About Us

Live Comedy

David Allison


Live Comedy

In 2011, some ideas I had for a live comedy show format started to bubble.

I frequently went to comedy nights in London with a group of friends for my birthday.

And often ended up being mentioned or somehow becoming part of the show.

 I’m not shy. I’ll be honest, I was hopeful of these happenings.

One night, January 2011, my birthday, we were at the Queen’s Head in Camden where Sara Pascoe was MC.

Acts on the bill that night were Paul Foot headlining, with Marcel Lucont and the Beta Males in support.

Someone was missing from the Beta Males and Sara asked for someone in the audience to fill in.

So I did.

I wanted to invent one that’d be booked by private groups and focus on their celebrant in a unique, personalised comedy experience.

I wanted to create a company called This Is Your Laugh.

It simply summed up what it intended to do.

So a domain name was registered and activities began.

What were the personalised events? Perhaps a birthday, a retirement or a stag/hen party: the key thing was to tailor each show to that particular audience.

The first iteration took shape as a gameshow with best friends competing to discover who knew their friend best.

It was for my best friend Nick. I’m so glad of my recordings of that show. Nick is no longer with us. He was one of the best.

Research into the person/subject (in this case, Nick), provided me with material to make the content for games and quizzes they played.

A comedian was assigned to be team captain for either side.

The second pilot show was for my own birthday.

In a matter of weeks doing further workshops with comedians, that format was rehashed into what is now known as This Is Your Trial.

The very first public trial show was specifically set up for a Timeout journalist called Alexi Duggins.

He had a column asking for people to provide him experiences he would review and get published in Timeout.

So I sent him an email, he was up for it and I subsequently organised a show to happen at Dirty Dicks by Liverpool Street.

The idea was to set it up so he would be put on trial.

I invited his mates and many other people. And gathered information. (Barry Ferns is about to prosecute.)

Frank Cassidy was judge, Barry Ferns prosecuted and Bob Slayer to defend. (Bob is hugging Alexi and Phil is singing.)

Phil Kay also came along and provided a musical interlude.

Among other things, I discovered through his friends, was how Alexi loved Ross Kemp from Eastenders. For some reason.

Incredibly, absolutely by coincidence, I was in a pub near Tottenham Court Road, having a meeting to plan this show, when the actual Ross Kemp walked in through the door.

So of course I had to take the opportunity and gather some ‘evidence’ for the show!

The resultant theme of a courtroom trial came about because I had access to a genuine horsehair barrister’s wig the host could wear.

They effectively became a judge and would decide who won.

The first judge proper was Benedict Farse. (aka Andy Wilkins.)

Then we did a whole load of shows for stag groups, charities and social events for small businesses.

This Is Your Trial

Edfringe 2013

In 2013, I took a booking from a Glasgow-based law firm called Inksters.

My plan was to have it take place in Edinburgh.

I engineered a way of using a Kickstarter campaign to ‘sell’ four other shows to happen the same week in August.

Importantly, they were to coincide with the Edinburgh Fringe.

I knew a comedian, Bob Slayer, managing a number of Edfringe venues that year.

Together we made a plan for my shows to happen at his pop-up Bookshop venue.

This clip is from the Inkster trial with my hero Brian Inkster in the dock.

Ever since that date, Brian has been the official sponsor and support of the show at each subsequent Edfringe.

He and Inksters have generously provided the stationary, accusation sheets, pencils and squeezy gavels!

(Yes, there is such a thing. There wasn’t, but since Brian and I met, there is now!)

Another clip from the Inkster Trial.

When I discovered one of the two Edinburgh football clubs were struggling and close to bankruptcy, I saw a publicity opportunity.

I offered the club a free show to raise funds from selling tickets to pay their ground staff.

Hearts of Midlothian FC continues to exist and competes for third place every year with every other club outside of Glasgow.

The Hearts FC event was my first at Edfringe, taking place at Tynecastle stadium for 200x Jambos.

SkySports came to cover the story!

In addition, the Kickstarter campaign received publicity in the Scotsman newspaper for selling the most expensive ticket at the whole festival.

(People could buy a whole show for £500!)

One recording of a This Is Your Trial show at Edfringe in 2013, saw with Stuart Goldsmith as Judge, Trevor Lock as prosecutor and Bob Slayer in defence.

I persuaded the infamous comedy critic, Kate Copstick to be put on trial.

Copstick is so very similar to my experience of Magenta.

This, yet again, gathered even more valuable press attention.

