotes his own shows.
Festival Partners
