Oasis’s tour gobbled up Edinburgh audiences while fringe comics put on shows about Britpop and Arctic Monkeys. The music industry and the funny business could be more entwined than ever
‘C
omedy is the new rock’n’roll!” This line, variously attributed to a defunct listings mag, a member of the Comedy Store Players and Janet Street-Porter, became common currency in the 1990s, when comedy gatecrashed arenas with Newman and Baddiel’s maiden Wembley gig in 1993. Had the art of making people laugh eclipsed – in size, public enthusiasm, cultural cachet – the art of making people groove?
It feels like a quaint conversation in light of the arrival of Oasis’s mega-tour in Edinburgh this month, which triggered panic among standups at the gazumping of their fringe audience. But has comedy returned to playing second fiddle to its sexier, better-loved big brother? Or are such distinctions meaningless in a cultural landscape unrecognisable from the 1990s?
There’s certainly no shortage of comedy/rock’n’roll crossovers on the fringe, including Friday Night Dinner star Tom Rosenthal’s show Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I Am. As the title implies, the show compares and contrasts Rosenthal with the Arctic Monkeys – specifically, how both have felt trapped by public perception and expectations of their work. Comedian Marc Burrows, meanwhile, is performing The Britpop Hour, celebrating the cultural moment that Oasis (and indeed Newman and Baddiel) bestrode.
