In his new Netflix special, US standup Dave Chappelle reflected on the drive-in comedy shows that have sprung up while clubs are closed during the pandemic. Audiences watching from cars and honking their horns if they liked a joke, didn’t “sound like any fun at all” to Chappelle. However, until the UK’s comedians are allowed to perform in venues again, drive-in outdoor gigs offer a way forward for an industry devastated by Covid-19.
Last weekend, the first such shows in the UK took place in a car park by Brent Cross shopping centre, just off the M1 in north-west London. Comic Kai Humphries, who appeared at The Drive-In Club, said it was good to be back at the mic again but that after such a long break from live performance he would have preferred a “little basement with 30 people”. However, he described performing before rows of vehicles as feeling like “200-odd intimate gigs” because rather than hearing his voice booming out across the car park, audiences tuned in on their radios while watching him on a giant LED screen.
Most comedians like to play in intimate clubs with a low ceiling “to keep the laughter in”, said Humphries, so considering the less than ideal circumstances of the drive-in set-up, it was “a miracle that it worked”. He performed at dusk amid wet and windy weather and said he could still make out some faces in the cars in the front row but that the nature of the show had obviously affected his crowdwork. He found himself ribbing vehicles instead of punters. “I took the piss out of a couple of cars – you know, ‘Flash your indicators if you’re in a BMW. Ah, so you do know where they are!’”
Audiences purchased advance tickets that were priced according to the number of people in each car, and payments for food and drink were contactless. Parking was unreserved, with vans and motorbikes among the vehicles not permitted. Audiences were allowed to watch from outside their car, and use a portable radio if they preferred. The venue’s capacity is 400 cars per show, which means a sold-out event could have an audience of more than 2,000 people.
At The Drive-In Club’s opening weekend, prankster Dom Joly had technical difficulties during his show, which he joked led to “the first car crash at a drive-in”. At the end of Holiday Snaps, a tongue-in-cheek lecture about his travels around the world, Joly reflected on an inauspicious start: “This is probably the future of entertainment – let’s hope it gets better.”
Humphries said he wasn’t sure if the drive-in format would still work once clubs were back up and running but that it had been an “act of defiance” and a triumph against the odds. “People aren’t allowed to go to comedy but they’ve been given this way, with stipulations, that they can go – so everybody there had this buzz that we’ve figured out a way to see comedy.” The industry, he said, had shown innovation and resilience during lockdown in the face of little support from the government.
Humphries did a 20-minute set opening for Daniel Sloss, and they later shared the stage to discuss life on the road as they do in their podcast. Lots of Humphries’ usual material, about airports and hotels, didn’t work in our “new normal”, he said, but he made plenty of jokes about lockdown life. Throughout lockdown, he has done Instagram comedy live streams twice a week, in which he knits while chatting to the audience. “I’ve had everything between 20 and 500 people at any one time,” he said. The streams are designed to offer company to those who live alone and might be finding isolation difficult, and Humphries added that they have been good for his own mental health, too. He believes the route back for comedians to appear in clubs might be securing permission to perform in outdoor venues such as beer gardens first.
In the meantime, The Drive-In is presenting performances by standups including Nish Kumar, Shappi Khorsandi and doctor-turned-comic Adam Kay, as well as film screenings. A separate venue, The Drive-In at Troubadour Meridian Water in Edmonton, north London, is presenting a similar programme of films and live entertainment. Comics set to perform there include Fern Brady and Jamali Maddix.
Comedians are desperate to get back on stage, said Humphries, and to hear the roar of laughter rather than car horns. He found that he had slipped into a familiar rhythm on stage, timing his gags around the honks signifying his audience’s laughter. “It was strange to adjust because the sound of a car horn usually has a negative connotation,” he laughed. “When I was driving back from the gig, another driver honked their horn at someone and I got a feeling of warmth from it.”
Read more about The Drive-In Club at Brent Cross and The Drive-In at Troubadour Meridian Water
