MIRTH IN MACHYNLLETH
NOW in its fifth year the Machynlleth Comedy Festival is back, and it’s bigger
and better than ever. Once a year, the small town of Machynlleth throws open the
doors of every building resembling a venue – including the Machynlleth Bowling
Club, a rag and bone shop, the Museum of Modern Art Wales and a garden shed
– and allows performers and audiences to collide in intimate and unforgettable
settings across town.
The key to the festival’s success and steadily growing reputation, apart from the
beautifully idyllic location, is that organisers of the festival go for comedians who
may not necessarily have two million followers on Twitter and their own chat
show on BBC1. Instead these performers bring something completely fresh and
different to the table.
The majority of artists who perform here have been chosen because they are less
concerned with chasing the ratings and more concerned with challenging the
audience and actually being, well, funny. Would you rather see Russell Howard
giggling about something anyone with access to the internet saw last year, or Nick
Helm literally scream his audience into submission? Jack Whitehall chortle about
how he went to private school with Robert Pattinson, or a panel show co-hosted
by a 7ft Romanian robot called Charles Petrescu? If your answers were the former,
probably best to wait for the comedy tent at Reading Festival in August.
Even without the big arena-tour-selling names, there are still some major draws
for comedy fans at Machynlleth. Along with the plentiful amount of amazing
sounding shows from smaller comics, there are such cult favourites as Richard
Herring, Josie Long, Stewart Lee and Robin Ince, along with must see comics
such as Tony Law bringing his beautifully indecipherable ‘‘shouty bollocks’’ (his
words) to the town and the aforementioned Nick Helm bringing his blistering live
song and dance show Heavy Entertainment, which takes audience participation
to an uncomfortable degree.
With such a good selection of performers in such a great location, what more
could you ask for? Oh right, music curated by Sweet Baboo, and copious amounts
of food and drink stalls. Perfect. STEPHEN SPRINGATE
Machynlleth Comedy Festival, Fri 2-Sun 4 May. Tickets: £6-£12 per
show. Info: www.machcomedyfest.co.uk
HAPPY DAYS
WITH HEIDI
HAPPY Days The Musical. It seems like such an obvious idea when you think of it:
making a musical out of the original jukebox drama couldn’t be any more natural.
The show also has former Sugababes star Heidi Range taking on the role of the
famous Fonzie’s love interest Pinky.
“I’m too young to have been around when Happy Days was on,” she explains,
“but it’s one of those shows that was always on when you were growing up. It was
a really nice show to watch.”
The experience of the stage is a welcome change from touring with her band. “The
thing I love about this is that I get to sing whole songs, when I was in Sugababes
you just get a verse or a middle bit.”
Heidi describes her character as being “a bit like a female version of the Fonz, in
the sense that she’s a bit older than the other kids. They look up to Pinky. She’s
quite fancy, she rides motorbikes, and she puts Fonzie in his place. She’s probably
the only one who can.”
But the cast themselves, including Heidi, were rather less able to resist the
charms of the original Fonz, Henry Winkler, who worked on the production.
“Everyone got starstruck. We were all sat in the green room and he just popped
his head in the door and said ‘hi’. Everyone just went really quiet.”
Pinky is fleshed out hugely from the original character that appeared in only three
episodes of the TV sitcom, and Heidi has had the chance to make Pinky her own:
“I think she’s got sassier since the beginning,” she says. Heidi has been keeping
things sassy behind the scenes, too. Her pug, Betty, has become “the tour mascot.
All the cast keep popping into my dressing room to see her. She cheers people
up and she comes everywhere, even after the show when we all go to the pub for
drinks.” LUKE WEBBER
Happy Days, New Theatre, Cardiff, Tues 29 Apr-Sat 3 May. Tickets:
£9.50-£32. Info: 029 2087 8889 /www.newtheatrecardiff.co.uk
pic: PAUL COLTAS