Jordan Brookes is a critically acclaimed comedian, writer and actor. He joins us on Close-Up Culture to tell us about his show, Fontanelle.
Hi Jordan! It is a pleasure to be speaking with you. As it is December, I do have to kick this off by asking: when is the ideal time to start listening to Christmas music?
Hello! Literally any time of year should be acceptable. I listen to ‘Feels Like Christmas’ by Low all year round. Let Christmas songs out of their winter jail I say! Stick ‘I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day’ on during the hottest day of the summer. Blast in the park while you sunbathe.
Speaking of music, your show Fontanelle moves into world of musical theatre. What has it been like to move into this new genre?
I’ve wanted to do a musical for ages but in a way that felt unique to me. I’m fascinated by musicals and how there’s an inevitability around topics/news stories/films etc being given the ‘musical treatment’. Everything is being turned into “such and such: The Musical” and I was interested in exploring why we’re so obsessed with doing that.
And what was the writing process like for Fontanelle?
It took about 18 months of research, writing, and trial and error through performance. I never like to have too fixed an idea of what the finished thing will be because it closes you off. I think the more open you are the more interesting the work is. I like to figure out what it all means at the same time as the audience!
Has the performance changed much since its run in Edinburgh?
For sure, I’m still working on the show, seeing what other angles I could bring in etc. It’s always changing. There were lots I wanted to do during the Edinburgh run but for time and budget reasons couldn’t, so now I’m trying to work them in. I’m excited for the next version of the show and what that will look like. Fontanelle uses the history of the Titanic as its pivot point for discussing contemporary masculinity, boundaries of comedy and the modern-day obsession of making jokes of tragedies.
Is there a reason behind choosing the Titanic as your vehicle for these discussions?
The genuine reason is, I hate the Titanic. I have no interest in it, and I find it so boring that people are obsessed with it even over a hundred years later. But rather than avoid the topic because it doesn’t interest me, I decided to sit in my boredom and explore why I felt like that. I think what most interested me was the Titanic’s cultural function as a metaphor for various things, perhaps to the point where we forget that lots of people died. It also has a unique status in the sense that it’s the acceptable face of tragedy – nobody is going to be upset if you joke about the Titanic, which got me thinking about where the line is in terms of what we can or can’t joke about. As for the masculinity side of it – my research just coincided with me getting older and wondering what kind of man I was going to become, particularly during all this talk about men being in crisis. So when I got to the ‘women and children first’ part of the Titanic story it felt like such an obvious place to explore what admittedly is a dicey topic.
What do you hope people take away from seeing Fontanelle?
I have no set expectations to be honest. Ultimately I hope people take away different things, have interpretations that even I hadn’t considered. Oh, and to be humming some of the songs to themselves on the way home.
Have you got any other projects in the work that you can tell us about?
A few scripted projects, short films, a book, you know how it goes. The usual frantic plate-spinning of a self-employed creative just about hovering above his overdraft.
Where can people follow your upcoming work?
Follow me on instagram @jordanbrookescomedy and check out my website jordanbrookescomedy.com. I’ve also got some full length shows on YouTube.
Photos by Jennifer Forward-Hayter
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