Ed Night has just come back from the Edinburgh Fringe and soon enough it’ll be time for him to sling a microphone over his shoulder and travel to every corner of this isle (and beyond!) to tour his new stand-up comedy show, The Plunge.
Ahead of his stop at Komedia in May 2025, we sat down for a chat about comedy heroes, public transport, and the beautiful city of Brighton.
From Jasper Carrott to Open Mic Nights
Komedia: What is your earliest memory of comedy?
One of my earliest memories of anything is of comedy! I remember my grandad showing me a VHS of Laurel and Hardy’s comedy ‘Way Out West’ when I was about 3 and falling about laughing. That changed my life.
My earliest memory of experiencing live comedy is probably Jasper Carrott. My mum’s parents lived in Birmingham and she and I would drive up there a lot. Very occasionally, as a treat, we’d stop at the services and buy a comedy cassette or CD to listen to in the car. Now I can’t remember why but once we got a CD called ‘Jasper Carrott Back to the Front Volume 1’. I haven’t seen or heard any of his comedy in over 20 years and I can’t remember a single joke or thing about it apart from the fact that, at the age of about 7, I would beg my mum to listen to the Jasper Carrott CD again and again whenever we were in the car. I listened to it so much that I thought he must have been the most famous and highly regarded comedian in the world.
Komedia: That’s so wholesome! On your own journey towards becoming the next most famous comedian in the world, what was your biggest challenge?
Great Western Railway.
Komedia: Fair. Anyone that deserve a shout-out for supporting you during many a cancelled train ride?
If you go for long enough, most of the people you started with stop. When I meet up with the comics I started with we drop names like vets talk about people they lost touch with after the war. Remember them? Ahh… Except instead of being captured at El Alamein, they’ve got a job in marketing or something.
Someone I met and befriended at my 6th open mic is still going, in fact they’re wildly successful, and we remain extremely close friends. I won’t name them because this Q&A is about me.
Komedia: Thanks for keeping us on track. Let’s talk some more about you! How do you feel when you’re on stage?
Like a pig in slop. I’m terribly nervous before I go on but once I’m up there I feel like a million bucks, maybe even more. You get a lot of people who balk at the idea of getting up on stage, and it may sound counterintuitive, but I feel very present and in the moment whenever I’m treading the boards. There’s nowhere else I’d rather be, except at home going on my phone.
The best (and worst) of Brighton
Komedia: Nothing beats live comedy right? Finally, what’s the best thing – in your opinion – about performing at Komedia Brighton?
There’s a shop around the corner that sells juggling balls and skateboards and yo-yos and stilts and all sorts of niche performance toys (Oddballs). The people in there are really nice! Me and another comic spent ages in there recently chatting about the specs of the different juggling balls and being taught how to bounce, juggle, and use a slinky properly and stuff.
I also really like going to the beach and staring at the sea for an extremely long time, especially if it’s dark out.
Komedia: And we’re only a 10-minute walk from the beach! Sounds like you love Brighton as much as we do. So no bad sides then?
Well, the bad thing is I always stick around for a pint or something and get the last train back to London, by which time the last connecting train to my local station has always gone…
In a perfect world there would be something like a high-speed pneumatic suction tube that goes directly from Komedia to where I live, like in Futurama or how they send messages and blood samples around a hospital, and I could walk straight out of The Dorset, jump into the tube, and be slammed into the front wall of my house in seconds.
Komedia: We’ll apply for some funding. Thanks for chatting to us, Ed!
See Ed Night’s The Plunge at Komedia Brighton on Thu 29 May, 8pm (doors 7.30pm).
Follow Ed on Instagram: @_ednight
