Art Laughs

Verity Babbs

Verity Babbs is an art critic, comedian and presenter who created Art Laughs as a remedy to tedious art world earnestness. Art Laughs has performed at the Tate Britain, National Gallery, Royal Museums Greenwich, Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair, London Art Fair, and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Dom O'Keefe 

Dom is an improviser, writer and postgraduate researcher at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, where his research focuses on the representation of gender and humour in film. 

He was a founder of cult improv hit Shaken Not Stirred: The Improvised James Bond Film and he toured internationally with The English Lovers and The Oxford Imps, for who he directed two sell-out runs at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Monica Gaga 

Monica Gaga is a British-born black African queer host, improviser, facilitator, maker and performer. She has been performing and hosting for 11 years, improvising for 24 years and facilitating professionally for 16 years. A Comedy Store Players regular, she is the producer of HELL YEAH!, the femxle-centred queer improv collective.

She is a cast member of Do The Right Scene (named ‘theatre that thinks’ by Timeout), Broadway Baby five-star reviewed show Yes Queens and feminist duo Derek's Mojo. Trained at East 15 Acting School, Monica has worked professionally across England, Ireland, Scotland, Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Italy, Canada and beyond.

Fuaad Coovadia 

Foo is an improviser with The Oxford Imps and a stand-up comedian who is known for pulling punches, speaking lies to power and cutting around the chase. His comedy is inspired by his South African roots, informed by his time performing in the Berlin stand-up scene and indebted to the many UK audiences who have had new material tested on them. Outside of comedy, he is completing his PhD at the University of Oxford.

Joel Sydenham

Joel Sydenham is a self-taught visual artist and poet based in Brighton, with a passion for people and human development. He creates original works of art in the form of paintings, poems and illustrations based on factual and hypothetical concepts that celebrate the process of life. He also hosts a variety of workshops designed to encourage creativity and celebrate communities.