A year of Covid-19 has taken a heavy toll on the creative arts sector, but the Leicester Comedy Festival adapted to the difficult circumstances to transition to an online format for 2021. We spoke to a variety of De Montfort University (DMU) alumni involved in the Comedy Festival since graduating about their experiences:
Katie Holtom
Attended DMU: 2017 – 2020
Course: Performing Arts BA
"I loved my time at DMU, my course was a fantastic introduction to the world of performing arts. It was great to have the opportunity to tailor my modules to a focus on behind the scenes work on productions. I love being on stage, but I knew from early on that I wanted to work as a producer and I was able to gain valuable skills in emerging technologies, theatre management and promotion.
"I had lots of chances to develop my professional experience during my studies. I worked with the Curve on an education project during a brief placement and then spent a year working with the Institute of Creative Technologies within DMU as part of the frontrunners programme as a Digital Performance Research Associate.
"After graduating, my career goal was always to be a producer. I got involved in the Motion House Dance Company whilst at university, serving on the Youth Board. I was able to make contact with someone who was on the Dance Development Leaders board and from there I was invited to take part in a region wide project in the West Midlands scheduled to start after lockdown ends.
"It was important to me to gain experience working on live arts projects when I was searching for a graduate job, so I looked at the support on offer from DMU and entered into the Graduates Champions programme. They were able to match me with the Leicester Comedy Festival to do an internship with the Big Difference Company. Since then I've worked on the Leicester Comedy Festival, UK Kids Comedy Festival and the post-festival awards. My role is really varied and includes: social media monitoring, writing invites to the awards, supporting communications, and ensuring everything runs smoothly. I'm pleased to say that the online festival has run really well despite the adversity of this year and I've secure a role as Operations Assistant following my intership!"
Martin England
Attended DMU: 2010 – 2014
Course: Audio recording technology BSc
"I first got involved in the live comedy scene through the comedy society at DMU, I joined that as performance artist doing stand up comedy during my first year. In 2011, the society took a show called Gagging for Attention to the Edinburgh Fringe festival and I made a lot of contacts in the industry there.
The next year the comedy club, Just The Tonic, took over a new venue in Leicester and needed someone to do sound engineering for gigs. They kindly asked me if I'd like to take the position as I was already studying audio recording at DMU and the rest is history! I've stayed with them for nine years now, working as the in-house technician for Leicester venue and then the technical manager responsible for hiring new staff and working on shows across the UK.
We usually do a number of shows as part of the Leicester Comedy Festival, but as year was all online, there were definitely challenges to be overcome to get people involved in a new digital format. I also went up to Edinburgh to arrange the technical side of Just The Tonic’s digital shows. We were able to produce a mix of recorded bits, live comedy and interviews with comics. It's certainly been a very different experience this year from an audio standpoint.
I love taking part in the Leicester Comedy Festival, the camaraderie between all the different promoters and the cohesive sense of everyone cooperating to make it as good as possible is something quite unique on the festival scene. I have some amazing memories of the festival over the years, but if I had to pick one highlight it would be watching the hilarious unscripted "Tim Vine's Chat Show" a few years ago."
The comedy festival may be over, but Just The Tonic have several upcoming shows.
Dave Deverick
Attended DMU: 1996 - 1999
Course: American Studies and International Relations BA
"I am from Leicester originally, so DMU was a natural choice for me to pursue my studies and I'm pleased to say I enjoyed my time there immensely. One of my motivations for choosing DMU was the chance to study abroad at the University of Maryland, USA, during my second year.
"I came back to teach History at DMU briefly in 2002, before returning again in 2016 to join the Faculty of Art, Design and Humanities to teach US politics. It's incredible to see how much the campus has changed and improved since my time here in the 1990s.
"I started attending the festival in 1996 with a few friends at DMU every February. We would regularly go and see as many acts as we could and then a year later we started going to the Edinburgh Fringe every August too. In 2009, the Leicester Comedy Festival started requesting a public judging panel to choose the nominess for the post-festival awards. I was chosen to take part and I have been on the panel every year since. These days, people apply to be on the panel and come from across the UK to take part. Its gives me a chance to see a lot of comedians I otherwise might not find the time to go and watch.
"We’ve given awards to numerous major comedians whilst they were still on the rise, including Romesh Ranganathan and Michael Odewale. Taking part has led to some fantastic opportunities and I've since joined the Edinburgh Fringe panel as well. Whilst Edinburgh remains the biggest festival, Leicester is very highly regarded in the comedy world. It's a great midpoint in the year for comedians to continue touring shows or trial new material and consistently attracts a lot of big names, visitors and tourists to Leicester."
Daniel Nicholas
Attended DMU: 2009 – 2012, 2016 - 2017.
Course: Undergraduate - Drama and English Literature BA. Master's - Cultural Events Management MSc.
"I'm now a stand up comic and independent producer. I learned a lot about the elements required to get into that from my time at DMU, both the performing side of things and the organisational, behind the scenes skills required for a producer role from MA.
"When I first graduated from DMU I worked part time at Tesco whilst developing my stand up career, it wasn't easy but when you're passionate about what you do it drives you to keep working and improving your material. When I decided to return to DMU for my master's, I worked with the development organisation 'In Good Company' in Derby for a time, then moved to Leeds to work as an assistant producer for a production company which proided some valuable experience. I've since moved on to freelance producing and I love it.
"I helped to put on shows at the Leicester Comedy Festival during and after my time at university. My main involvement with the festival is helping to programme events for Attenborough Arts Centre every year. As we couldn't host live shows this year, we paid comedians to produce digital comedy shorts with the funding that would have been used to pay for those shows."
Posted on Monday 29 March 2021