GLASGOW COMEDY FESTIVAL
PREACHER MAN Jay Richardson speaks to ingenious comedian Sanderson Jones as he strives to bring his atheist church services to Glasgow
S anderson Jones is one of stand-up’s great innovators, an irrepressible ideas man. Over a predictably faltering Skype connection, the strikingly tall, bearded, sometime face of the IKEA ads, admits to occasional gremlins during a tech-comedy gig the night before. Jones is also currently developing his own app for Facebook to better engage with audiences. He can’t divulge any more though, as ‘it’s very much in the beta stage’.
This has been a busy month for a comedian whose tinkering with temperamental technology and commitment to a routine about civil liberties used to provoke police interest, but which lately has seen him debate religion in The New York Times. What began as a discussion with fellow comic Pippa Evans en route to a gig, about reconciling their enjoyment of ritual, music and church architecture with their lack of religious faith, has become the Sunday Assembly, prompting a flurry of column inches on the merits of atheism. Their services – featuring scientific lectures on life’s wonders, comedy, cups of tea and singalongs of ‘Superstition’ and ‘Don’t Look Back in Anger’ – have been packed. More than 130 people have been in touch about launching assemblies elsewhere in the UK, and there are plans to mobilise this congregation of the godless, in a manner reminiscent of Dundonian novelist and comedy producer Danny Wallace’s Karma Army. ‘We’re talking to people about getting charitable status and we absolutely want to get organised and are striving to help others,’ Jones explains. ‘We’re just trying to work out how to expand so that people have a sense of freedom while we retain a degree of control from the centre. We can’t have a Sunday Assembly somewhere endorsing child sacrifice.’
Currently seeking a Glasgow church for Easter Sunday to host the first assembly outside of London, Jones is also planning two performances of his ingenious Comedy Sale. Selling each ticket by hand, with no phone or internet purchases and each show specifically tailored to those audience members he meets on the street, the Anglo-Scot and former salesman is hoping to encounter all kinds of punters when he arrives a week early to drum up trade. Featuring such delights as a ‘Cock Hunter’ trawl through Chat Roulette, the show has already sold out in London, Sydney and Edinburgh. You can have Jones deliver a ticket to you direct by contacting him via Twitter (@sandersonjones) or at comedysale.com.
Sanderson Jones: Comedy Sale, Blackfriars, Glasgow, Tue 26, Sat 30 Mar.
10 YEARS OF TOMFOOLERY
2003 The very first festival opens with Daniel Kitson on the same night the Iraq War starts. Kitson is delayed getting to the show as the centre of Glasgow is brought to a standstill by anti-war protests. The pilot festival sells about 20,000 tickets and is judged a success. 2004 35,000 tickets go on sale with headliners including Al Murray, Dylan Moran and Jimmy Carr. Johnny Vegas does a secret gig at The Stand and performs the second half of his show from inside a wheelie bin commandeered from a neighbour’s garden. Promotional activity in Central Station is cancelled after Raymond Mearns announces that there’s a jobby on the line.
14 THE LIST 21 Feb–21 Mar 2013
2005 We’re up to 50,000 tickets and get our first big international headliner in the shape of comedy diva Joan Rivers. 2006 There’s chaos and cancellations as the first weekend gets a record snowfall. Kevin Bridges performs his first ever solo show at Universal and sells 61 tickets.
2007 Russell Brand uses the longest mic lead I have ever ad I have ever seen to wander through the er through the audience at The Academy. he Academy. Kitson previews his storytelling ws his storytelling show at Uisge Beatha with e Beatha with the audience having to carry having to carry their own chairs across the rs across the street from The Stand. Joan e Stand. Joan Rivers once again performs gain performs here despite having acute having acute food poisoning and running g and running off stage to be sick. e sick.