When highlight Comedy Club opened its Birmingham venue in 2010, located at the massive Bar Risa, a huge multi-function entertainment venue with six rooms, seven bars and a total capacity of 2,400, it was a wise move by the owners of the popular comedy chain in more ways than one.
Certainly as a business proposition, highlight Comedy Club Birmingham makes great sense. The venue offers a wide variety of bars, a great selection food and the famous highlight after-show parties, including state-of-the-art light shows and sound systems, meaning that customers get everything they need for a fantastic night out, at one price and in one place.
In terms of cultural significance however, the new Comedy Club may be an important and richly deserved legacy, fittingly bestowed upon a city that has earned its comedic spurs and has been overlooked, for too long, as one of the most fertile breeding grounds for the very best in British comedy.
For over half a century, the Birmingham comedy scene has been the nursery for some of the biggest comedic talents that Britain has seen. Indeed, perhaps one of the first true greats of British comedy hailed from the city of Birmingham. Though Sid Field may not be a name too familiar to many fans of stand up comedians nowadays, his role in the development of British comedy is incredibly important.
In many ways Field’s story is a tragic one; addicted to alcohol aged 13, he spent many years honing his act in provincial music halls around the country before finally making his breakthrough aged nearly 40. In shows like Strike a New Note, Strike it Again and Piccadilly Hayride, Field’s comic timing and ability to create funny characters and impersonations, at a time when most acts were rather linear had his audiences, as one reviewer noted, “falling off their seats with laughter”.
In 1945 and 1946, Field was at the peak of his powers, appearing in successive Royal Variety Performances; one of the few artists to make consecutive appearances in the show. In 1948, he ousted legendary American entertainer Mickey Rooney to become top of the bill at the famous London Palladium.
That Field is largely forgotten is one of the saddest stories in British comedy. In his time, Field was peerless, his list of admirers is as lengthy as it is impressive; Cary Grant, Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Laurence Olivier, Eric Morecambe, Eric Sykes and Tommy Cooper among them. Though perhaps Bob Hope expressed it best, stating that Field was “probably the best comedian of them all”.
Field died aged just 45 but his role as the founding father of Birmingham comedy should not be forgotten. His legacy continued in the form of another comic genius that hailed from the Midlands and who too cited Field as one of his idols.
In the 50s and 60s a young comedian emerged from Birmingham once again who would rewrite British comedy. His name was Tony Hancock and along with Sid James and scripts by Galton and Simpson, Hancock’s Half Hour became one of the very first and certainly one of the most successful situation comedies of its time, transferring easily from radio on to television and becoming one of the pioneering sitcoms that has since defined the genre
Birmingham’s comedy legacy continued in the 70s; Bill Oddie, now of Springwatch fame, made a name for himself initially as a writer and performer on the Frost Report and then latterly of the Goodies. At the same time, a young Birmingham comic made his first tentative steps into the working men's pubs and clubs in the area when Jasper Carrott started up his Funky Moped and began a comic journey that has seen him perform stand up in front of thousands of fans, front numerous television shows as well as starring in the critically acclaimed sitcom The Detectives in a career that has lasted over 40 years and shows no signs of slowing.
A few years after Jasper Carrott emerged in the Birmingham comedy scene, Victoria Wood and Julie Walters took their first tentative steps into the world of comedy during the early 80s. Walters went on to find fame in a host of television and film roles, while Wood is still an acclaimed stand up comic as well as an award winning writer, penning the hit series Dinner Ladies in recent times.
At the same time as Wood and Walters were making their first series of the same name, a young black comedian from Dudley called Lenny Henry found the perfect niche for himself on the Midlands-based Saturday morning TV kids show Tiswas, which then led on to an outstanding career in stand up comedy, not to mention an important and life-saving role as a founder of the Comic Relief initiative.
The roll call of comedians selling comedy tickets by the bucketful in Birmingham continued to grow throughout the 90s. Smethwick resident and famous West Bromwich Albion football club fan, Frank Skinner, won acclaim and the Perrier Award at Edinburgh for his one man show; Mark Williams, hailing from nearby Bromsgrove, went from a supporting role as a character artist the Fast Show on to presenting his own television show and cinema success as Arthur Weasley in Harry Potter.
In the 21st century the Birmingham conveyor belt of comedy continues, churning out the likes of Shazia Mirza, who gained national and international acclaim, along with many more young comics, thanks to open spot evenings and the chance to perform their comic material on a regular basis at Comedy Clubs like highlight.
Birmingham has a rich tradition in British comedy and highlight Comedy Club is a fitting and lasting legacy to 60 years in which some of the greatest stand up comedians, comic performers and actors have emerged through the Comedy Clubs in the city. The new highlight club is a tribute to the city that has given the UK so many quality laughs!