Yawp Mag ISSUE 21: Producers of Comedy | Page 12

Lisa Dib Puggs in Space Lisa Dib and Angela Thompson run the very successful ‘Puggs in Space’, a weekly comedy night at The Imperial Hotel in Melbourne. Dib how to run a successful room, that boasts a great new lineup every week, as well as how she produces shows for the comedy festival. When asked how she got into producing comedy, Dib explains that she used to work in the music industry and has been putting on shows for a number of years. She soon realised that she also loved producing comedy shows, and so ‘Puggs in Space’ was born. Dib also produced two acts in the recent Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Martin Dunlop’s ‘Begs His God for Forgiveness’ and Beau Stegmann’s ‘Here’s Looking at Me’, which “both came about fairly serendipitously, where it was like ‘I need a producer’, ‘I can do that!’”, she explains. Lisa admires the comedians she produces and says that, “they’re really good at the creative side and not as good at the admin stuff”, which is where she steps in the lend a hand. “And that’s totally understandable”, she smiles, “because admin can just get super confusing and super overwhelming if you don’t like doing it or if you haven’t done it a lot before. Most comedians, especially when they’re just starting to do comedy in a professional way, aren’t used to do things like how to deal with ticketing and registration.” Dib is very humble and admits that she is always learning; she enjoys producing and as such, she’s forced herself to do it better. Dib credits her ‘Puggs in Space’ partner Angela Thompson for much of what she has learned and continues to learn; “she is much better at this than me, she has probably a million more acts to deal with than I do and she’s been doing it for a lot longer and she’s got degrees in this sort of thing. I’ve been learning a lot from her”. admitting that she doesn’t play any musical instruments or speak any other languages, so “it’s nice to have something to put in your own little personal repertoire. I know how to produce a thing! Go me!” she chuckles. “It’s not very lucrative, but it is fun.”