Are you kidding me? Featuring Nels Abbey, & Tom Shakespeare

Brighton Book Festival invites you to join us to explore the power of funny. Hosted by the writer and columnist Nels Abbey with guests comedian Jen Brister and writer Tom Shakespeare.

Saturday 22nd June. 7.30pm

We’ll discuss how satire and comedy can reach the parts other writing can’t reach – and ask, is it time to take comedy writing more seriously?

Nels Abbey is a British-Nigerian (Itsekiri) writer, broadcaster, media executive and satirist based in London. Before moving into media, he worked in financial services principally for the US investment mammoth BlackRock. He is the author of two books, Think Like a White Man and The Hip Hop MBA. He is the founder of 'Uppity: The Intellectual Playground' and the co-founder of the Black Writers’ Guild.

Jen Brister is a critically acclaimed stand up comedian and writer who has been seen on BBC’s Live at the Apollo, Mock the Week, Frankie Boyle’s New World Order, Hypothetical and Sara Pascoe’s comedy Lectures on Dave. She is a regular performer on the UK and international comedy circuits and has written and performed on BBC Radio 4’s The News Quiz, The Now Show and presented for BBC 6 Music. 

Tom Shakespeare is a sociologist and ethicist. He works at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, where he leads teams researching disability and mental health in Africa and Asia. He has presented programmes and documentaries, and worked as a stand-up comedian, an actor, a dancer and an artist.

Together, they’ll discuss comedy and satire in fiction and non-fiction, offer advice on how to write scripts and stand-up ­– and challenge the myth that marginalised groups only write about trauma.