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91Èȱ¬ Northern Ireland Comedy
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There's no business like the funny business
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Jackie Hamilton,
Executive Producer, Comedy Unit,
91Èȱ¬ Northern Ireland, writes
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"'The funny business' - a throwaway line often used to
describe the silliness of the world in which my team and I
work.
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"However, to succeed in providing audiences with
relevant shows which stand the test of time, we must get
both the 'funny' and the 'business' right.
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"Much of the past two years - since the birth of the Comedy Unit - has
been about ensuring that we are the first port of call for emerging
and established comedy talent when it comes to talking about their
new ideas.
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"We like to think of ourselves as a hub which offers support, guidance
and direction to talent, based on an understanding of the different
kinds of comedy which we believe our audience likes.
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"Just like audiences, comedy talent comes in all forms: the lone writer,
the stand up comedian, the ensemble, the complete unknown and
the household name.
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"While bearing in mind the varied tastes of our
audiences when making our decisions, we recognise that each of
these talents requires a different type of opportunity to help them
grow and flourish.
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"The Comedy Unit recently seized the opportunity to showcase
Irish comedy talent by staging and filming three shows called One
Night Stand at the Belfast Festival at Queen's.
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"These shows featured
23 comedians from both Northern Ireland and the Republic of
Ireland. Many relative newcomers to television, such as Maeve
Higgins, John Colleary, John Lynn, Rachael McCabe and Neil Dougan shared the limelight with more established comedians such as Kevin
McAleer, Owen O'Neill and Michael Smiley.
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"These programmes,
hosted by Jake O'Kane, will broadcast in March.
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"With our extended family of writers and performers, my team and
I within the Comedy Unit have been busy developing and piloting
new formats and ideas for radio, television and new media.
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"Narrative comedy – written comedy that doesn't just fall into the
sitcom or sketch show categories - has been a priority as we look
to find comedy formats of the future.
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"'10 X 10 Funnies' is a writing initiative in which we invited more
than 40 emerging and established local writers to submit outlines
for new sitcoms.
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"Ten of these submissions will be developed into 10-minute comedies
which will be broadcast on 91Èȱ¬ Radio Ulster.
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"Who knows, maybe
in the future one of those short comedies will have the same impact
as Give My Head Peace?
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"An early success for the Comedy Unit has been The Blame Game on 91Èȱ¬ Radio Ulster. This comedy panel show, which features both
established and rising comedy talent as they lampoon the week's
news and current affairs, will soon be seen on 91Èȱ¬ ONE NI in
January.
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"Looking after established talent and brands is also a key task of the
Comedy Unit. Indeed, Folks On The Hill and Give My Head Peace
are hugely popular with families in Northern Ireland and continue
to attract large audiences.
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"This year will see the launch of Dry Your Eyes, a new six-part, 30-minute 91Èȱ¬ ONE NI comedy sketch series with The Hole In The
Wall Gang - the team behind Give My Head Peace.
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"This series shows
a 'Norn Iron' with all the unique characters that make this place
special and features new writing and performing talent.
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"As well as launching some of our new shows in 2006, we will continue
to develop new talent and experiment with new ideas and formats.
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"Evidence of this will be heard around April Fools, which provides us
with an appropriate opportunity to experiment when we let our
comedians take the helm at 91Èȱ¬ Radio Ulster.
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"Colin Murphy and a host of other talent will have the station all to
themselves in I Can't Believe It's Not Radio Ulster.
Irreverence and humour will be the buzzwords of the day as we
adjust the tone and personality of the station with some shows
that will hopefully prove to be a success for the audience, the
comedians and writers and 91Èȱ¬ Northern Ireland.
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"Finally, presenting Irish talent on the national stage is a natural
progression for the 91Èȱ¬ Northern Ireland Comedy Unit and we
currently have three scripts in development with our network
colleagues at 91Èȱ¬ ONE and 91Èȱ¬ THREE.
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"It's a funny old business, the funny business, but with our audience
at the heart of everything we do and our ambition to help develop
talent, we are determined to get big memorable laughs."
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