Chump’s Comedy: How did Margate get so funny so fast?

A year ago this month, comedy night Chump’s opened its doors in Margate for the first time. Since then, an impressive line of increasingly big names have graced stages around the town in front of a backdrop sporting cartoon microphone mascot Chump. 

Rose Matafeo, Sophie Duker, Lou Sanders and Sam Campbell, are among the standups to appear on mixed bill nights. More recently Ed Gamble, Phil Wang, Fern Brady, and Fred Arminsen have performed their own headline shows, as Chump’s builds a strong reputation among fans and comedians alike.

Speaking to Simon Morley and Kit Proudfoot - two thirds of the Chump’s team, alongside Becca Thomason - the excitement about what they’ve created is palpable throughout our conversation. There are regular breaks where they retell their favourite jokes from some of the comedians who have performed for them, and it’s clear that more than anything, they’re big fans of stand up comedy.

This, in fact, is exactly why Chump’s came into being, Simon explains. He and Kit were travelling back from a Sam Campbell gig at the Soho Theatre in January last year “complaining that we have to go to London to see all the comedians that we love.”

Simon had already had thoughts about trying to put on a comedy night in Margate - even coming up with the name and the Chump character - but had never gone any further with it. “Kit basically just said we should do it,” he recalls.

The pair approached Sammy Clarke, owner of local music venue Where Else who was “very open to what we were doing”, explains Kit. He also helped to complete the Chump’s trio by introducing them to Becca Thomason. She had also spoken to Sammy about putting on comedy shows at the venue and when they three met they “hit it off straight away,” says Kit.

As a venue programmer by day Becca also had experience in the stand up comedy world, whereas Simon and Kit both have more of a background in putting on music events. 

Working together makes for “a really good collaboration,” says Kit. As a result, “we constantly find tiny little details to tweak to make things better. And that's one of the most fun things about it. The way that we collaborate, it's about the combination of us rather than individual strengths.”

Initially launching as a monthly mixed bill night at Where Else with three acts performing for 20 minutes each and Kit hosting, there are now multiple different formats for nights that happen in different venues around Margate around twice a month. 

One key to the success of Chump’s has been the speed of which word has spread about it through the comedy industry. Several big names have come and performed work in progress shows with Chump’s this year, including Phil Wang, who ended up playing six nights in Margate.

“Ed Night headlined our first show, and loved it,” recalls Simon. “He went on tour with Phil Wang in October and was wearing a Chump’s hat. So that's how Phil heard about it. And then shortly after we booked Phil - before he’d even come down and played - Fern Brady messaged us it was like, ‘My mate Phil said I should come and do your night.”

An earlier moment that unlocked access to more comedians was managing to book Paul Foot to headline their third show.

“We had absolutely no right to book him,” laughs Simon. "I don't know what he was thinking.”

“He almost knighted us,” adds Kit. “If you've had Paul Foot come to visit you, driven for two hours to perform for us for 20 minutes, everyone's like, ‘Oh, okay, you're real.’ I wondered at the time does Paul Foot know how much that means to us, and how much that may have helped us?”

It’s not just that a trip to the seaside is a nice thing. Chump’s has been designed to be as fun as possible for those on stage, as well as the audience.

“Mixed bills in London acts tend to be doing like, seven, eight, ten minutes,” explains Simon. “Whereas when they come to us they have a 20 minute slot. So, they can play the hits, so to speak, but they can also try out new stuff. It’s somewhere between a mixed bill night in London and doing their first full show.”

“It's both a strong material and a new material night,” Kit picks up. “The people who seem to have the best time and do the best are the people who start strong, end strong, but in the middle of that kind of playing about.”

However, it’s not just about the comedians enjoying themselves on stage. They want the whole experience to be memorable, says Simon. 

“The shows that they're doing in London are comedy clubs which have two, three shows a night. Whereas for us, each show is a special event. One of the main things we're focused on is to make sure it's all running well and professionally, but also just look after the acts.”

Kit agrees, “They’re travelling for probably five hours to do this. And I think if someone came to your house and travelled five hours, you're gonna make an effort.”