The two blokes above own a company called Bawbags. They make underpants.

They bought one of the other shows. I really enjoyed them and their pants.

They gave me loads of them. Some I am still wearing to this very day!

That first year at Edfringe was an enormous catalyst for everything that followed.

I was then able to work with already established performers, massively improving the show and my own confidence in it and myself.

I then met his Lordship, the Right Honourable Sir Timothy FitzHigham esq.

He soon became the face of the show (after a brilliant photoshoot.)

And also Tony Law, someone I admired from the telebox.

He has since been involved with my shows at many key points too. (Comedy Auction)

Plus Trevor Lock.

Perhaps my favourite act and biggest inspiration to me when it comes to messing around with improv.

Completing the T-triumvirate, was Thom Tuck a supremely talented comedian and improviser.

With him as host, we did lots of the new ideas for shows online in future years.

More later. (Bob Slayer also pictured.)

Those three Ts were with me at every significant step and show that would form the journey.

This Is Your Trial

Edfringe 2014/2015/2016/2017/2018

Now the show had become rather well known there were loads of them in 2014, with different comedians at lots of different venues.

At that point I was introduced to actors and improvisers.

They brought something different to the show.

They were far more experienced with working together as a team than stand-up comedians are.

I was very fortunate to meet and work with people like (Pippa Evans) and Ruth Bratt. (Susan Calman)

They were key members of the Showstoppers Musical show which is now a West End phenomenon.

 

(Here is the real Pippa with Susan Calman and Thom, stood before the Inksters scoreboard.)

Also (Rachel Pariss) and Charlotte Gittins from the other huge stage success, Austentatious.

With the introduction of such high calibre performers, the bar was now raised for This Is Your Trial.

The following August we returned to Edinburgh to do a full run of shows at the Assembly Box venue.

With that, even more variety of performer took part.

I made a special point of trying to have different line-ups for every single show.

Which resulted in about 50 individuals having their debut in the format across 25 shows.

After meeting and being influenced by Deborah Frances-White, (here with Daniel Sloss) there was one major shift in how I would cast performers for all my future shows.

I needed more women involved.

It was true. They were massively outnumbered when looking at all the previous line-ups.

(Tiff Stevenson)

Back then though, it wasn’t for the lack of trying.

There were simply more blokes as comedians being available.

Since then, I have had the joy of being introduced to and working with many incredible performers including  Deborah Frances-White,

Jess Fostekew, Susan Calman, (Janey Godley)

…Katie Pritchard, (Angela Barnes), Rachel Parris, Sara Pascoe, Jo Caulfield, Tiff Stevenson, Josie Long….and so on.

A very special person who was introduced to me nearly 5 years ago was (Lilian Belli). Here she is in court doing one of my shows.

She had been developing a show called Menstrual Psychos which was incredibly ambitious and inspiring to me.

I had the great fortune of working closely with her towards getting it to the stage.

Which it has since and I believe has a future of being toured and even become part of a school curriculum.

This Is Your Trial

Other Shows

Over the years, there have been various one-off shows for public audiences up and down the country.

This Is Your Trial was booked regularly at festivals and took place at many celebrated venues.

Now with a veritable smorgasbord of famous, talented performers keen to don a wig and give it a go.

Here are some of the highlights:

Trial at the Gilded Balloon Wine Bar was the most impressive venue for the show at Edfringe. So wonderful to sell that space out and fill the balcony. Here is Thom Tuck starting the show.

https://youtu.be/84ELYN44LAE?si=MiUGGcv6DKyFNNtD Thom intro gilded

  • – Dave Bartram, the lead singer of the 70s doo-wap revivalist band, Showaddywaddy, was a featured guest at a show we did at the Leicester Comedy Festival.

    Here’s a bit where I was on a radio show to talk about it and me. 2016

  • – Comedy legend, Rufus Hound has appeared a few times.

  • This clip was at the famous purple Underbelly cow in London Southbank.

  • Judge Jess Fostekew was 7months pregnant at the time.

  • I discovered three years later from the accuser that she has since divorced the defendant!

  • I am very proud of this result.

https://youtu.be/DHm1HYXXvlE?si=Nnr7cnb23-Wf66OH digby

In 2015 we received an enquiry from a tech company about organising a Xmas show with a day of improv activities.

I got together with Paul Foxcroft, one of the very best improviser talents around to devise a plan for delivering an improvised Christmas Pantomime.

The staff of Skimlinks performed the show.

