I first met actor Jonathan Hansler a few years ago at one of the late lamented Fringe Report's monthly meetings. He was named Best Actor in their final 2011 Awards. I mentioned him in January this year in a blog about the unveiling of a plaque at the site of the old Establishment Club in Soho - he is an indefatigable admirer and promoter of the late Peter Cook.
Jonathan is also half of comedy duo Teakshow. But, as well as the comedy streak running through him there is an entrepreneurial streak.
Three weeks ago he started an organisation which aims to run a comedy movie section - Canned Laughter - parallel to the main Cannes Film Festival next May.
Canned Laughter is intended to be a "focal point for comedy films at Cannes" and to increase Comedy's profile there and elsewhere. Their 'Mission Statement' says:
Comedy is the hardest medium to perform and yet it gets little recognition. In the history of the Oscars, only four comedy films have ever won an award and there is no Best Comedy Oscar. In our opinion, it is a seriously undervalued medium. Canned Laughter aims to open up the possibilities of comedy film-making and to be a place for new film-makers to have their films screened via a competition with an experienced panel of judges...This is a multi-billion global industry yet there is no venue for it at the most celebrated film festival in the world... It is time comedy is recognised for the brilliant art form that it is at the most important film festival in the world. Comedy is all about timing and the time has never been better - changing the world through comedy and making it a brighter place.
"Canned Laughter would give awards?" I asked Jonathan Hansler yesterday at Silver Road Studios in London.
"Yes. We have the idea for something called The Peter Sellers Awards - best comedy film, best actor - our mini-awards at Cannes."
"Only for English language films?" I asked.
"Well, we welcome international films from all over the world."
"So some comedy film in Spanish from Guatemala..." I started.
"Yeah," said Jonathan. "So long as we can understand it - if it's dubbed or sub-titled or even silent comedy or animation. Every form of comedy including shorts."
To make Canned Laughter a reality, Jonathan has partnered with a whole group of people and companies, including Silver Road Studios, live promotion company Best Jester Entertainment and Sarah Pemberton of TV/film production company Red Skin Media,
"I came up with the idea," Jonathan explained to me yesterday, "because I was at Cannes four or five years ago and they had something called the Straight 8, where you had about ten minutes of Super-8 film shot continuously without cutting and they showed these little films at Cannes and all the cock-ups were left in and I was sat in this tent with this very funny guy hosting it and I was falling about with laughter and I thought I have not been to anywhere in Cannes like this.
"Generally at Cannes, you go to parties with a load of people looking terribly serious or talking shit or totally pissed but no laughter, no lightness. It's like Disneyland with security guards, because it doesn't promote lightness. It has a sense of snobbery about it, it's got lots of posh black cars, loads of people in bow ties hanging around with very beautiful women - and that's all fantastic, but what I find about comedy is it's a very honest medium. It tells the truth a lot of the time and that's wonderful to have in a place where, a lot of the time, there's a lot of bullshit.
"Canned Laughter is about opening up the possibilities of comedy, so people are more aware of the brilliance and genius... How many geniuses are there as actors? There are a few. But, in comedy, there are loads of geniuses. And yet it's an undervalued medium."
"So," I asked, "you want people to submit their films to you."
"Yes," said Jonathan.
"And they pay to enter their movie?"
"A nominal fee to be decided," replied Sarah Pemberton. "It's a model that already works well at the Cannes Film Festival in the Short Film Corner,. As far as entries are concerned, we could potentially launch Canned Laughter at the London Comedy Film Festival in January."
"Which isn't bad," I said, "considering Canned Laughter started three weeks ago."
"Well," said Jonathan, " I came up with the idea in June, but I had to wait until after the Edinburgh Fringe to get things together so people would be back in London and you have to let things simmer in your head. It came together when we had a meeting here at Silver Road Studios. We had about 65 people which I whittled down to a core team."
"And you told me about some very impressive patrons," I said.
"Though we can't name them yet," said Jonathan. "There will be a website up in a week or so. This came out of pure love, pure passion. I just think the time is nigh, the time is right and it's a portable idea because you can take it to any film festival.
"Canned Laughter obviously refers to Cannes. But our logo will involve a can of film, so the idea of canned film makes it transferable. There could be spin-offs. For the Sundance Festival, we have the idea of Canned Laughter's Fundance. But the focal point now is Cannes next May."