Brighton’s post-Zap mainstream fringe venue Komedia was established in 1994, and soon became internationally renowned.

Inspired by their experiences of European Café Theatre venues, Colin Granger, Marina Kobler and David Lavender, who was involved with the Nightingale during the 1980s, converted a Grade II-listed Georgian billiard hall in Kemp Town into a theatre and cabaret bar. The venue offered people from all walks of life a place to enjoy comedy, cabaret and music while having a meal and a drink, an experience not available to British people back in the early nineties.

Komedia has played a key role in establishing the comedy careers of many household names, including Graham Norton, Mel and Sue, Michael McIntyre, Sarah Millican, Jenny Éclair and Omid Djalili.

Rapidly gaining popularity, Komedia moved to a larger space in the former Tesco supermarket in Gardner Street in 1998. This enabled the development of its programme of live entertainment, music, comedy, cabaret and theatre shows, as well as attracting big names such as Arctic Monkeys, the Mighty Boosh, Steven Berkoff, Julian Cope and Harry Hill.

As its national reputation grew, Komedia became involved in Edinburgh Festival Fringe. When in 2000, Richard Daws, formerly of Victoria Real television production company, joined, Komedia Entertainment was founded to manage and produce new comedy acts.

Komedia has since opened a second European Café Theatre style venue in Bath and formed a creative partnership with Picturehouse. This partnership has seen the art house cinema group opening Duke’s at Komedia, a two-screen state of the art cinema within Komedia Brighton and a screen in Komedia Bath.

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