Festival Patrons:
Arthur Smith, Barry Cryer OBE, Helen Lederer, Loraine Morgan-Brinkhurst MBE, Sir Peter Hendy CBE, Ralph Oswick, Robert Brinkworth, Terry Jones
Bath Comedy Festival team members include:
Nick Steel, Director
Nick took over as Director in 2010 having been involved in the organisation since the Festival began.
Outside the Festival, Nick wears a few different hats - he runs his own Web and Systems company, Xerophon, and has several other entertainment roles not least as co-organiser of the big street party Widcombe Rising and the associated fund-raising Bonbon Cabarets. Nick also plays Hammond Organ, Mellotron and other vintage keyboards in a Prog Rock band, and DJs with wind-up gramophones as The Wind-Up Merchant. He is proud of his local area - he's on the committee of Widcombe Social Club and is usually involved in local happenings, including organising Widcombe's Christmas Trees each year.
Nick also runs other comedy events throughout the year, and was recently tour manager for US comedian Doug Stanhope's UK dates.
Contact Nick - nick@bathcomedy.com
Nick was voted 4th /100 most influential person in Bath in the 2020 "Bath Power List".
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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 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/producer with Galliano till 2006, Colin finally settled here to get more involved with Bath's indiginous talent.
Adrian Feeney, Live Streaming/Videography
Adrian has a very colourful, and some may say, chequered history. He ran the legendary Fez Comedy Club in Bath from 2000 to 2004, and exported the club into Europe with monthly shows in Prague, Warsaw and Budapest.
Adrian 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 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. Adrian has started LiveStreamTeam.net and will be streaming live all the Bath Comedy Club shows at Widcombe.
Louisa Gummer, Social Networking
Our social networking is co-ordinated by Louisa Gummer, who also helps administer the New Act Competition.
Louisa is a local girl (although she currently lives in London). An experienced actor & voiceover artist, Louisa also performed comedy parody songs at the first Bath Comedy Festival. She has Tweeted & Facebooked to all our comedic followers since the beginning of the Festival. Louisa works as a social media consultant for a number of clients both in the media & sporting worlds and is a passionate Bath Rugby supporter.
Favourite comedians: Adam Hills, Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre and Bill Bailey.
Contact Louisa - louisa@bathcomedy.com
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 of 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 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/
Geoff Whiting, New Act Competition
Geoff Whiting co-organises the Bath Comedy Festival New Act Competition.
Celebrating 20 years on the stand-up circuit, Geoff is an established comedian and popular compere with a wealth of experience in working at all the notable comedy clubs in Europe and many corporate and private events with audiences from 12 to over 1,000 people. His funny, strong, versatile act lends itself to any occasion.
He has also made regular appearances on TV and radio, as well as being an excellent TV warm up having cut his teeth on a series of the BBC's Shooting Stars. He has supported Michael McIntyre, Harry Hill, Dara O'Briain, Omid Djalili, Lee Mack, Ross Noble, Rhod Gilbert, Milton Jones, Micky Flanagan, Noel Fielding and Lee Hurst.
Geoff is also the driving force behind Mirth Control - the largest independant comedy booker in the UK, currently booking comedy shows into more than 80 venues nationwide.
Contact Geoff - geoff@mirthcontrol.org.uk
