A Cumbrian comedy trio who went viral with their social media comedy sketches are set to perform a show in Carlisle.
Comedian John Lebbon, 40, of Egremont, is bringing his show John Lebbon & Friends: Stand Up & Sketches, to Old Fire Station, in Carlisle, on Thursday February 26.
He will be supported by his sketch co-star and childhood friend Gavin Donaldson, 40, of Egremont, and sketch editor and producer Chris Forshaw, 36, of St Helens, who will host different sections of the show.
The trio have amassed over 400 million views across social media and have had several sketches go viral, including their ‘addicted to attention’ sketch – which jokes about cryptic attention seeking posts online and scored over 4.5 million views on TikTok alone.
The group’s Carlisle show will kick off with stand-up warm up, followed by some exclusive sketches not seen online shown on the big screen.
Gavin will then perform stand-up in character as a bouncer, before a set of classic stand-up from John.
The night will then wrap up with Chris hosting an on-stage game for two audience members, complete with an outtakes round up shown on the big screen.
John, who first stepped into comedy 10 years ago, said the trio’s online sketches have soared in popularity after they started posting consistently two years ago.
He said: “On our Facebook we average 13 to 20 million views a month and we only put on four reels a week, that’s not including Instagram and TikTok and if you counted it all up every month, it’s a lot of folk watching.
“But the show is a mix of stand up and videos people haven’t seen. We did two sold out shows in Whitehaven and Cockermouth and we did videos directed at the place we were going, so we did Countryfile-style video for West Cumbria.
“Chris also does outtakes for us and people really like them. I do a lot of vaping in videos and I don’t vape and the amount of times I nearly choke to death doing a scene, they can be the funniest bits sometimes.”
John’s said his sketches are often inspired by everyday working class life both online and offline.
While the sketches focus on UK culture, they have been watched and enjoyed by people from across the world.
He added: “We talk about stuff like people selling dodgy boxes and drugs and if you come from the working class community, you know these people.
“We also did one on ‘the waltzer guy’ it’s just noticing those weird little things in society, like people calling Dubai ‘doobs’ or posting things like ‘boy did good’ over Christmas presents.
“We also do political stuff as a joke, so when the Tories were in power we did Covid marshal stuff. We touch on what people aren’t happy about but make it funny, and those ones do go that bit further.
“With the addicted to attention sketch, it’s based on those people who go online and post things like ‘it’s just me and the kids from now on.’
@johnlebbon Addicted To Attention Online Pt2 #Joĥnlebbon #funny #fyp #comedy #viral ♬ original sound – John Lebbon
“I’d been wanting to do that in stand up for ages, but it just doesn’t work, but on on social media it really does.”
John said that he believes the comedy industry is finding a new lease of life in the social media world.
He added: “It’s where comedy is going, if you look at Paul Smith, he’s never been on telly in his life, but he’s one of the top selling comedians in the UK.
“People always say why don’t you do telly, but I honestly think you don’t get as many views on the telly anymore.
“If you ask people when was the last good comedy on telly, they say things like The Inbetweeners and stuff that’s about 10 or 15 years old,
“In the early 90s and early 2000s you had The Office and Only Fools and Horses and that’s where comedy was, whereas now, it’s all online, we’re seeing all our funny videos online.”
John said the trio get together once a month to write and create as many sketches as possible and he also does some sketches solo.
He added that the sketches make use of a few props here and there, but that more elaborate sets aren’t needed.
He said: “I do a lot of the writing, so I just think of ideas of what works and what doesn’t work. But we meet once a month and do as many as we can in a day.
“We do some inspired by ‘scruffy couples’ and Gavin used his wife’s actual nightgown and we got a few comments like ‘Jesus they’ve even got a scruffy nightgown’ and now she won’t let him use it!
“But I think the hobby horse champion sketch is one of my favourites, along with any we’ve taken more time over, so we did a boy racer one too and I do like that one as well.”
John, who formerly played rugby professionally, has been doing stand up comedy for 10 years and has won awards for his writing.
He said: “I used to play rugby but I broke my leg and I was watching Phoenix Nights with Dave Spikey and Peter Kay and because I was so bored in the house, I tried to write a third series.
“I sent it to Dave and a few months later I got a message from his agent saying he wanted to meet. I thought it was a bit of a wind up and they said I had good ideas and it just went from there and I started doing stand up.
“When Covid hit that stopped things for a bit and I did sketches on and off for a few years, but two years ago was when I thought I’d do it properly and it’s gone quite well so far.”
