Big Boys, Jack Rooke’s gorgeous Channel 4 drama that followed the blossoming of an unlikely friendship between two young men – one gay, one straight – at university, was born at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
And fans will be delighted to know that some of the people involved in its creation, as well as their funny, talented friends, are putting on four special shows over the final week of the festival.
Big Boys And Friends will be late-night, comedy, cabaret-style events, each MC’d by Jack and featuring a comedy set by Jon Pointing, who plays Danny in the comedy series.
The rest of the line-up will vary each night, and the names signed up so far include Katy Wix (Big Boys, Stath Lets Flats, Ghosts and many other comedies), Lolly Adefope (whose credits include Ghosts and Shrill), Tom Rosenthal (Plebs), Jayde Adams (Alma’s Not Normal and the next series of Strictly Come Dancing), Patti Harrison (Jack’s favourite American comedian) from Shrill, and Phil Dunning (look up his Big Shirt performance).
And while a lot of late-night mixed-bill comedy shows at the Fringe tend to be noisy affairs, Jack and Jon are determined that this will have a much more gentle energy.
‘They’re going to be really fun, sweet shows,’ says Jack. ‘They won’t be one of those rowdy “Woo-woo” things. They’ll be more, ‘Hey, these are our mates, they’re all really funny.” It’s not for stag dos. I want it to be for lovely soft comedy people who want to have a silly laugh to some alternative comedy.’
Big Boys the TV series is based on Jack’s second Fringe show, Happy Hour, which he brought to Edinburgh the same year (2017) he met Jon. They got very drunk one night and ended up with friends in Palmyra Pizza on Nicolson Street, laughing uproariously about a daft dare involving a pizza (we won’t repeat it here because a lot is lost in translation).
‘Then he got the role of Danny five years later because he laughed at my jokes that night,’ laughs Jack.
This March, they were both back in Edinburgh for a Stamptown gig, wandering around the city and remembering special moments from festivals past. And so they started concocting plans for this mini-Edinburgh run.
Jon, who mainly does television comedy acting these days (apart from Big Boys, he’s best known for Plebs and Pls Like, the spoof influencer documentary), used to do a lot of live comedy, and he’ll be bringing out a new character he’s been developing.
So far unnamed, he’s a lovable idiot (‘My go-to,’ he jokes) not unlike a character he developed over lockdown and filmed for his Key Worker web series. Bradley was a young man trying to make himself useful during the pandemic – not always getting things right, with Jon bringing some beguiling earnestness to the role.
He’s just finished filming something on this new character for Live At The Moth Club, Dave’s new variety comedy series that’s made by Baby Cow Productions, which was co-founded by Steve Coogan.
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‘The nice thing about Big Boys is that I write it but a lot of the actors who are in it are also actor-comedian writers, and it’s really touching when another writer/comic wants to be in your show,’ says Jack.
‘It’s so nice that so many of them are doing this show too, and extra nice to have clinched Katy because she doesn’t gig very often. She’s so funny – she’s the reason why everyone corpses on set.’
Big Boys And Friends is on from Tuesday to August 27, at the Pleasance (Cabaret Bar).
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