(Mark Dolan) has done quite a lot of shows including the first big corporate booking with MACE Group.

This Is Your Trial continues to be at comedy festivals across the UK. Here at Deershed with (Njambi McGrath, Kate McCabe and Rob Ireland.)

including Underbelly, DeerShed, JustSo, Stage In The Park, Kingston, Leicester and Brighton  Comedy Festivals.

2024 will be the 11th year at the Edinburgh Fringe (tickets) with RGB-Monster holding the reins.

It is also international!

Beyond Scotland, there have been trips to Ireland, several tours across Australia to Adelaide, Brisbane, Sydney and Perth festivals and one show at the Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff, Wales!

This Is Your Trial

Development for TV

I had always thought that the format would work brilliantly as a TV show.

So did many other people.

After a few years of building relationships with relevant development producers and agents, I finally secured an option deal with a TV production company called DLT.

We began pitching the show to the BBC with the idea of Clive Anderson as host/judge.

Clive is a personal hero of mine and to work with him was a dream come true.

Regrettably, the BBC at the time didn’t want to take the risk on an improvised comedy show.

I also had a belief it could work as a radio show.

So one year at Edfringe I set up a recording with this in mind.

Have a listen and tell me what you think.

The next plan was to try another angle and pitch to a late night ITV2 audience, proposing Joey Essex to be the judge.

He was surprisingly brilliant.

Very smart and totally got the format.

I remember him asking what setting of ‘Joey Essex’ should he set his dial!

Unfortunately, at the same time, another production company beat us to the commission with a show called Judge Romesh, with Romesh Ranganathan as, guess what, judge.

(I had actually approached that company previously with my concept and let’s just say, they adapted it sufficiently so it wasn’t technically stolen.)

In 2015, I started running shows that were tailored specifically for families.

It was a different approach which had originally started in the form of a workshop I took into some primary schools to introduce concepts of law to 10 year olds.

Making the statement and impressing on pupils that ‘rules are good’ with fun and nonsense was considered very useful to teachers and parents.

That became a stage show which went to Edfringe along with the grown up version.

With the talent and experience of Steve Bennett as Judge, the show quickly became a success.

Here is an example of a family friendly trial recorded at Edfringe Monkey Barrel with Howard Read and Will Duggan.

Both exceptional with their own family-friendly shows.

Both have taken part in many of the adult shows too and are performers I really value for what I’ve learnt from them.

Ultimately, just before COVID, it was this show that inspired CBBC to commission Monster Court a 16x episode series that appeared on BBC iPlayer.

A puppet called Judge Smudge was the star.

The timing of this success was immaculate.

It paid me some money when I was about to earn nothing for quite some time.

This Is Your Trial - NEXT UP

COVID and Lockdown

During lockdown, the opportunities to present live comedy to public audiences were ended for a long time.

This was devastating to people who relied on live comedy for making what was already quite a meagre income.

Despite their years of graft, commitment, training and experience in the art form, a vast majority of professional performers were abandoned.

by a government so slow to even acknowledge how valuable the arts were as an industry or significant to the enjoyment citizens actually take from life.

Comedians suffered more than most from not having the regularity of an income normally enjoyed by other trades.

We were told to pivot. Or find a job in web security.

Like everybody else, using Zoom and similar online platforms became our only source of keeping some type of connection and presence with an audience of sorts.

The online comedy specific, web-streaming site NextUp emerged as a heroic opportunity for many performers to continue.

They also provided bursaries and sponsorship funds to aid those struggling most.

I am personally very grateful to them and was fortunate to also have the opportunity to broadcast one of our shows with NextUp.

Other Formats

The online shows didn’t really pay very well.

But they did open up my mind to consider other ideas for different formats.

In addition, with consideration of how shows might also transfer to the screen was fundamental during that period.

Comedy.Auction

Comedy Auction was the next biggest concept for me to explore and develop.

I became obsessed with finding treasures from charity shops.

I already had many curious objects collected over the years from my travels.

During the process of moving house, I started to assess what any of my possessions were really worth to me and whether to keep them or not.

I had my own reasons and personal stories to justify keeping an unopened packet of Yak jerky I bought in China nearly 20 years before.

But was it worth anything to anyone else?

Could the improvisers I know be able to spin a yarn, providing some providence and adding value to it with a made-up story?

As a joke even?

That was essentially the starting premise to Comedy Auction as a show.

Then there was the auction bit.

Could audience members be persuaded to bid against each other to buy and own that Yak jerky?

