The Alternative Reality Tour – Guerrilla Comedy Siege on Bedford Castle
3pm – A rumour that Josie Long is bringing her guerrilla comedy tour to Bedford
5.45pm – The venue is announced: the little door behind the castle mound
7pm – A small crowd gather under a light in the park behind the castle mound, sitting on a tarpaulin hastily laid out over the ivy. Josie dances to Milkshake on her iphone while they wait for the remaining performers to arrive.
Her enthusiasm is infectious, and I suspect it is the glue that is holding this tour together. An idea born from frustration and anger at the coalition government, Josie has been leading a small group of comedians and musicians around the country in a hire van with nothing but a back drop, to perform for free in the more backwoods, forgotten and undesirable places around the UK; Margate, Sheppey, East Bergholt, Leicester and Milton Keynes so far.
So while we are excited that they’ve chosen Bedford to land in for the night, there is also a tinge of dented pride to be added to the list of disenfranchised towns. “There are no shit-holes!” – damn right. As Josie says on her blog: “I hate it when people slag off places as dumps. These are communities where people live and deserve the best. We want to bring them something magical” and “it is our collective problem and our duty and mission to change that for the better.” It seems to me that a growing number of people already feel this way in Bedford so it’s heartening to read.
The 90 minute show is exciting, chaotic and ramshackle in the best possible way. It is free and immediate, there’s nothing to prove and everything to gain. A teenager shouts “is this comedy?” after Alan Parker’s set, and you realise it was a genuine question rather than a heckle as they’ve stumbled on the gathering by accident and don’t know what’s happening. They stick around for Grace Petrie and shuffle off after Tiernan Douieb bemused but not unimpressed “that was actually pretty cool”.
The line-up tonight consists of protest singer Grace Petrie, Bromham’s own comedy genius Simon Munnery in his Alan Parker – Urban Warrior character, Tiernan Douieb, Nathaniel Tapley as Sir Ian Bowler, and Josie Long, who comperes and wraps up the night with her own frenetic stand up.
We sit and we listen and laugh and drink the beers that we’d bought with us and a couple of times I think to myself: “I’m sitting on the floor in the park in Bedford watching good comedy for free on a weeknight in October when I’d been expecting to just go home and eat my tea and watch some telly, this is great!” And my local pride is restored when Josie Long asks what Bedford ‘s like and we all agree it’s pretty good really.
Though it’s not laid on too thick throughout the night, there is a political agenda here. The ethos of the tour itself is a defiance against austerity, and seeks to prove that not everything is motivated by money. Josie talks passionately about the governments’ ruthless stripping of public funds and services, and I doubt there is anyone listening who hasn’t been affected in some way, relatively privileged though most of us are.
And with that, it could be argued there is some futility in preaching to the converted like this, the gigs are mostly promoted on twitter, where the demographic is largely liberal middle classes. But the aim here seems to be more to motivate those who already do care into saying or doing something to help change the situation, to promote a sense of responsibility and community that is separate from Cameron’s ‘big society’, and of course, to have fun and offer some light relief from the bleak stories in the press. I think they’re doing a good job.
So, after a great evening, we help pack up the tarpaulin and stroll home. And with the recent surge in culture and community in Bedford I’m happy that it feels more like another great thing in Bedford than the oasis of culture and excitement the performers were possibly expecting.
Read more about the tour on their website: www.alternativerealitytour.com
