00:00I'm Sam Judd, the founder and co-owner of the Disabled-led Comedy Night, You Can Laugh You Know.
00:08I'm here to talk about our next event, You Can Laugh You Know Fest, which will be on Saturday the
00:164th of April.
00:17It will be at the fully accessible, archiving Kirk Store.
00:22It is a disabled arts festival. There will be film, comedy and music, all showcasing the talent and creativity of
00:32disabled artists.
00:34My hope is we will provide a platform on which the artists can build upon.
00:40We're calling this our first festival, but we've always kind of touched on other art forms, whether it be drag,
00:46whether it be film and whether it be music.
00:48So I think just an event where it really brings together all the different art forms that You Can Laugh
00:53You Know have covered is going to be very, very rewarding.
00:56For our final and 20th show, we have decided to go out with a bang.
01:02We will be teaming up with our sequel, collaborator, Britain's Got Talent finalist, Alex Mertjell.
01:11I've been a stand-up for four years and I've had some unbelievable opportunities at so many different levels.
01:18I've started with You Can Laugh You Know and Sam and Pete, who booked me for some of their earliest
01:22gigs and have just stuck by me the whole way through.
01:26You always need someone in your corner in whatever you're doing and there's lots of push me to do so
01:30much.
01:31Getting on the telly, performing in the clubs now, this is now my job, which is insane.
01:36When I started with these guys, I was a primary school teacher and this was just part-time bit of
01:40fun.
01:40We've had a good opportunity to go from just having standard sets of like 10, 20 minutes to people saying
01:50to us,
01:50actually, I feel confident enough in this space to try my first headline appearance with you.
01:56And we've had quite a few people like Alex and Holly and Baza who've wanted to debut shows with us.
02:02And that means a lot to us because debuting your show is like debuting your baby.
02:06It's a lot of trust from the comedians involved.
02:08If we pull this off, when we pull this off, it'll be one of the biggest achievements of my career.
02:13The line-up's unbelievable.
02:16That's one of the best things about booking a night is you can put people you know are genuinely hilarious.
02:21So to have a headline at Lost Voice Guy is unbelievable.
02:23One of the highlights is a Disabled Comedian of the Year competition, where we will hopefully find the next generation
02:32of comedic talent.
02:34More than anything, it'll be an afternoon of joy and acceptance, where people can be who they are, without judgment.
02:43We are raising money for the Rob Burrow Center for Motor Neuron Disease.
02:48I think the biggest lesson our little comedy night has taught us is, however awful life gets, you can laugh
02:57you know.
02:58Remember that.
