Caves, campervans and comedy: the life of a Notts comedy promoter

So, comedy in caves. Why caves?

Ian: Because it's in a cave, simple answer. We’ve had several, and at one point had 13 venues, but we wanted something a little more intriguing. We like unique venues. And a PR girl working for us, sent me some pictures of this cave. I couldn't get there quick enough. It's an amazing venue. It's a very large cave, holding over a hundred people. Rob, the guy who owns it, he's a builder, and made it nice and secure. He built a new wall down the middle and put a bar in. A really nice bar, so you don't have to go upstairs to get a drink. He's left some of the old stuff in there, so there's weird lift machinery, and weird holes that you can look up and wonder where they go. It's a really iconic venue.

The cave is within the Whistle and Flute pub itself.  You go down some steps, and it opens up into the caves. That's a nice experience, because you're walking down the steps thinking what's it going to be like? And you get there and it's a really nice place. Heated as well. And aircon.

What kind of acts can we see there?

Ian: All sorts of acts. It's generally a pro night. We run it on the first Friday of every month. We've had Scott Bennett. We've had some really, really big names. In fact, we've got Phil Walker tonight, who is Roy Walker's son, so that's going to be a good one. And on Monday, we've got Joe Kent-Walters as Frankie Monroe. He won the Best Newcomer Award at the Edinburgh Festival this year. And the BBC New Comedy Award, where you might’ve seen him on telly. So, that's going to be a great.

You also run something called Beat the Bat?

Ian: Yeah, we have 15 acts coming along, all of them trying to do a full five minutes of material. But if the audience doesn't like them, they can vote them off. It's Batman themed. So, acts come on, start their material for a minute and a half, I'll shine the light, and then five pre-chosen judges in the audience hold up a red or a green card with pow or zap written on it. If the majority are red, that act has to leave the stage immediately. And if the Batman music plays, they know it's time to go. It's all very light-hearted. Always good fun. It's a really friendly atmosphere, and everybody's having a good laugh. There’s a prize, a £50 trophy, well worth winning.

Any other highlights coming up? 

Ian: We’re taking part in the Nottingham Comedy Festival again this year, with six shows in total. As well as Phil Walker, Frankie and Beat the Bat, we have three split shows. The first one being Border Lines, which is Hussein Ali and Alex Krekan. They’re a real-life couple talking about the difficulties of living in England, but also the difficulties of living together. They come from very different cultures. Hussein is Muslim. Alex is Romanian. So, the culture clashes in living together and with their families, etc. It's a great show, and they're both very candid about their relationship. I think the best-named show in a whole festival is Only Fans and Horses. That’s Dave Flynn and Jamie Douglas, two great comedians. Straight after that, we've got Feral and Fearless presents, which is Gill Gee and Mel Judson coming down from up north. Again, they're best friends. Lots of jokes between each other. Crowd work of exception. Again, that's going to be really good show. So that's six shows in the Festival, and they're all absolutely fantastic.

What's your role in all of this?

Ian: I started doing stand-up in 2022, something I'd always wanted to do. I'd got to 55 years old, and thought, time to give it a go. Did five minutes. Loved it. But it's difficult to get spots as a new starter. So, I started a night of my own at a local pub. And I thought, I can invite comedians to perform there and maybe they’d invite me back. It was a slightly manipulative tactic. But what I found is, after a previous career as a project manager for 30 years, events planning was second nature to me. I started shopping around, looking at other venues, and found I was good at it. 

But we’re an ethical promotions company. Within the comedy industry there’s a standard where newer acts aren't paid. I didn't think that was right. While we might not make quite as much money, every act that appears for us gets paid. We always give them a free drink as well. At the Whistle and Flute, we actually get them free pizza. In fact, at Beat the Bat the audience gets as much free popcorn as they want. It's another bonus to our gigs.

But yeah, that's our history. We built it and built it and built it. And I think we've got a really good reputation. We have big professional acts saying: Please, can I play the caves?

Tell us a bit more about your comedy. 

Ian: I started stand-up in March 22. Absolutely loved it. Whether it's the narcissistic side of me wanting to be centre of attention, I'm not sure, but I absolutely love it. It's been a wonderful journey. There’s a lot of industries with a lot of toxic people, but the comedy world seems to be such an incredible community. It's astonishing. I've made some of my very best friends on the comedy circuit. Everybody supports everybody else. If you have a bad gig, people support you. You have a good gig, they’ll compliment you. They'll help you with punchlines. And I've got to the stage now where I'm doing wonderful middle spots. I've performed all over the country, and that's been nice. Traveling and seeing different pubs and meeting different people. It's a really, really good thing to do.

I recently did the Tribfest near Driffield. We've got a camper van, which I'm sitting in at the moment, and we take the camper down and park right next to the main performance ring. So, we're right in the middle of it all. We're right next to the comedy tent, and all the acts that are there go to all the shows and interact with the audiences. It's a lovely atmosphere. Some great people on the circuit.

As a comedian, what would you say are the emerging trends in comedy right now?

Ian: The surreal is making a big comeback. You look back at Vic and Bob in the old days and Mighty Boosh, etc, and that faded away. But there is a big comeback now. A prime example being Joe Kent-Walters, he appears in a big black wig, a massive shoulder pad jacket, and his face covered in Sudocrem. He comes on stage backwards, then reveals his face to the audience. Very surreal. I've seen it five times, and each time I've hardly been able to breathe by the end. It's an astonishing show.

As a comedy promoter yourself, what advice would you give young people wanting to get into stand-up?

Ian: Okay, when you go to a comedy show, there’s always a promoter running the show. Just have a quiet word with them. Ask if they've got any spots that you could do. One service we provide, if anybody asks that, is we tell them to write five minutes of material themselves. And then we'll invite them to the next show. But before the show starts, just them and us will sit, and we’ll put them on stage with a microphone, and we'll sit in the audience, and they'll do their five minutes, then we'll give them immediate feedback. You can't say that, it's best if you word this differently, etc. And we'll work with them for as long as they need. Multiple times if they need to. Until they reach the point where they're going to be okay on stage. They're not going to die. They're going to have a good time. We'll teach them some microphone technique. Explain how to come onstage, how to talk to the audience, how to handle any hecklers, etc. We do all that. And we put them on for five minutes, we put them on 10 minutes, and eventually 15 minutes and then move them onto bigger venues.

So, my advice to anybody is to just do it. I wanted to do it from being a teenager, but left it far too late. Get in there early. If you want to do it, have a go. If you don't like it, that's fair enough, but you might find that you want to do it for the rest of your life. 

So, you're really nurturing the next generation of talent?

Ian: Absolutely. I'll give you an example. Alex Mitchell, who made the final of Britain's Got Talent this year. He did his first paid gig for us. He was very young, very new, and we saw him, I think in Sheffield. And I thought he’s got talent. We'll put him on, paid him, and he's progressed over the last two years to appearing on national television.

Yeah, there’d a lot of talent there and we really want to do what we can to bring them on in the industry.

Ian Whitcombe Comedy has six acts in the 2024 Nottingham Comedy Festival as well as ongoing regular comedy nights around the county.