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Place and the Production of Comedy Culture

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Place and the Production of Comedy Culture View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by University of Birmingham Research Archive, E-theses Repository School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences University of Birmingham ‘You had to be there…’: Place and the production of comedy culture Name: Phil Emmerson Submitted in accordance with requirements for MRes in Human Geography I confirm that the number of words is 19,985 excluding abstract, acknowledgements, table of contents, tables, figures, reference list, appendices and quotations from primary data I declare that this piece of work is all my own, and that any work by others has been acknowledged ………..………………………….. 23/01/2015 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. Abstract Abstract Comedy is an art form that has been both under theorised and studied by geographers despite the many affirmations of its usefulness to those with an interest in culture (Mintz, 1985). Live stand-up comedy in particular forms a useful epistemological means to theorise links between art, space and place due to the fact that it is both produced and received in the same moment, rather than being mediated between these events. Through an extensive ethnographic encounter with the field of stand-up comedy in the West Midlands, UK, this project thus explores the geographical implications surrounding the production of live stand-up comedy at a number of different scales. Focusing primarily on theories from Bourdieu, Butler and Deleuze and their subsidiaries - it looks at multiple aspects of the production of comedy, including: the positioning of actors within the field, creation and performance of ‘material’, and the staging of comedy shows. In doing this it highlights the often hidden power relations that are involved with producing comedy and asserts the importance of both affect and place within these relationships. i Acknowledgements Acknowledgements Firstly I would like to thank my supervisors for this project: Pat Noxolo, Phil Jones and Lloyd Jenkins. Your interest, help and guidance has been very much appreciated and I think it’s fair to say that this would have been a much more daunting task without you. I much also thank all of my participants for providing interesting conversations as well as experiences that I will never forget. Special thanks to Andy and Janice who have given more than I could have ever asked for; and to James for guiding me onto the stage. I would finally like to thank my family, friends and particularly Becky for being there to listen to me, offer support and provide your own forms of comedy to make me laugh when times were tough. I wish you all the best with your own future projects and will endeavour to help wherever I can. ii Table of Contents Table of Contents Abstract ......................................................................................................................i Acknowledgements .................................................................................................... ii Table of Contents ...................................................................................................... iii Table of Figures .......................................................................................................... v Introduction ............................................................................................................... 1 The cultures of stand-up comedy ................................................................................... 1 A geographical approach to comedy .............................................................................. 3 Aims and objectives ........................................................................................................ 4 Structure ......................................................................................................................... 4 Literature Review ....................................................................................................... 6 Humour into Culture ....................................................................................................... 6 Producing Comedy Cultures............................................................................................ 9 Performing the production of culture........................................................................... 16 Making Connections ..................................................................................................... 25 Methodology ........................................................................................................... 34 Theoretical Approach .................................................................................................... 34 Research Design ............................................................................................................ 36 Situating the Project ..................................................................................................... 42 Positionality .................................................................................................................. 45 iii Table of Contents Ethics ............................................................................................................................. 46 Analysis ................................................................................................................... 47 Understanding the comedy Field .................................................................................. 47 Power and Performance ............................................................................................... 59 Funny Places.................................................................................................................. 69 Discussion ................................................................................................................ 82 Place Matters ................................................................................................................ 82 Towards an Aesthetics of Affect ................................................................................... 84 Conclusions .............................................................................................................. 87 Overview ....................................................................................................................... 87 Scope for further research ............................................................................................ 89 References ............................................................................................................... 91 Appendices ............................................................................................................ 106 iv Table of Figures Table of Figures Figure 1: The field of cultural production in the field of power and social space ............ 12 Figure 2: Changing Field of Cultural Production (UK comedy) ......................................... 13 Figure 3: A 1950s comic postcard ..................................................................................... 22 Figure 4: A description of the different modes of research and how they contribute to the project .............................................................................................................. 38 Figure 5: The author performing stand-up at The REP, Birmingham, in September 2014 .......................................................................................................................... 39 Figure 6: List of named Participants ................................................................................. 40 Figure 7: Extract from the interview with Holly ............................................................... 42 Figure 8: Distribution of sites of study within the West Midlands (Excluding the Evesham location) ............................................................................................................ 44 Figure 9: The field of Stand-up comedy inserted into a simplified version of Bourdieu's conception. The potential career trajectories are marked with arrows .......... 49 Figure 10: The poster for Chris's show 'Pretty Fly' as displayed for the Adelaide Fringe Festival .............................................................................................................. 69 Figure 11: Poster from the Kings of Comedy event at Mode comedy club in Worcester. 71 Figure 12: Jenny Collier's tweet following her being removed from a gig due to 'too many women' being on the bill .................................................................................. 72 v Introduction Introduction “While, at its simplest, comedy is indeed entertainment; it can also be an art form that does more than just elicit laughter. It makes a statement. It touches people emotionally. It reaches hearts and minds, and changes both. It changes the world we live in. Whether for good or ill, one never can tell, but the
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