| Collection | Joseph Champniss Collection |
| Description | Paper files, scripts, publicity and personal material (tickets, passes) related to Stewart Lee and Richard Herring's work, both as a double act and as solo performers.
Champniss first saw Stewart Lee in 1991 on a late-night TV show called 'Stand-Up'. Then in 1993 Champniss met Mike Scott, another comedy fan who had recorded Lee and Herring's earlier radio work (On The Hour, The End of the Road Show, Lionel Nimrod's Inexplicable World, Fist of Fun). He shared these tapes with Champniss, and this cemented their shared fandom of Lee and Herring. They both began sending fan letters to the comedy duo during their Radio One show in the Summer of 1994.
When Lee and Herring played Aberystwyth University in November 1994 (with Pete Baynham), Scott and Champniss went along to the show and introduced themselves after the gig. They interviewed the duo, drank with them, and ended up having a lock-in. When Lee and Herring played in Wales again at Treforest University, they did the same again. By this time Lee and Herring had seen Champniss' design work and decided he was "better at drawing them than anyone else", and so they began working together.
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| Admin history | Joseph Champniss is a graphic artist and illustrator. He worked with Lee and Herring, producing artwork for their TV series. He is an avid comedy fan and co-created the website 'Some of the corpses are amusing" (SOTCAA) with Mike Scott. |
| Arrangement | Files include:
1-3 Early work (C.H.T. [Coat Hanger Tim], Lionel Nimrod's Inexplicable World (BBC Radio 4), End of the Roadshow (BBC Radio 4))
4. Fist of Fun (BBC Radio 1, BBC 2)
5. This Morning With Richard Not Judy (BBC 2) and The Organ Gang (a spoof animated children's series in the show drawn by Champniss and narrated by Brian Cant)
6. Lee and Herring Live
7. Stewart Lee solo work (includes posters for Stewart Lee (1994) and King Dong vs Moby Dick)
8. Richard Herring solo work
9. Props (Beer can from a sketch for TMWRNJ with an image of ? as the label, grey wig, prop cereal box) |