Finding Our Funny Roots - about the project
Humour is an intrinsic part of the Black Country’s tradition, community and values. Some of the UK’s most celebrated comedians hail from the region. With funding from National Lottery Heritage Fund (during 2019 - 2020) we worked with local spoken word collective Poets, Prattlers, and Pandemonialists to Find Our Funny Roots.
We enlisted a team of local volunteers and our friends at the University of Wolverhampton, to go out and meet people to research stories of the Black Country comedians of the past, such as Tommy Mundon and Dolly Allen, and collect stories of what makes us laugh in the Black Country.
This has helped us to create heritage tribute performances to showcase at our Funny Things Festival of Comedy as well as within residential homes in the area.
We asked artists Barbara Gibson and Marta Kochanek to help put together new videos that bring two of our oral history recordings to life. We hope that you enjoy these funny stories from Brian and Marlene.
You can hear more stories and tales of Black County humour by scrolling down this page.
WATCH: Finding Our Funny Roots films
Poets, Prattlers, and Pandemonialists made a set of films that look at four key areas of Black Country humour that included:
Where the Black Country actually is
Who are the key Black Country comedians
What are the key elements that make up the performance of Black Country comedians
How the Black Country dialect impacts on humour
LISTEN: Hear a selection of our oral history recordings
During 2019 we reached out to people across the Black Country to hear their stories about seeing, hearing, knowing and working with some of the region’s most-loved comedians. We also heard stories about what it is that makes the humour of the area so distinct and its key characteristics. We’ve included extracts from some of the recordings below. The full recordings will be available to listen to at the Wolverhampton Archives in a few months time.
Funny Roots Blog Posts and Articles
In the early part of 2019 we contacted Poets, Prattlers, and Pandemonialists to help co-ordinate our project. Here’s what they said:
Over a year later this became one of the biggest projects PPP have ever undertaken, and took in research, live performances, and videos. Even better, we got to work with some of the region’s most talented people and produce resources which will last long after we are gone.
With a wide ranging brief, we started working together with CBC and their volunteers to research the idea of ‘Humour in the Black Country’ and made a series of vlogs to show what we were doing.
The project was still in its infancy and we weren’t sure exactly how it would look. Purshouse took control of the script, Pottinger kept all the plates spinning and Pitt did technical stuff. We enlisted Alex Vann to do music and sign language; he’s a polymath, after all. Brendan Hawthorne and Billy Spakemon provided further comic relief and invaluable research. Finally, we roped in Paul McDonald and Josianne Boutonnet for the academic take on Black Country humour.
The live performances – which involved quizzes, sing-alongs, and pork scratchings – started coming together. A central part of the brief involved taking the performances to places not associated with theatre and over the next six months, we would take versions of the show to care homes and community groups.
Ahead of these, we had a preview show – for invited guests – in Wolverhampton Art Gallery to launch the Funny Things festival of Black Country Humour. This indicated we had a great show on our hands. The full show, performed to a sell-out crowd at The Arena Theatre as part of that festival, confirmed it.
All three members of PPP learned some sign language (with varying degrees of success) and the show was a true multi-media extravaganza which pushed all of us to produce top-notch work. We had a great deal of positive feedback.
Purshouse and Bren contemplating what they’ve got themselves involved in. Normally, sell-out performances are the climax of projects like this, but not Finding Our Funny Roots. This was just the start. While the show went out to care homes, Pitt got together with Alex Vann, local filmmaker David Williams, and some of the young people at Gazebo theatre to take the research and vibes from the live show and turn them into four short films.
It’s been a fun, hectic, email-bursting, laptop-melting, hilarious journey. We now know everything there is to know about the Sot Nev, and we’ll never forget bad Dolly Allen impersonations or the sign language for ‘National Lottery Heritage Fund’.
Images above taken by Dee Patel at Wolverhampton Art Gallery during the live performance for Funny Things 2019
Thank you to…
Black Country Society - thank you to Andrew Homer (Secretary) and Dr Malcolm Dick (chair), and the late Stan Hill. More Black Country Humour in Tales & Verse is available on their online shop.
Black Country Bugle
National Lottery Heritage Fund
Volunteers: Karen Adcock, Amy Amison, Dr Josiane Boutonnet, Fiona Dye, Elin Lloyd, Julie Nettleship, Mark Willcox, David Williams, Simon Williams, Gazebo Theatre members: Callan, Hannah, Kyle, Scott, Brett and Josh
Oral history participants: Patricia Ball, Valerie Beckley, Peter Bullock, Ed Conduit, Yvonne Cox, Professor Brian Dakin, Jacky Fellows, George Fouracres, John Homer, Paul MacDonald, Doug Parker, Bev Pegg, Dave Preece, Kenneth Rock, Emma Rollason, Reg Summerfield, Marlene Watson, Ned Williams.
Other individuals/organisations:
Poets, Prattlers and Pandemonialists: Emma Purshouse, Dave Pitt and Steve Pottinger
Heidi McIntosh and staff at Wolverhampton City Archives
Dudley Archives And Local History Centre
Alex Vann
Gary O'Dowd
Brendan Hawthorn
Gwendolen Powell
Gazebo Theatre
Talent Match Black Country
Beth Keska-Davis
Pamela Cole-Hudson
