“Mmm, the thing is, that is such a funny punchline but it just needs a clearer reveal” muses Enrico Hallworth, weaving his cappuccino through the crowds, to his flat white-clutching companion, Orlando Gibbs. Maybe it’s the caffeine, or the claustrophobia of King’s Parade’s Cafe Nero, or even the frustrating fact that, after two years of making friends with PhysNatScis solely for this purpose, I am still yet to casually bump into Stephen Hawking… but I think I feel a bit star struck.

Nestled between listening to evensong at King’s and vomming at Cindies, catching a performance by the internationally-renowned Footlights is hailed as one of those ‘classic Cambridge experiences’; as compulsory, some might argue, as the degree. Perhaps the opening play-by-play analysis of a joke’s particular merits was purely for my benefit, but so far Hallworth and Gibbs — two of this year’s eleven-strong Footlights committee — are, much to Hallworth’s immediate embarrassment and my delight, ticking off all the squares on the Cambridge Comedian Bingo Card.

But apparently, they don’t buy into their own hype. “We’re not that funny,” Hallworth earnestly assures me. “It would be very untoward for any of us to say that we have an objective claim to funniness” deadpans Gibbs, with a grave nod of agreement. Though unsure that they’ve entirely understood the self-promotional ulterior motive of a preview, I plough on. We’ve met up, after all, to talk about their latest show, Footlights at the Arts Theatre, which has flown under the student publicity radar somewhat, despite being terrifyingly advertised in their professional press release as ‘side-slitting’. 

“It would be very untoward for any of us to say that we have an objective claim to funniness”

This is largely because of the self-evident funniness of any Footlights gig, as anyone lucky enough to see this term’s Behind Closed Doors can attest to. FATAT promises to be something of a sketch-show showreel: what Hallworth describes as the “best bits” from all the smokers, solo shows and Spring Revues the committee has collaborated on over the years. "You’d have to be a pretty hardcore fan to have seen most of the material though, right?", I ask them. “Yes,” Gibbs assures me — though he can’t resist decorating his response with a touch of self-depreciation: “That said we are a very repetitive group. Some of the stuff on Sunday I will have performed about seven times. And that’s—” "Because it works?", I offer. Gibbs doesn’t miss a beat: “Probably because it works. Or because we’re horrifically lazy.” 

I’m sure to his producer’s relief, Gibbs does manage to point out that in booking tickets for FATAT you’re essentially getting ‘three for the price of one'. Collective excitement builds as they start to talk about this added bonus: along with an hour of their own “tried-and-tested material”, the Footlights are playing both theatrical and domestic hosts to student comedy troupes from all over the country.

Though perhaps secretly just psyched for the big comedy sleepover they seem to be going to have, Hallworth “cannot stress enough how excited we are to see their stuff”. A historic talent for turning silliness into tear-streaming, tummy-aching belly laughs is what unites these groups: “if you look at the people who, in the past ten years, have left university and gone out and tried to make a living out of comedy, they are nearly always coming from Cambridge, Oxford, Durham, Leeds and Bristol”, Gibbs points out.

“Along with an hour of their own tried-and-tested material, the Footlights are playing both theatrical and domestic hosts to student comedy troupes from all over the country”

Footlights at the Arts Theatre is, as Hallworth beautifully describes it, “a corpus — oh God, that’s such a pretentious word — of all the shit we’ve accumulated over the last three, four years”. It’s this committee’s “last-ish hurrah”; “we’ve got two more smokers next term. So they’ll be our lastest hurrahs,” Gibbs confirms, “but this is very exciting too”. Most importantly, FATAT will be an undoubtedly safe bet for anyone looking to lose their Footlights virginity with as many gags and giggles as possible, and the pair add that they hope that watching the show might encourage anyone who’s previously avoided Cambridge comedy to audition for next term’s smokers.

“When I was in first year, committee was this mysterious, ethereal scary thing. We’ve tried really hard to be welcoming and nice this year. I hope it’s paid off,” Gibbs tells me. For those wondering whether to take the plunge, he has this to say: “Come along and, if you like the look of it, then have a crack yourself. Because that’s exactly what we all did. We were just foolish enough to keep having cracks until… well, until there was no-one to tell us no.”

Review: Footlights Lady Smoker

The townspeople of Cambridge busy snapping up the tickets know that this is your chance to see the rising stars of comedy strut their embryonic stuff, before your view is mediated by a television screen and a BBC camera. Catching these two, plus their nine other funny pals, do what they do best is surely no bad way to end a term — and, you never know: it could be you on that stage next year.

The Footlights are at the Arts Theatre on Sunday 12th and Sunday 19th of March, at 7:45pm