Corona comedy: Facebook cabaret, gamer gags and a WhatsApp panel show

For Scottish comedian and Love Island narrator Iain Stirling, nothing compares to live standup comedy. “Telling the audience something that you find bizarre or idiosyncratic about your life and psyche, and having a roomful of people going: Ha ha ha! We’re like that as well!” He laughs at the relief it brings. “You go, thank God!”

The coronavirus lockdown means it could be months until standups are able to hear the roar of laughter in comedy clubs again. Meanwhile, many are making the most of online platforms. Stirling, whose UK tour dates have been postponed, is live-streaming to his fans on Twitch, which principally involves chatting about gaming while he plays Fifa. Many of us are only just discovering networks such as Zoom and Houseparty during confinement, but Stirling was an early adopter and uses Twitch when working away from home on Love Island.

“You know in the American local news there’s those articles about the guy from Arizona who has built a zombie apocalypse bunker and everyone’s like, ‘What have you built that for?’” When the worst happens, he says, everyone wants their own bunker. “That’s how I feel about comedy and Twitch.”

Some have subscribed to his channel for so long that “you get to know people and what they’re up to”. He ends sessions with a raid, which sends his viewers to another live channel. “I’ll find someone with fewer than 10 viewers and a decent size webcam. Then I chuck 500-odd people into their chat. Sometimes they’re playing League of Legends with their mates and resent it.” He laughs. “Generally, it’s good.”

It may not be the same as performing to a sold-out comedy crowd but Twitch “scratches the itch” when Stirling is missing standup. His partner, the presenter Laura Whitmore, “has noticed I’ve stopped doing material at her in the kitchen, which is good”.

For some, online comedy offers escapism during confinement. Alexis Strum’s new podcast, The Funny Women Survival Guide, is specifically designed to uplift. Strum introduces herself as a writer and performer, then adds newly discovered roles as home-schooler and hairdresser that will be relatable for many. With subjects in the first episode including being upstaged by your pet on conference calls, she describes her podcast as an attempt “to cheer up the nation”.

Taskmaster’s Alex Horne is challenging the nation with Home Tasking, a series of eccentric assignments – “Throw a piece of paper into a bin spectacularly”, “Make the best dancing elephant” – to keep families entertained. Participants share videos of their attempts and a modest prize is promised. (“Something nice,” says Horne. “Not a car.”)

Standup Philip Simon had gigs and a TV commercial cancelled because of the crisis, so to give himself – and others with kids – “a little focus”, he established School’s Out Comedy Club. Simon invites children to submit jokes, which he says develops their creative writing skills, and he performs them to camera. Some children submit videos of themselves telling gags. The next episode is dedicated to the NHS so “doctor, doctor” jokes are welcome.

Standup Kae Kurd has a nice line in funny videos about stressed dads cutting their kids’ hair and helping with homework. Kurd doesn’t have children – he is in isolation with his brothers – but he has a lot of friends with kids and knows what they are going through. “It’s funny seeing how parents are dealing with this. At first they’re like, ‘The structure is really important.’ After a week, it’s like, ‘Can you just stay in your room and not accidentally stab yourself?’”

Kurd has been prolific at sharing homemade funnies but says standups in the UK haven’t tended to focus on making material specially for online. “We’re similar to New York comics in the sense that we can make a living off gigs. But if you look at comics from LA, they have to work on web series and podcasts, too.” He is sharing videos on social media to build his audience, but it’s also a coping mechanism. Plus, he doesn’t want to be doing material about the lockdown when it’s over and he goes on tour. “I might as well get these ideas out while I can when we’re all going through it. The last thing people will want to hear afterwards is, “Remember corona?’ I can already imagine the jokes: ‘I was self-isolating, which is like The Hunger Games but with my cat …’ Get away from me, man. I don’t want to hear any of that crap.”

Creating viral comedy is “a distinctly different skill” to standup, he says. If he has a good idea, “I just try it and see how people receive it. You will know from the views and engagement levels what works better.” It’s an accelerated process of preparing new material to try at a gig – you can film instantly at home and get an immediate response online.

Viewers are visiting many comedians’ homes during the lockdown. Jayde Adams is hosting a weekly half-hour “couch cabaret” on Facebook Live from her living room (a treasure trove of fabulousness with a plush blue sofa). Her first show included singing sisters Flo & Joan harmonising through isolation, Rose Matafeo doing a Phantom of the Opera number with a pair of glove puppets, and Steve Bugeja’s predictions for life after lockdown. (“Dogs will get excited when we leave for work, not when we get home.”) Adams featured in a sketch imagining the unfortunate effects of Joe Wicks’s stomping exercises for his neighbours. The show was watched by audiences around the world, from Adams’ home town of Bristol to the US, where her Amazon Prime show, Serious Black Jumper, is a hit and led to a surge of interest on TikTok.

Adams says she’s fortunate because, unlike a lot of comedians on the circuit, she has television and radio work, too, and doesn’t rely purely on live shows. She acknowledges that standup online can be very difficult to pull off without an audience in the room because you usually “ride their laughter like a surfer”.

Her cabaret gives a platform to comedians, musicians and dancers who may not otherwise have the technical knowhow to share work and successfully find audiences online. She decided to put together a variety bill for locked-in audiences because that’s the entertainment she remembers watching at home with her family as a child – though you’d imagine that those TV cabaret shows didn’t feature, as hers does, a man named Pudding wearing a gimp suit. Pudding is Adams’ boyfriend, comedian Rich Wilson. They are sharing their home with another comedian, Paul Sweeney, and film and edit the show themselves. The trio also have an online pub quiz and gin club.

Kiri Pritchard-McLean is compering Saturday night gigs on Zoom, with proceeds being split between performers and charity. The lineups combine established names and “gems from the circuit”, with tickets being sold for £2 or £10 if you want a “front row” ticket, which allows you to share your screen and chat to her. She points out that it is a comedy bill curated by a comedian rather than a producer, so her bills will reflect a wider pool of talent from the comedy circuit than a TV producer’s might.

Even BBC regulars such as Have I Got News for You and The Mash Report are bringing together hosts and guests from their lounges and spare rooms. Aspiring comedy producer Andy Ash has been quick to develop his own format, which he describes as “a social distancing panel show with isolated comedians”. WhatsApp’ening is hosted by Mark O’Sullivan from Lee and Dean, and its panelists must separate fact from fiction. The game is played via a WhatsApp group chat and the loser forfeits control of their WhatsApp so the winner can send messages to whoever they like. Episode one featured Stevie Martin (sporting a stylish eyepatch due to an infection), Jacob Hawley, Nic Sampson and Lauren Pattison, who is in lockdown at her childhood home.

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Some of Ash’s guests had Edinburgh fringe shows lined up and he recognises that the festival’s cancellation is an “immeasurable blow” for many comedians. He fears the climate threatens artistic aspirations “particularly if you come from a poorer background”. He says that, as well as donating to funds for freelance creatives, it can also be productive to “invest in something creative and funny”. Ash became involved in comedy production as a way of dealing with grief after his mother died in 2016. “I decided I wanted to be a part of making people happy, bringing laughter to them,” he says. During lockdown, “now more than ever we need something to laugh at, to be joyous about”.

The nimble world of online comedy content, which can be swiftly created, widely shared and is vital as clubs remain closed, could introduce a new wave of comedians to audiences. Ash points to the boom in bedroom music production in the 90s and how it created a revolution. “Maybe this could be a moment for comedy, too. I certainly hope so.”