Commoners’ Comedy, which puts on regular comedy nights in the Cambridge area (mainly at the Thrive café on Norfolk Street, though that is soon to change), is run by Ali Warwood and Harriet Wells-Martin, “two mental health nurses trying to make the world a happier place”.
They’ve also helped to organise this week’s Cambridge Fringe Festival with Big Deal Comedy, taking place at seven venues across the city.
West Midlands-born Ali is a stand-up herself, having performed all over the UK since 2013, while Harriet, who is originally from Essex, works as creative director and is also head of Commoners’ digital marketing.
We put some questions to the pair.
Tell us a bit about how Commoners’ Comedy came about, how long it's been running and where the name came from.
Harriet (H): Commoners’ Comedy started in 2014 at the Corner House pub. Ali started it up because she was a beginner doing stand-up and was driving far and wide to perform so thought she would create her own local platform.
Ali, how did you first get in to performing stand-up? Harriet, is it something you've tried yourself?
Ali (A): I got into it because I’d been a massive fan of stand-up when I lived in London, regularly going to independent clubs like Up the Creek, The Hob in Forest Hill, The Funny Side, Backyard Bar.
I’d been to Edinburgh Fringe a few times and had seen some very raw, work-in-progress shows and thought “I could do that”. I had recently moved to Cambridge, had no friends and thought a new hobby would be good for me.
H: Not sure it’s for me. Ali makes me go up and introduce her sometimes and that’s probably enough stage time for me! I’ll leave it to the professionals.
What have been some of the most memorable Commoners’ Comedy events/performers that you’ve hosted?
H: I think my most memorable was a couple of months ago where we had Lindsey Santoro headlining.
She was absolutely brilliant, obviously, but the other acts we had on the bill – Kevin Daniels, Dylan Dodds and John Pape, I have to say, John Pape did his first 10 minutes with us at Commoners’ and it was probably one of the best sets I’d ever seen. I could watch him for hours, he’s definitely one to watch out for.
A: My favourite night to run is our monthly club at Thrive, which will soon be moving.
I love it because we have some comedy connoisseur regulars and I love hearing what they think of each act and who they enjoy the most.
Also now running the gig with Harriet is so much more enjoyable because we can stress out together about it and celebrate together on the night.
However, my most memorable was when we put on a comedy night for International Nurse’s Day at our NHS trust.
The acts were amazing but I compered and ripped it out of our bosses which was both hilarious and kind of awkward. Would have done it all again if we had the chance!
One of our most memorable gigs from the old days was having Mrs Barbara Nice headline and it was the night of the Brexit result.
Most people were remainers in the audience and she just cheered us all up – I will never forget it.
Other memorable gigs have been a corporate show we did for Monavate at their AGM during the daytime. I was dreading it but they were all really receptive and up for it.
We’ve also brought a show to Cambridge Pride for the past three years, which has been great fun arranging an LGBT-specific line up.
Who are your favourite stand-ups and who is 'on your radar' for future events?
H: We’ve got to be careful here! But I really enjoy the physical comedy and slightly off-the-wall stuff so Sam Campbell and Jordan Brookes are definitely up there.
Sophie Duker and Felicity Ward just make me cry laughing every time I see them. We’ve had three of them at Commoners’ so just need Sam Campbell to get down here!
As for the wish list, there are so many! Emmanuel Sonubi, Christopher Hall, Judi Love, Fatiha El-Ghorri… the list is endless.
A: My favourite stand-up is Eleanor Tiernan; she is so understated but has played our club a few times. I cry with laughter every time I see her.
I also love Scott Bennett; he is so funny it’s actually tiring to watch him because of laughing so much. I’d love to get Jeff Innocent at our club, I also love Zoe Lyons too.
What do you both enjoy most about running Commoners’ Comedy? What are the hardest aspects of the job?
H: The best part for me is standing at the back of a venue and watching the audience have the best time.
I love the variety of acts we get through the door and it is brilliant to see people who have performed early on in their careers going on to do great things.
The hardest thing about running Commoners’? Doing our day jobs?! (We’re both mental health nurses). It is a lot of work putting on these events and there aren’t enough hours in the day but we do it because we love it.
A: I love it when the acts and the audience – and we – all have a great time.
A lot of acts have really interesting perspectives on the world so we are sometimes learning really cool stuff as well as having fun and sometimes they are just so silly and ridiculous – it’s incredible what a range of styles there are in comedy.
And I love noticing my own tastes and other people’s tastes. I heard an interview with comedian Paul Currie where he said that comedy preferences and tastes are like music taste so people aren’t going to like everything which really helps me when my performances bomb!
The hardest part is all the admin, also I feel bad if I’m stressed about comedy and am preoccupied when playing with my kids. However, I think it’s good to be mums that have exciting hobbies.
I weirdly love it when acts pull out and we have the thrill of having to find a replacement last-minute. We always pull it off but it’s really stressful and Harriet hates it.
What do you make of the current state of the UK comedy scene?
H: I think we’re really lucky to have such a broad range of comedy in the UK so it is dreamy to have such an incredible talent pool to choose from.
We are conscious that we want our line-ups to be as diverse as possible (sometimes less easy as there are a lot of white male comics to choose from), so we really try to make sure there is something for everyone at Commoners’.
A: As promoters we are in a really fortunate position that there is so much amazing talent on the UK scene that it’s really easy to create a banging line-up.
Putting the line-ups together is actually quite easy because there are loads of acts who all want stage time. Also we’re lucky in Cambridge because there’s a big appetite for comedy in this city so our comedy scene is really good.
Comedians tell me they love to play Cambridge because audiences are respectful and engaged and are mostly proper comedy fans so I suppose it’s good to be appreciated.
What are your plans for the future of Commoners’ Comedy?
A: Our club night is moving! We can’t say too much at this stage, but it is a very exciting time for Commoners’.
It’s bittersweet to leave Thrive as it has been our home for the last two years but it’s time to move to a bigger venue as the shows sell out every month and we want to be able to sell more tickets and bring brilliant comedy to even more people!
H: We have a lot of really exciting plans in the pipeline – new venues and brilliant line-ups… It is non-stop at the moment so stay tuned on lots of exciting Commoners’ announcements.
[Read more: *[*Top names in comedy to appear at this year’s Cambridge Fringe Festival*](https://premium.cambridgeindependent.co.uk/whats-on/top-names-in-comedy-to-appear-at-this-year-s-cambridge-fring-9366803/), Leanne Clarke of Big Deal Comedy: ‘There’s not many jobs you can just laugh through’]*
To find out more about Commoners’ Comedy, and to see what events they have coming up, visit commonerscomedy.co.uk.
For more on this week’s Cambridge Fringe Festival, which the Commoners’ are organising with Big Deal Comedy, see page 39 and visit cambridgefringe.co.uk.
