Chris Cantrill received his Edinburgh Comedy Award just seven minutes before he had to be on stage for a midday performance of the winning show, for one final time after a month-long run at this year’s Fringe. “I would not let those people down!” he said of his waiting audience, who cheered him into the room at Monkey Barrel Comedy.
A show born from borderland life
His show, Rewilding, is born out of borderland life, Cantrill having moved with his family to rural Northumberland in 2020. “I live on Hadrian's Wall and I had the best lockdown out of all my friends. I lived in the Fells in the middle of nowhere going on long walks. I was talking to my friends on Zoom who were living in London, losing their minds.”
In 2023, an incomprehensible incident brought shock to the area and beyond. This inserts itself into Rewilding, with Cantrill having established a world which is typically more concerned with which neighbours he’s trying to avoid. “There's so many jokes in it but it is about the tragedy of the felling of Sycamore Gap. Around the world people connected to this story. I live 12 minutes drive away from Sycamore Gap, and it was about me observing it on a local level within my community.”
Characters from the village head on tour
The story brings an array of characters from Cantrill’s world into ours. And now they’re part of an award-winning show, they’ll be taken to comedy stages further afield. “I have to say a big thank you to everyone in my village for letting me use their lives and personas, and not really change any of their names at all. I might have to do that for the tour.”
Both the setting of the story and the successes in Cantrill’s career are a far cry from his early days starting out on the comedy circuit in London. “I’m not like a northerner that just absolutely hates London. But tragically, everything's got better and better for me the further I've moved away from London. Nothing was happening in London. I was doing the meat grinder that is the open mic circuit. Then I moved to Manchester and I met Amy Gledhill and we started gigging together, and then things went better, and now I'm taking this [award] home.”
Manchester partnership and future plans
The two Yorkshire-born comics (Cantrill from Bradford, Gledhill from Hull) formed a double act, The Delightful Sausage, which was nominated for best show in 2019 and again post-pandemic in 2022. “Manchester's a very special place in my life, because it's when I properly met Amy, and also John Stansfield, who's my producer. And those two people have really pushed me forward and challenged me to be better.”
Gledhill won best show as a solo performer two years ago, so this year’s award represents a book end for their partnership, and the Delightful Sausage now looking like a comedy dynasty. Will 2027 be the time for them to complete the set with another collaborative effort? Cantrill puts the question to Gledhill herself at the back of the room. “No,” she says firmly, before teasing: “The year after.”
There’s no rest after a month in Edinburgh for Cantrill who must now return to the writing room for next weekend’s launch of SNL UK season two, as he revealed in his acceptance speech: “I have one day off and then I’m in London for SNL. I asked whether I could come in on Tuesday and they said no.” If the move up to Manchester kick-started his comedy career and the subsequent move to the border has seen his biggest success to date, where could things possibly go onwards and upwards from there? “I think for me next step is probably me to move to the Isle of Skye, and I'll get a Netflix special.”
