Britannia rules the comedy circuit

A British comedy invasion of America would certainly be something to smile about. As comedy journalist William Cook wryly notes, the last British stand-up to become a superstar in America was Bob Hope.

Since then, it has mostly been one-way traffic - on the stand-up front, at least - with North American comedians a regular feature of the British comedy arena.

Mike Myers was a founder member of the Comedy Store Players, and Greg Proops is a regular at the club; Rich Hall has said he prefers the British scene to America; Bill Hicks was possibly better understood in Britain.

And it's not just the comedians that Britain gets from across the Atlantic.

Don Ward, founder of the Comedy Store, Britain's first dedicated comedy club, says that he got the original idea for the 'comedy room' following a trip to America in 1978, when he witnessed provocative acts performing original, observational material that "had a go at the establishment."

"In 1979, there was nothing like that here," he recalls. "We spawned an entire industry." Early shows were anarchic, dark, and controversial, but as Mr. Ward says, the spectacle of punters shinning up drainpipes to get into his packed venue proved that he was onto something.

"There were queues right around Soho, so I put in an earlier show," he says. "We gradually added other nights during the week, and eventually moved to a bigger place in 1984."

Britain, it turned out, was fertile soil for comedy nights. The nation's wry, sometimes ribald, sense of humor was long evident on film and television. Now the live scene was about to take off.

"In a way, it's a throwback to the music hall of 100 years ago, where people would go out and have drink and food and there would be a show and the basis for the show would be comedy and music," says Ward. "Now, music hall is coming back alive again with the comedy rooms."

The Comedy Store itself grew from a dingy, chaotic 100-seater to a hugely popular 400-capacity club with two sister operations in Manchester and Leeds. Ward says there are plans to open new venues in at least four other cities.

Maria Kempinska, who founded the Jongleurs club 21 years ago, is also reporting booming business, having boosted her number of outlets from eight in 2000 to 17 today.

"We've got 2 million people a year going in," she says. "It's a very profitable business."

Jongleurs alone employs 600 comedians at its venues, and there is never a shortage on talent.

A recent call found 250 volunteers lining up to showcase their material in competition. Young Britons, it seems, no longer aspire exclusively to rock stardom.

"They all want to be Ricky Gervais or Peter Kay," says Mr Ward, mentioning two of Britain's foremost funnymen of the moment.

Comedians are the new celebrities in Britain. Successful performers are ubiquitous, enviable and fascinating, gossip fodder for the tabloids, prime targets for advertisers and moviemakers. Some have their own newspaper columns, others their own TV quiz shows or radio programs, or bestselling books.

And comedy nights are rapidly consolidating their status as one of the most popular ways to spend an evening.

"It's close-up, you feel the interaction, it's quite risky, you really don't know what's going to happen, it's not scripted, and it makes you laugh," says Kempinska. "It's a very exciting medium."

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