Comedy in the Dark is a comedy performance taking place in the dark. The show was developed and produced by the Leicester Comedy Festival, [1] with the first performance taking place at Belmont Hotel, Leicester, England on October 13, 2009. The show was originally developed to promote energy conservation. [2]
In a modern sense, comedy refers to any discourse or work generally intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, television, film, stand-up comedy, or any other medium of entertainment. The origins of the term are found in Ancient Greece. In the Athenian democracy, the public opinion of voters was influenced by the political satire performed by the comic poets at the theaters. The theatrical genre of Greek comedy can be described as a dramatic performance which pits two groups or societies against each other in an amusing agon or conflict. Northrop Frye depicted these two opposing sides as a "Society of Youth" and a "Society of the Old." A revised view characterizes the essential agon of comedy as a struggle between a relatively powerless youth and the societal conventions that pose obstacles to his hopes. In this struggle, the youth is understood to be constrained by his lack of social authority, and is left with little choice but to take recourse in ruses which engender very dramatic irony which provokes laughter.
Night or nighttime is the period from sunset to sunrise in each twenty-four hours, when the Sun is below the horizon. The exact time when night begins and ends depends on the location and varies throughout the year. When night is considered as a period that which follows evening, it is usually considered to start around 9 pm and to last to about 5 am. Night ends with coming of morning at sunrise.
The Leicester Comedy Festival is an annual comedy festival held in a number of venues across Leicester, England early in the year.
Comedy in the Dark was also presented at Edinburgh Fringe 2010, based at the Gilded Balloon. [2] Money from the shows was donated to the Comedy Wood - a real wood planted with donations from comedians and audience members. [2]
Gilded Balloon is a producer and promoter of live entertainment events, based in Edinburgh, Scotland, and best known as one of the Big Four venue operators at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe each August.
A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience by making them laugh. This might take many forms including jokes, satirical observations, amusing situations, acting foolish or employing prop comedy. A comedian who addresses an audience directly is called a stand-up comedian. Other practises include the sitcom, sketch comedy and improv genres.
An audience is a group of people who participate in a show or encounter a work of art, literature, theatre, music, video games, or academics in any medium. Audience members participate in different ways in different kinds of art; some events invite overt audience participation and others allowing only modest clapping and criticism and reception.
