"There's this idea that it has to be made in London. But we've got everything up here, and if you've got comics who are gifted because of where they're from, you shouldn't drag them away from that natural resource"
About this Quote
Vegas is puncturing the soft snobbery baked into Britain’s cultural geography: the reflex that legitimacy lives inside the M25. The line lands because it sounds like a practical production note - “we’ve got everything up here” - while quietly calling out a whole economy of attention that treats “regional” as a charming audition tape for the real stage. London isn’t just a city here; it’s a gatekeeping mechanism, a centripetal force that converts local texture into metropolitan product.
His smartest move is the phrase “natural resource.” It reframes comedians not as interchangeable talent to be “discovered” and relocated, but as something shaped by place: accent, pace, social codes, the weathered absurdity of specific towns. In other words, the joke isn’t detachable from the soil it grew in. Dragging comics south risks sanding off the grain that made them funny in the first place - turning lived detail into a more exportable, broadcaster-friendly version of itself.
Contextually, Vegas is speaking into decades of London-centric commissioning, where media infrastructure, agents, and panels cluster, and “making it” often means moving. There’s also an implicit class critique: relocation is easier if you’ve got money, connections, or a safety net. His defense of “up here” isn’t nostalgia; it’s an argument for cultural sustainability. Invest where the voice comes from, or you’ll keep strip-mining the regions for authenticity and shipping it back packaged as national culture.
His smartest move is the phrase “natural resource.” It reframes comedians not as interchangeable talent to be “discovered” and relocated, but as something shaped by place: accent, pace, social codes, the weathered absurdity of specific towns. In other words, the joke isn’t detachable from the soil it grew in. Dragging comics south risks sanding off the grain that made them funny in the first place - turning lived detail into a more exportable, broadcaster-friendly version of itself.
Contextually, Vegas is speaking into decades of London-centric commissioning, where media infrastructure, agents, and panels cluster, and “making it” often means moving. There’s also an implicit class critique: relocation is easier if you’ve got money, connections, or a safety net. His defense of “up here” isn’t nostalgia; it’s an argument for cultural sustainability. Invest where the voice comes from, or you’ll keep strip-mining the regions for authenticity and shipping it back packaged as national culture.
Quote Details
| Topic | Art |
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