Last One Laughing star urges stand-ups to visit Jersey

A comedian says she hopes more performers will visit Jersey to play to crowds.

Award-winning star Maisie Adam played a sold-out show at Jersey Art House earlier this month and is known for winning the popular comedy show Taskmaster, as well as guest appearances on shows such as Mock the Week.

It comes as fellow comedian Rhys James also had a sold-out show at the same venue last October, and Tom Davis, who as appeared in the movie Wonka and TV show Murder in Successville, will bring a show to the Jersey Opera House in the summer.

Adam said: "When you go to these places that maybe don't get as many comedians as bigger cities, you get a much more appreciative audience and that's lovely."

Adam won Best Newcomer at the Edinburgh Comedy Awards in 2018 and the Best Breakthrough Award from comedy publication Chortle in 2022.

With the opera house reopened and Fort Regent set to reopen with potentially a 2,500-seater auditorium, Adam said she was confident that such venues could attract bigger comedy names to the island, while venues like the art centre with a capacity of up to 250 were ideal for performers like herself.

She said: "Last weekend I was in Scotland for some work-in-progress shows and I live in Brighton, so that's five or six-hour train. Then... it was 20 minutes to Gatwick before flying straight over [to Jersey]."

She described Jersey Art House as "gorgeous", adding: "You can literally get here in what felt like the speed of sound, so there's no reason why you don't do a tour date here".

Adam recently competed among some of the biggest names in British comedy in the second season of the Amazon Prime Show Last One Laughing.

She said: "I was at the Last One Laughing watch party and the stand-ups were talking about favourite rooms and worst rooms.

"The arts centre is gorgeous. It's exactly the kind of room that's ideal for stand-up comedy.

"Get the big names out as well to places like Fort Regent because you want people who can do an art centre, an opera house and a huge venue like that."

It is something that Sophie Quirk, a senior lecturer in drama and theatre at the University of Kent, and a stand-up comedy researcher, agrees with.

She said: "The opera house is a beautiful theatre and who wouldn't love to walk into such a gorgeous space that feels so special."

Quirk added venues like that had in the past been "considered quite unusual for stand-up comedy" but "that kind of attitude is really changing as people come to acknowledge stand-up comedy more as a legitimate kind of theatre".

"Then the art centre is a classic kind of studio space, where comedians who have an hour-long show can come and get an audience in who've like specifically come to see them, which is a bit different to the club circuit," she said.

Quirk has also researched the financial benefits that a healthy stand-up comedy scene can have for any local economy.

She said such shows "often sell out" and "it doesn't cost a lot to produce".

She said: "You're very often talking about one performer, one microphone, a little bit of music at the start and one or two lighting changes, which means stand up can really be a form that can keep individual theatres afloat.

"I think also it's just very good for the cultural and political health of a community to have stand-up comedy."

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