About us
Inside the gates of a notorious HMP establishment a conversation emerged from a chance meeting of two frivolous anarchic eejits on a fag break.
Aqueous Humour was born.
The story so far…..
Early Days
Aqueous Humour started life with a commission to animate Salford Quays from The Lowry in 2001. We created The Oozebogs – a displaced family of alien swamp monsters displaying a complete obsession in humanoid interaction. The Oozebogs became a firm favourite of festivals up and down the country appearing at: The Lowry for the BBC Radio 4 Poetry Festival, Brighton Festival, Winchester Hat Fair, Kite festival Sunderland, Xtrax Manchester.
Commonwealth Games 2002
The company were again called into action for the Commonwealth Games held in Manchester 2002: The Sky Muffins had touched-down and went on to become our most popular show. They embarked on a national tour of dubious beauty and presented a special edition of Liquid News for the BBC 3 television, with appearances at Edinburgh Hogmanay, Manchester Pride, London Zoo, London South Bank, Streets of Brighton, to mention a few.
In 2004 Quantified was born at Bolton Octagon and was flown to The Padderborn Festival in Germany, delighting an international audience of non-English speakers. More recently Quantified have been working with Mike Heath exploring the virtues of electronic music.
Becoming a Company
Once we became a limited Company after having received a little support from Arts Council England, we decided to take a peek into the future with The Revelatios in 2005. Having spent a brief amount of time on the outdoor circuit, the show transformed into a cabaret version in 2006 and morphed into the “Ladygardens” in 2007. We were now touring nationally with our walkabout shows and occasionally popping abroad when invited. We were busy little bees during this period, creating bespoke characters for Vodafone as part of a regional radio promotional campaign in Liverpool, Birmingham and Manchester.
Training in Paris
At the beginning of 2008 Tom Hogan and Jana Kennedy went to develop their skills at Ecole Philippe Gaulier in Paris and had a ball. Philippe Gaulier is recognised as the worlds leading tutor of “Bouffons”, the grotesque clowning style used by Tom Hogan since 1998. This was a fantastic experience as not only did it help to develop the skills within the company, it also afforded us the opportunity to meet Aitor Basauri of Spymonkey, our favourite clowning company in the UK. Watch this space as plans are afoot for 2011/12……….
Charred Grizzle
Recharged from our Parisian antics and with our new offices boasting indoor and outdoor rehearsal space, we produced a grotesque creation of foodie obsession, “Charred Grizzle”. This was our first small-scale static show, designed by our very own Nerissa Cargill Thompson and directed by Colette Murray. The theatrical fusion of modern commedia masks, clown like antics and explosive characters proved to be hugely popular with family audiences, going down a storm at food festivals over the summer.
Ladygardens become Bushpig
As for the Ladygardens….they transformed (yet again) into Bushpig and in 2009 won the Studio Salford Embryo Award for Best Comedy. Bushpig have been in the rehearsal room in 2010 developing some special treats for lovers of musical satire and Country and Western. Watch out in 2011, Bushpig are promoting their new tour and have plans to become something pretty dam darn amazing on tour and on the internet super highway…….
Aqueous Humour also have some exciting plans lined up for the next couple of years from larger, more ambitious projects, to smaller, two-handed strolling shows that promise to delight and amuse with equal measure.