Comedy is Not an Excel Spreadsheet: VHS on the Unpredictability of Stand-up
Photo / Sædís Harpa Stefánsdóttir
Translation: Jóhannes Bjarki Bjarkason
The comedy group VHS has gained popularity in the last few years. The group consists of Vilhelm Neto, Stefán Ingvar Vigfússon, Hákon Örn Helgason and Vigdís Hafliðadóttir.
The group began to take shape when Vilhelm and Stefán performed the show Endurmenntun (e. Re-education) in 2019. The show came into being after Vilhelm and Stefán’s collaboration with the comedy group Fyndnustu Mínar The members of Fyndnustu Mínar are Lóa Björk Björnsdóttir, Rebecca Scott Lord, Hekla Elísabet Aðalsteinsdóttir and Salka Gullbrá Þórarinsdóttir.
“Hákon introduced that show and had two five-minute long sets,” says Stefán.
“Why did you guys contact me?” asks Hákon.
“We thought you were cheap and obedient,” answers Stefán.
The show’s popularity grew, and the trio soon found themselves on the way to Akureyri. They performed the show there, as well as at The Freezer (Frystiklefinn) in Rif. In the car on their way to Akureyri, they decided to officially form the group.
“Then we did the show VHS biðst forláts (e. VHS Apologises). That was in the summer of 2020. Vigdís had recently won the Funniest University Student competition at UI,” Stefán says.
“As soon as she walked offstage, we decided to invite her to join the group,” adds Hákon.
Philosophical comedy
The four comedians all have similar backgrounds. Stefán and Hákon studied set design at the Iceland University of the Arts, Vilhelm’s background is in drama, and Vigdís has experience in theatre and music and recently finished her BA in philosophy. Another thing they all have in common is having been active in the performing arts in junior college.
Photo / Sædís Harpa Stefánsdóttir
“[Philosophy] provides great inspiration. I have some jokes about philosophy, for example. It’s a very creative subject. I think it’s like the arts of the humanities, to some degree,” Vigdís says.
“There’s also a lot of philosophy in comedy. You can spend a lot of time following different strands of thought,” answers Vilhelm.
“I have developed the point of view that comedy, stand-up especially, is a sort of debate with the audience. You enter with a certain idea, and the show revolves around persuading the audience that the idea is funny,” Stefán says.
“I think that when Aristotle and Plato were chatting, everyone was rolling around dying of laughter,” Hákon says jokingly.
“Stand-up is a horrible idea”
The Icelandic stand-up scene has been strong the last few years. But how does someone get the idea to try breaking onto that scene?
“For me, it came from an old dream of getting into comedy. Fyndnustu Mínar were a big inspiration. They started in 2018 and were quick to assert themselves as a sort of force. Jakob Birgisson too, to some degree. You saw that this was something you could get into,” says Stefán.
“I remember there was a competition at MH [Menntaskólinn við Hamrahlíð] called the Funniest MH Student that I always meant to sign up for. But I didn’t dare to do it. Then the guys asked me to introduce their show and I felt like the time was right and decided to enter,” says Hákon. “Stand-up is a horrible idea,” Vigdís interjects.
“After studying theatre, I realised my most difficult experience wasn’t acting in a Shakespeare play or delivering a tough monologue. Stand-up was the hardest. Which makes me respect the profession even more. When you realise that stand-up is the thing that stresses you out the most when you take the stage, you start to think that there must be something special there, artistically speaking,” says Vilhelm, adding, “It also means instant feedback! When you’re doing stand-up, you go onstage, tell the joke, and if you don’t make people laugh immediately, it doesn’t work.”
“And then you just have to keep going!” answers Vigdís.
Stefán continues the train of conversation: “For me, the set is just the first 30 seconds. If I come in and don’t make people laugh with the first joke, then I’ve fallen into a hole. The next 20 minutes are spent trying to escape that hole. You walk onstage and there are 200 people looking at you, and I have to convince them right away that I’m funny. Which is the most desirable quality for a person. Everybody wants to be funny.”
Photo / Sædís Harpa Stefándóttir
Comedy is unpredictable
How do you work on your shows?
“We set ourselves a rule early on that as soon as a particular show is over, for example VHS biðst forláts, we stop telling those jokes at shows. We use them for other occasions such as private parties,” Stefán tells me.
“There’s always a demand that you write new jokes. It’s not like a good song that you write and then it’s always good. That’s one downside to comedy. A joke is only funny for a certain amount of time,” says Vilhelm and adds, “Many of my best jokes come to me 30 seconds before I take the stage. I wrote 50% of my new set in the hall backstage during trial shows. And those are the jokes that work best.”
“It’s something pure and vivid. I always try to keep a certain flow. That it’s a set and I’m not just telling a couple of jokes. I have a specific narrative style and get inspiration mostly from my own life. My personality and my flaws. I see the humour in that. Within the group, each of us is really different. That’s a lot of fun,” says Vigdís.
“For my first three shows, I wrote a really long set. I got a lot of laughs and thought it was my best material yet. Then I tried a joke that had come to me that same day, which turned out to be much funnier than the material I had spent hours refining! It’s so funny how you can’t predict this sort of thing. It’s not an Excel spreadsheet,” says Hákon.
VHS will perform two experimental shows with new material at Tjarnarbíó on April 2 and April 5. Their next full-scale production will premiere this fall.