They would have to really enjoy the story and consider owning the object as a souvenir to remember the experience from the show?

Possibly own the story too? Ambitious ideas.

I had worked at some charity auctions.

Tables of bankers using the excuse of fundraising to flash their cash to acquire another donated golfing weekend.

That to go with pieces of African art which would be stashed in their attic to never see daylight again.

https://youtu.be/A1ZA53emsX4?feature=shared ca fringe

https://youtu.be/w3vFRsm2OJo?si=VYUFzM46-h_1ksi3 ca Charlie

There were two Comedy Auction shows at Edfringe. During this one a box of pick up sticks that I paid one quid for sold for $3300ADs after a frenzy of bidding.

https://youtu.be/w3vFRsm2OJo?si=VYUFzM46-h_1ksi3 – Ben ca pick up sticks (wrong)

After running short of selling my own weird things..

One of my favourite pastimes became sourcing lots from charity shops and thinking of jokes to go along with them. The Chairman Mao bust was and still is mine. That was never really for sale. It’s made of rubber and is too stupid to ever let go.

The Roy Castle LP had what I thought was an obvious opportunity for a gag. It turns out no one under the age of 30 had a clue who he was.

https://youtu.be/8_L7d0te8rc?si=OggTEWmyJnIfcSJe Roy castle

Working with Tony Law is always an experience. Here we recorded some behind the scenes planning for the very first show that took place at the Bill Murray.

Because the concept was in essence so very ridiculous I had ideas of making a mockumentary about the show. Tony had painted his version of the Mona Lisa which was to be one of the lots people could bid for.

https://youtu.be/ac95AlCiBHI?si=DvInxoS1Vd53USvP Tony Mona

More of Tony and his efforts to promote that first show.

https://youtu.be/-s81MhEsFaA?si=bxmZeRAvfbUjMWKI Tony promo

This show actually started as a live show in a small basement room at a bar on Upper Street in London.

Tony Law and Thom Tuck were the auctioneers in different shows.

Then it was Ben Van Der Velde when the show was previewed once at Edfringe.

It was during lockdown when I feel Comedy Auction was realised best when it was adapted to livestream broadcast.

This required a big rethink and innovation to make it work.

That started with me asking all the comedians I knew if they might record self tapes of themselves with items to be auctioned as lots.

They could choose whatever they wanted as items and tell whatever story they could imagine to persuade bidding.

It became my favourite demonstration of how to involve an audience with an online platform.

Their participation was different and not replicable in the same shows when live in person.

SickNote

One of the first ideas for a different live show came up just before COVID hit the streets.

The timing was incredible.

SickNote is essentially a variation of This Is Your Trial, but with doctors instead of lawyers.

There is more to it.

Audience members are encouraged to apply for a ‘sicknote’ from the trainee doctors.

A ‘sicknote’ was effectively an excuse to not do something.

We started testing those ideas out by doing workshops with performers and informal shows in my garden in Camden.

Performance of SickNote in my garden.

Sounds-Like.TV

For something entirely different, I came up with a novel way of playing charades and called it Sounds-Like.

This idea was inspired by a song I heard on Spotify by an Italian singer called Adriano Celentano – Prisencolinensinainciusol.

It is a fantastic record (and video).

https://youtu.be/KJIXMj7Mvb0?si=xNGrqPVjm2h6Y0e1 SoundsLike live

The format show Sounds-Like

https://youtu.be/d6u92KF2Two?si=B0sPOVsxO55WiIzb SL freshers

But the thing that stood out most, only after I read about it, was how it sounds like the lyrics are in Italian but they are not.

He deliberately sang words of gibberish and tried to ‘sound like’ he was singing in the style of a US/UK rock artist.

I thought about making rounds for a game.

For example, one person has a list of 5x animals and they have 90 seconds to make sounds only for teammates to try guess which animals they were trying to sound like.

We did it online first.

Quite a few times. It worked really well. Then a few times since live.

So very simple and always lots of fun.

D.I.C.K

Dave’s Idea Clinic Kickstarter D.I.C.K was mostly a social gathering for myself and people I met through them attending other online shows.

It was another online experiment at a time when I was busy trying to develop my own ideas.

I thought that I might also be able to help others with theirs.

It was also partially intended to improve my own abilities of listening to the ideas of others, more patiently and with greater consideration of their needs.

It was almost therapeutic for some challenges I was experiencing with the recent diagnosis of ADHD.

Court Room Roast