comedy – The Orbital

18Dec

By Mollie CarlyleNo Comments

Features

In Conversation With: Charlie Higson

Hello Charlie. First of all, thank you very much for taking the time out of your busy schedule to speak to us. Christ! If I’d known there were so many questions I wouldn’t have agreed. Being a Norfolk girl myself, I was very happy to read that you went to the University of East Anglia, which became a very unlikely hotspot for up and coming comedians (with connections to Jim Moir, Harry Enfield, Paul Whitehouse, Dave Cummings etc.). What was university life like on the seventies Norwich scene? I started there in 1977 – which seems about a hundred years ago. So much has changed since then it’s hard to get across to people how different things were in the 70s. Norwich was quite isolated – although the university connected it to a wider world. There was a professional ENTS officer at...

Through The Lens of a Camera: Comedy Virgins

30Nov

By Lina PavlovaNo Comments

Culture & Literature, Theatre & Performance

Through The Lens of a Camera: Comedy Virgins

On Thursday November 15, Royal Holloway’s very own Comedy Society had their first show of the year, and what a blast it was! Going to a comedy show is always exciting, and a great night full of fun and laughter is almost always guaranteed. But what happens when you’re not just there as an audience member? I attended as a videographer to film the event, and while you might assume the excitement would be pretty much non-existent due to the mere fact that I was there to do my job and be ‘professional’, this was not the case! Just seeing the enthusiastic faces of the people performing on the stage, even if only from behind my camera, was enough to make me happy for days and days to follow. From the name of the performance itself - ‘The Comedy Virgin Show’ - which immediately stirs up cur...

Interview with Marshea Makosa, President of Comedy Society

12Oct

By Izzy SwansonNo Comments

Sports & Socs

Interview with Marshea Makosa, President of Comedy Society

How did you first get involved with Comedy Society? I got involved after performing at the Monkey’s Forehead (now The Packhorse) as a solo act and the then president, Ned Sanders, was in the crowd and invited me to come along, check out a workshop and maybe perform with the society. I went and it was a very chill way to challenge and compound my comedic tastes. You’ve just returned from the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, which the society attends annually, how was the experience? The fringe is really fun! It’s a whirlwind of flyering, talking to performers from all around the world, performing and working on your craft in real time, improving with your fellow comics, going to shows (and going to bars) and just feeling engaged with the mystery of the ‘comedy circuit’. It's intense and ...

Interview: Callum Pardoe takes the Reigns of Holloway Players

9Oct

By Olivia DuckworthNo Comments

Sports & Socs

Interview: Callum Pardoe takes the Reigns of Holloway Players

Today we sit down with Callum Pardoe, who this year has taken on the role as the Holloway Players Representative with Drama Society. We spoke to Callum, who is going into his second year at Royal Holloway, about all things Improv and what to him makes The Holloway Players the crazy, talented group of performers they are. What persuaded you to join the Holloway Players last year? I'd always wanted to get into improv and after seeing the Players perform at the Drama Society Taster sessions I was dead set on working with them. I thought to myself 'these are the most hilarious people I've ever seen in life! I have to get to know them!' What are your highlights from last year? Last year had its fair share of highlights for me but if I had to pick one it would have to be performing i...

2Mar

By Michele TheilNo Comments

Culture & Literature, Theatre & Performance

Late Night Laughs

"Welcome to Late Nights in Egham!”, is the tagline accompanying Philipp Carl Kostelecky’s new project, a late-night talk show set in “our wonderful town of Egham”. Kostelecky’s pet project came to life after more than a year of discussions, writing and set up, with him dressed in a snazzy suit and ready to be the charming late night talk show host we have come to expect. His biggest inspirations come from Conan and Eric Andre, both of which he has drawn from to influence his own talk show idea. The idea was conceived on a long plane ride last summer and Kostelecky and the rest of the production team are extremely excited to see it “finally come into fruition”. Kostelecky says that he “thought the idea of a late night talk show in Egham would be fun”. The show concept was originally quit...

