The comedy festival photography exhibition capturing comedians passing on a joke

The display, Ye Had Ti Be There, aims to explore the joy of connection when people laugh, and the daisy chain effect of passing on a joke, from one comedian to the next.

Beginning with Chris McCausland, photographer Louise Chan told him a joke then captured his natural response and asked him for a joke to keep the chain of connection going.

The jokes were passed on in this way throughout the 2025 festival, from comedian to comedian and the exhibition captures their true, natural, unrehearsed reactions.

Sharon Burgess, chief executive of Aberdeen Performing Arts, had seen a similar exhibition elsewhere exploring behind the scenes candid photography of comedians - and suggested that the festival create its own version.

“I thought it was an interesting challenge,” said Ms Chan, who works as a digital marketing executive at APA and is a keen amateur photographer. “So I was more than delighted to give it a shot.”

She spoke to comedians working at the comedy festival, many of whom agreed to be involved. The 12 pictures features 18 comedians, including Elf Lyons and Ignacio Lopez, as well as Fred MacAulay and Rory Bremner.

“It was a natural part of the process, it wasn't planned,” she said. “It was just whoever wanted to be involved and whoever was available at the time. And thankfully, a lot of people were kind enough and did have time to spare a couple of minutes and come up with a joke on the spot for me.”

The participants were agreed and the comedians held a draw to decide the order.

“All I had to do was capture their genuine reaction,” said Ms Chan. “But that also meant I had to have have a first joke to tell someone, which was really intimidating, because the first one was Chris McCausland, and I had to somehow find a way to make Chris McCausland laugh.

“So I ran from venue to venue, covering all Aberdeen Performing Arts teams to ask if anyone had a good enough joke to make Chris McCausland laugh.”

The daughter of someone working in the APA team finally came up with the first joke to be told to McCausland which would begin the project.

“It was, ‘What's wrong with Mickey Mouse's helicopter? It disnae land’,” said Ms Chan. “He did laugh. He was very kind and sweet about it. He did find it funny, I think. That that was the first one that kicked everything off.”

She decided not to print the other jokes used alongside the pictures.

“I have chosen to omit the jokes from the exhibition,” she said. “I did toy with the idea of including them, but in the end, I actually felt that this exhibition would work better if it was kind of left to the audience to maybe think about it - and just look at the reactions and ponder what was said between them.”

The exhibition will go display at the Music Hall during the Aberdeen Comedy Festival, which this year has an extended line up across three weekends from Saturday 19 September to Sunday 4 October.