One of my first forays into alternative live events was back in 2010 with PLEB Talks - a bespoke comedy night which injected comedy into TED-style talks.
Co-created with Ben Target (above), each night had a different theme, like ‘The Meaning of Life’ - and featured some of the stars of the alternative comedy scene such as John Kearns, Sara Pascoe, Simon Munnery, Phil Kay, Nick Sun, Lou Sanders, Amy Hoggart, Adam Larter, Bec Hill, Pat Cahill, Matt Highton and many more.
The events were hosted by Nish Kumar who was obviously incredible and could not have been a better choice. Honestly - so good. Ben Target also injected some chaos into each event as you can see from the beach balls.
From behind the makeshift lectern1, acts offered their own brand of unconventional wisdom. The intention was comedy - not learning.
Audiences were not told the location. Just a secret meeting point. They were then led into the venue which tended to be somewhere strange - like a school assembly hall or a church back room2. It was like a secret society. Something audiences felt part of, all in on the joke of how ridiculous it was.
The recorded version of the format was awarded Ideas Tap funding that allowed us to film more ‘lectures’ in unlikely venues like offices and put them on YouTube. We also had a fancy intro made that perfectly mimicked the TED version, see the video below for all its gloriousness.
A stunning booking
PLEB Talks also hit the festival circuit: Wilderness, Machynlleth and even Glade Festival - a dance festival where we were programmed right after the DJ, something that the festival-goers did not appreciate (weiiiird!). A few minutes in, it was clear the gig had to adapt to the crowd’s level of inebriation so it become more of a Kindergarten activity than a witty subversion of a TED Talk.
I still feel bad for the comedians who attended that round trip. Especially the MC Stuart Laws who got Stone Cold Stunnered by an audience member. Luckily I decided to give a camcorder to Matt Highton to capture the chaos. The jazzed-up edit is below. Enjoy:
Watch out for the moment at 1m58s which feels straight out of Peep Show. The girl’s reaction is so wonderfully British.
Will PLEB Talks Return?
Looking back, I’m so proud of PLEB Talks. It was a really gettable, fun concept - executed with care, that brought people together.
It has been somewhat usurped by Comedians Giving Lectures that aired on Dave a few years after (unaffiliated but I like to think not an intentional copy).
Maybe the lines between stand-up and thought-leader are too blurred now for the concept of PLEB Talks to work. After all, Zelensky used to be a stand-up, Donald Trump also got Stone Cold Stunnered, and I feel like we’re turning to comedians more and more for guidance and cultural commentary - which isn’t a bad thing.
So I’m not sure if it will ever come back. But who knows. Maybe in some form, it already has? (POLITICAL PLOT TWIST!!!)
I was particularly proud of the fake lectern’s transportable design: a vinyl banner, attached to a music stand, that slotted into some pipes, on an MDF sheet. It looked convincing dead-on, unless it was jolted in the slightest. It’s in my parents’ loft if anybody wants to see it?
Tip for any event-planners out there: there are a lot of beautiful churches with zero website but who will let you rent rooms for diddly squat. You just have to knock on the door to ask.