26Feb

By Mollie CarlyleNo Comments

Features

In conversation with: Alex Horne

Hello Alex! First of all, thank you very much for taking the time to speak to us ahead of the Horne Section’s tour and the release of Taskmaster Champion of Champions. You studied Classics at Cambridge University, did you know straight away that comedy was what you wanted to do, or did you have an alternative career path in mind? I’m still not sure it’s what I want to do – I’m going on a wood carving course next year - in fact, I don’t think you ever really need to be sure. After Cambridge I did a postgraduate Broadcast Journalism course at Goldsmiths. At that point I was pretty sure I wanted to be a journalist… Comedy should happen by accident, I think, not a career decision. How did you get onto the comedy scene? I always liked comedy and thought there was a chance I might be...

19Feb

By George WhiteNo Comments

Culture & Literature, Theatre & Performance

A Comedic Break from Valentines Day

The Comedy Society has put on a number of shows since the start of the year: having tested the waters with early shows, they’ve definitely had the chance to improve over time. However, there is certainly still plenty of room for further improvement - I look forward to seeing said improvement. But, for now, they’re still quite rough around the edges. Despite this, every performer did manage a couple of laughs from me, at the very least. This isn’t the Apollo, the odd awkward silence or distastefully joke is to be expected and it’s safe to say there were certainly significant peaks and troughs. However, after a somewhat slow start, things began to pick up, and it was pretty much all uphill from there. There was however a small collection of significant blunders, most of which were, t...

6Dec

By Michele TheilNo Comments

Sports & Socs

Celebrating The Comedy Society

RHUL Comedy Society performed yet another show on Friday December 1 to high praise from the audience, judging by their laughter. It was their third show of the term and was marginally centred around the theme of Christmas and the holiday season. The show was called ‘Celebrating the Birth of Christ’, with the Facebook event espousing that there is “no better way to kick off your advent calendar”, accompanied by a charming poster that has host Archie Brooks-Watson’s face on the body of a baby. We can only assume the baby is meant to be Baby Jesus, bringing this Christmas-themed show full circle. The show itself consisted of 12 performers, including the host, of mixed age, degrees, gender and ethnicity, bringing different perspectives to their humour and to the whole evening. Ewan B...

8Feb

By Michele TheilNo Comments

Sports & Socs

Comedy Society Showcase

Royal Holloway’s Comedy Society is popular for one reason: everyone wants to laugh. There are around 20 regular members of the society as well as many others that attend and perform at specific events, making the eventual number of participants in the Comedy Society uncertain but high. The Santa Isn’t Real event on the 7th of December was a striking representation of what Comedy Society represents their dedication to the “appreciation and performance of comedy”, as the description of the society’s Student Union page states. Several students went up onto the stage at Stumble Out to make jokes, sing songs and perform skits about Christmas and Santa in honour of the season. Stand-up comedy has gained notoriety and recognition in the last few years as an increasing number of stand-up comedi...

22Dec

By Harry BrownNo Comments

Culture & Literature, Film & TV

Hail, Caesar! Review

The Coen Brothers’ Hail, Caesar! is one of their most hilarious, absurd and grand films yet. What the film lacks in emotional depth is more than made up for in laughs and often stunning spectacle. Taking place in 1950’s Hollywood, the film stars Josh Brolin as Eddie Mannix, the man who makes sure everything at fictional studio Capitol Pictures runs smoothly. His day to day work ranges from trying to rescue rumour-ridden star Baird Whitlock (George Clooney) from a kidnapping, to managing the pregnancy of starlet DeeAnna Moran (Scarlett Johansson). While the subject matter could treated as a biopic in other hands, the Coen Brothers inject these stories with a silliness often bordering on parody. It is actually this aspect of the historical period’s depiction which is one of the film’s str...