July events, and an interview with Ash - Lisbon Stand Up Comedy Founder/Community Leader
Richard Lucas
This free newsletter has information about community events in Lisbon, and an interview with Ash - Lisbon Stand Up Comedy Founder/Community Leader.
We now have 1,853 subscribers. If you want to help with this newsletter or contribute content, please contact me. If you want to reach my audience with an announcement about a project of interest to them, let me know.
Usually, the events come first and the interview last, but I so much like what Ash had to say in his interview he is coming first.
Gui Sancho is doing a Comedy Brew Open Mic on 12th July, and the Newcomers Club and Open Coffee are as usual on the last Tuesday of the month at Titanic and Startup Lisboa on the 25th July. More details and links after the interview.
Interview with Ash - Lisbon Stand Up Comedy Founder/Community Leader
Richard: Please introduce yourself
Ash: My name’s Ash and I’m originally from India. I moved to Lisbon a little over 7 years ago and I’ve been living here ever since. I started the Lisbon Digital Nomads meetup group when I moved here and Lisbon Comedy came out of that as a side event. Thereby, to my surprise, we ended up creating an english comedy scene in Lisbon. The digital nomads group is also quite successful and has over 20,000 members at this point. I like bringing people together and that’s generally been what I’ve been doing in Lisbon. I also own Selva Lisboa which is a cafe I started in 2019. It’s a specialty coffee and brunch spot but now quickly turning into a well-known comedy venue.
Richard: Going on stage to tell jokes can be quite scary - what is for you, how did you get started?
Ash: Back in 2018 I took a trip to Iceland with some friends. We went to an English comedy show in Reykjavik. It was a really good show and that inspired me to come back to Lisbon and organise the first English stand-up comedy night here. We did it through the Lisbon Digital Nomads group. Initially I’d just go up on stage and introduce myself, the comedians, etc. But over time I got more comfortable with being on stage and started talking to the audience, making jokes, etc. It started pretty slow with one show each month but today the comedy scene has blossomed into having over 10 shows per week run by multiple producers in different parts of the city.
Richard: What is the vision for the English Language Stand Up comedy scene in Lisbon?
Ash: Honestly I’m not the CEO of the scene. I just started doing it because I enjoyed it and I was hoping for the longest time that other producers would step in to keep it going. This started happening in 2021 and we haven’t looked back since. Now we have a show in English every single night. I’d say the vision would be to encourage more comedians to try it out and get addicted just like us. Comedy can be so much fun! We make people laugh and they leave the shows happy and refreshed. It’s kind of like social service and we get a lot out of it too!
Richard: As well as being a host and comedian, you run Selva - a cool cafe, where you host events on Tuesdays.
Was it always your vision to have your own venue like Selva?
Ash: Not at all. It all happened quite randomly. Selva was supposed to be a specialty coffee shop and brunch place. I used to be in tech but had trained as a Barista in Berlin in the summer of 2018. So when this cafe came up for sale near my house I decided to take the leap with two other friends. We started learning the ropes and running the cafe in the fall of 2019.
But when the pandemic came around in 2020 the cafe was struggling. We were allowed to do just take-away orders. Then once restrictions went down my friend Andre de Freitas wanted to restart doing comedy. Our shows had stopped during the lockdown, of course. Unfortunately a lot of the venues that we worked with in central Lisbon had shut down. So we went out looking for new venues. When none of it worked out, we said - hey, let’s try doing it at the cafe. Oddly, it worked really well! The room at Selva has a natural amphitheatre feel to it. The shows are very cosy and intimate and the audience always has a great time, as do the comedians!
Since that first show at Selva in 2021, we never looked back! The shows at Selva were on a roll and really well received. We initially started with Taco Tuesdays and Comedy Nights. We served tacos upstairs and then did comedy downstairs. It was a huge hit! Eventually we branched off into different formats and shows and now we run regular Tuesday night shows. Visiting comedians often book Selva for their solo shows as well. We’ve had some pretty big names from around Europe, USA, Canada etc. performing at Selva.
Richard. Getting a new community started is not always easy. How did get the word out/ make sure that people know about comedy events in town
Ash: It was all initially bootstrapped via the Lisbon Digital Nomads meetup community. As the community was already pushing around 10k members at the time I started doing comedy shows, it wasn’t difficult to do once a month shows with around 100 attendees. Eventually though as more comedians and producers entered the scene we organised into a collective. Now we all collaboratively run a meetup group called Lisbon Comedy and we organise the entire comedy community through that group. In addition to this we often run Facebook and Instagram ads to reach new audiences and bring them to the shows. That’s the way we’ve been doing it so far and it works pretty well!
Richard: What challenges does the community face: Are you or other community leaders working to address them if so how?
Ash: We’re facing growing pains with having so many shows and sometimes comedians are out of town/sick/etc. and we don’t have enough people to fill spots. We’re working together to address this by running comedy writing workshops (Idan Ariel runs them at Selva) and encouraging new comedians to go up and start performing (with very low key open mics, etc.). We’re all working together to encourage each other to write and perform and get better. This is the best part of our little community in Lisbon. The fact that we all push each other to get better and encourage each other. It’s a great honour to be a part of this tribe.
Richard: Who else is involved in this project, who deserves a shout out.
