Liverpool’s comedy festival this year stages the premiere of a film showing how it has earned its Capital of Comedy title.
The film Why Are We funny?’, made by the year-long Young Roots Why We Are Funny project, includes interviews with famous local comedians such as Micky Finn and John Bishop, as well as members of the public.
The project is run by graduates of the Stand Out comedy course, who produced the film with the help of the city’s Records Office, Liverpool John Moores University and the North West Film Archive.
The film looks at the roots of Liverpudlian humour and comedy.
Comedy Trust director Sam Avery said: “It’s about why Liverpool is a funny city, and what kind of influence Liverpool humour and the Scouse mentality has had over the years.
“A couple of things that keep coming up is the feeling that the city isn’t really part of Britain, and that through hard times, humour has helped keep us going,”
Sam has worked with the teenagers on devising a performance element to the project.
Playwright Tony Staveacre, who as a young TV producer spent 10 days in Liverpool back in 1973 making a BBC documentary about the cultural life of the city, said: “It cocks a snook at authority, it pricks pretension, it favours independence.
“It prizes laughter as being the best antidote when times are hard. Are times ever hard in Liverpool? Ask the bears in the wood.”
The Why We Are Funny? film will also show sketches created by young comedians, and will be screened at Woolton Picturehouse on Sunday at noon.