Recalling the second Chump’s show with Sam Campbell, Paddy Young and Chloe Petts, he says, “We were just like, ‘Oh, we've got you some pizza.’ And it was literally like we'd got them Faberge eggs. It was really amazing, and then they must be telling people, because then we hear back from other people. ‘Oh, I'd like to do Chump’s because people keep telling me it's nice.’”

This has now helped them spread Chump’s outside of Margate too. A new quarterly London show at the Percival store in Soho had its first edition in March with sets from Suzi Ruffell, Ivo Graham, and Finlay Christie and hosted by Ghosts star Kiell Smith-Bynoe. 

“Obviously, Margate is our bread and butter”, he adds. "The reason we started is because we wanted comedy here.” But the Soho shows allow them to book comedians who “want to do a Chump's show” but for whatever reason “can't come all the way to the seaside.”

Beyond that, they recently brought Phil Wang to Folkestone after the Quarterhouse venue got in touch with them, and comedian Celya AB has brought them in to help with a charity show at the Hackney Empire in aid of the Samaritans in October. They’ll also be putting on three shows during this year’s Edinburgh Fringe which, says Simon, “doesn't seem real.”

Another recent aside from the main Chump’s nights was the World’s Funniest Crab Joke competition at Margate Crab Museum’s. This came about earlier this year when museum co-founder Ned Suesat-Williams got in touch with Simon to explain the rough idea and ask if Chump’s might like to be involved.

“I just said, ‘100%. Yes, definitely’,” he smiles. “And I basically didn't stop thinking about it for about a week straight.”

Over 700 jokes were submitted to the competition by members of the public, before the overall winner was announced at a “Eurovision style” ceremony at the Crab Museum on April 26 - International Crab Day.

Hosted by Dan Schreiber of the No Such Thing As A Fish podcast, a panel of judges was assembled, including Harry Hill, Rose Matafeo, Phil Wang, Sally Phillips, ecologist Lucy Cooke, and evolutionary biologist Ella Al Shamahi. 

“I felt like I was in simultaneously the coolest place on Earth and an episode of The Big Bang Theory,” says Kit of the event. “I was finding out what the word meant from a joke that was said 10 minutes before, and laughing then. I was so out of my depth throughout the whole night, and people were going crazy for words.”

Having gone “exceptionally well”, the plan is now to turn it into an annual event, says Simon. “It will be a long standing tradition,” he insists.

With all this going on, I wonder if the rapid expansion of Chump’s had been at all planned. Not at all, it turns out.

“I thought we'd have done 12 shows at the end of every month, all with three acts,” says Simon of where he originally imagined Chump’s would be at the end of its first year in existence. “Now I just want to keep doing what we're doing. Where Else is our home, but we're looking at other places where we can put interesting shows on. The shows are selling out and we're getting big names. So, if we can find a place which seats more than 120, that’d be great.”

It’s clear that there are big plans and ambitions ahead - some of the names they tell me are booked for later this year are very impressive indeed. And while Chump’s was originally conceived due to a lack of comedy in Margate, Kit says that a year on the town is starting to build a wider scene.

Nights like Funny Cuts “which is local people from Kent doing stand up” and the Margate Fringe “which is only three or four days of the year but they've got some great acts on” show signs of a burgeoning comedy scene. “It's a good little community and that’s one of the things that has been nice for us,” he says. 

Having started out unsure if it would be possible to sell 65 tickets to a comedy night in Margate, this has grown to Chump’s selling a total of 300 tickets to see Phil Wang. In fact, to date every show they’ve put on has sold out.

“Just seeing that there is an appetite here is great,” says Kit. "There’s an insane level of gratitude when people come to this night. I'm just absolutely over the moon.”

“Even if it just stopped, I'd still be super grateful for the past year we've had,” he goes on. “But the fact that people keep buying tickets for it, it’s awesome. We’re grateful for the acts for making the trip grateful and for people getting the ticket you know, giving us that time.”

The next Chump’s show sees Morgan Rees performing his latest show Turning Thirsty at the Margate Arts Club on May 15. You can also catch Grace Campbell at ARK on June 12, Stevie Martin and Adam Riches at Where Else on June 19, and Harriet Kemsley and Amy Gledhill also at Where Else on July 3. Ticket info here.