Ash: Oh man, there are so many cool people involved in this. We’ve got Xinyi Li who produces a ton of shows. Idan Ariel who produces his shows and also leads the writing workshops. He’s going to the fringe festival this year to perform his comedy hour! We’ve got Ana Marinho, Hugo Schepens (Ana and Hugo also produce the shows at La Sharada), Francesco Kirchoff (he runs Xafarix and is also going to the fringe), Jahn Gorakh (an experienced comedian from Norway), Zyna (who runs the female comedy lab), Hugo Rosa and David Cristina (they’ve supported the scene since 2018), Jacopo Spaziani (who started the shows at La Sharada), Andre de Freitas (the guy going for gold as a pro comedian), Tamer Kattan (he led writing workshops in 2021/22 and really elevated the scene) and so many more people that I’m probably forgetting. This is definitely a very collaborative scene and we all work together to make it a success!
Richard: How is the Lisbon community better/different from other comedy scenes you are aware of
Ash: I think we’re still at that sweet spot where we love and support each other. As scenes grow bigger (like the Berlin scene) things tend to fragment a bit. It’s like a small startup before they raise millions. Things are different after you go big. Our scene is also very diverse with people from all over the world. So the stories/comedy you hear are so wide ranging that every show is really interesting.
Richard: Comedians often get close to boundaries, and some get accused of hate speech and so on. Different cultures and audiences have different limits. Do you address that? And if you prefer not to have this question, we can delete it!
Ash: We do try to address it and we definitely perform at a level consistent with global standards and expectations. There are ways in comedy to say things without offence and we’re always giving each other feedback on how things go and are perceived by audiences. Of course, your best barometer is to always see how audiences respond and to be sensitive to that. We always keep our shows friendly and accessible because we have a very diverse audience. People from all walks of life and all parts of the world attend English comedy shows in Lisbon. So we are especially careful about what is said and how people feel at the shows.
Richard: How are you funded/cover any costs? Is comedy a passion project for most of the people involved, or do some make a living?
Ash: We run donation based shows and the donations generally cover all the costs and then some - to pay the comics. For most of us we would like comedy to be a full time gig. But look at it this way, we’re still trying to grow the scene. A few months ago, nobody knew that they could go watch a comedy show in the evening. So when they think about their options they go: movies, walk in the park, drink at rooftop bar, some party, etc. Now we’ve been working on adding “comedy show” to that list in people’s minds - and it’s working! But it’s still very much a work in progress. As we grow the scene and the size of the shows, some of us will definitely be able to become full time producers or comedians. It’s an entire new industry we’re creating here! Some of the comedians are already full-time but they make their living touring and doing shows across Europe and around the world.
Richard: How can people contact you to ask more questions or help?
Ash: Reach out to me on @lisboncomedy on Instagram.
Richard: Would a professional English language comedy club work in Lisbon.
Ash: Yes, it would. There is a need for one at this point. The foreigner population in Lisbon has hit a critical mass where cultural events that serve them would be a huge hit. Whether that’s English comedy or theatre in English or other types of events. However right now our comedy scene is growing organically with multiple bars in different parts of the city hosting comedy nights with multiple producers working on them. That’s a beautiful way for the scene to grow and it makes it rich and resilient. You know the whole centralised vs. decentralised argument. Of course there are pros and cons to each approach but for now I’m really happy with the way it’s going and one day I’m sure a professional English language club will make an appearance. It’s inevitable.
Richard Thanks so much for both the interview and the contribution you are making to the Lisbon Comedy community
This months events
Comedy Brew stand-up open mic Wednesday, July 12, 2023 at 9:00 PM with Gui Sancho. Details here
Open Coffee Lisbon at Startup Lisboa Rua da Prata 80 · Lisboa
Tuesday, July 25, 2023 at 9:30 - 11:30
Sign up here
Lisbon style Open Coffee, launched in Sydney a few days ago as per here so I’ve been working on onboarding materials. I wrote a blog post about hosting Open Coffee events here and made an onboarding video here
About Open Coffee
Everyone at Open Coffee gets a minute to say 1. who they are, 2. what they do, 3. What they are looking for, and 4. how they can help other people. After everyone has introduced themselves, the rest of the event is free form networking. Free, fun, and useful, it is popular for those who are looking for clients, investors, co founders, employees, a job or just inspiration. Start the day with positive, high energy people who can be bothered to be up for an early start. We are getting another Open Coffee group going in Ericeira in May. Contact Richard or Olga for more information. If you want to get a group going in your city, or university, or to help with an existing event, get in touch here https://forms.gle/hjQUMyFap5K8yo8y9. We will do our best to help you get up and running.
Lisbon Newcomers Welcome Club
Tuesday, July 25, 2023 18:30-20:30- Titanic Sur Mer R. da Cintura do Porto de Lisboa
Hosted by Naren and our wonderful volunteers
Sign up here
About Lisbon Newcomers Welcome Club
We start on time, and have to be out by about 20:30 so don’t be late. This "Lisbon Newcomers Welcome Club" gathering is for people who are new to Lisbon or want to welcome them, and increase their number of connections. The first meetup was held November 2021 and since we have welcomed 1600+ people to these events. Each event creates new bonds between newcomers to Lisbon and those who have been here for a while in a simple, fun, yet effective way.Many thanks to the team at Titanic for the venue and support. Our events are open and welcoming to people from all backgrounds. You will be surprised to see how many different nationalities come together at these events. We have a structured first sixty minutes with icebreakers aimed at making things easy for introverts and for people to connect with one another. Then participants are welcome to hang out and socialise as they wish after this part of the meeting is over.
Free Community Announcements If you have a community initiative you want to share or announce, let us know in advance.
Hey Richard hope you are fine. Great work.