Character Comedy Masterclass with Gareth Joyner
Showtown and Queer Amusements present this peek behind the process of realising your very own character comedy creations with comedian and art-school dropout Gareth Joyner.
Spend the day exploring the process of developing comedy characters from the ground up whist discovering how drag and gender-play can enhance an act. Learn the basics of connecting with an audience in live performance and discuss the long history and traditions in which these art forms exist.
Fun for seasoned pros and absolute beginners alike with a lovely lunch included!
Recommend for ages 18+
A little about Gareth…
Gareth Joyner is a writer and character comedian who likes to explore being northern, working class and queer, and how those subjects manifest themselves in the heady world of light entertainment. Incorporating both drag and clowning in their practice, Gareth is perhaps best known for their work with registered empath Myra DuBois and (to a lesser extent) the last straight man in showbiz: Frank Lavender.
Gareth has performed with Myra DuBois and Frank Lavender on television, in film and on stages both nationally and internationally with sold out tours around the UK, as well as lighting up social media with hilarious viral videos, and packing out London’s notorious Royal Vauxhall Tavern with Myra’s weekly smash hit residency.
Recently, following a performance of both Frank Lavender and Myra DuBois, an academic type described Gareth as an “artist using two wonderfully distorted poles on a binary to thoroughly interrogate current queer discourses using popular forms” and frankly, Gareth Joyner couldn’t think of a better way to describe their work. Which really, is quite a damning indictment of their ability as a writer.
