The alternative cabaret scene of the 1980s (or alternative comedy as it is usually remembered) played a pivotal role in the history of British light entertainment. Not only did it challenge the stylistic and political conservatism that dominated the comedy of the 1970s, it also introduced the concept of the comedy club to the UK. Thus, alternative cabaret was essentially the origin of the live comedy industry that thrives in Britain today.

Given the importance of alternative cabaret, it is perhaps surprising that until recently, there were no major scholarly works on the subject. Now there are several, notably Krista Bonello Rutter Giappone's The Punk Turn in Comedy (2018), my own Alternative Comedy (2020), and a collection that I edited with Sharon Lockyer, Alternative Comedy Now and Then (2022).

Ray Campbell's A Cultural History of British Alternative Cabaret (1979–1991) is an important addition to this growing canon, adding much depth and detail to earlier accounts. Campbell is well qualified to write about this subject, with direct personal experience of the 1980s alternative cabaret scene. The introduction demonstrates the kind of countercultural knowledge built up over a lifetime of political engagement and following postpunk music, deploying quotes from Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man and Gang of Four's “Armalite Rifle” as a double epigraph. Importantly, Campbell argues for the importance of the term alternative cabaret (as opposed to alternative comedy) and rightly points out that there has been “a paucity of material” considering the scene specifically as cabaret (3).

The second chapter, “A Journey Through Time,” presents a chronological narrative of alternative cabaret from its origins in the late 1970s to its “death,” which Campbell places in the period 1991–1992. The main source for this is a forensic examination of articles and listings from the events magazine Time Out, a publication that alternative cabaret performers followed closely. What makes this account particularly useful is that events within the scene itself are juxtaposed with important events in UK politics, including Thatcherism, inner city riots, the miners’ strike, the radical Greater London Council, and the poll tax. This places alternative cabaret firmly in its historical context, which is vital given how politicized the scene was.

However, the real value of this book is in the three chapters that follow. In the first of these, “The Outsider,” Campbell presents an autoethnographic account of his experiences in alternative cabaret, performing stand-up comedy under the stage name Buddy Hell. This chapter is rich and highly engaging, drawing on valuable primary sources like Campbell's own notebooks and diary entries. Unusually for the time, Campbell started his career not in London but in Newcastle, forming a group called Cabaret A Go Go. He vividly recalls the shows they staged, his recollections enhanced with reproductions of the group's DIY cut-and-paste posters.

There is one issue that Cambell handles particularly well. Alternative cabaret aspired to an openly expressed ethos of non-sexist non-racist entertainment, and earlier scholarship has discussed how successfully it managed to adhere to this. Historians have noted, for example, that despite the desire to be non-racist, Black performers were few and far between. As a Black man of mixed heritage, Campbell is able to use his personal experiences to provide a far more detailed and incisive account of race in the alternative cabaret scene than we have seen in earlier publications. He vividly recalls his responses to the racist jokes and lack of diversity in the comedy he watched while growing up, thus demonstrating what alternative cabaret was reacting against. Despite acknowledging that most alternative cabaret venues adhered to the non-racist ethos, he recalls incidents in which racial slurs were used against him. He describes his experiences of the beginnings of the Black comedy circuit, in particular being filmed for The Late Show while appearing at the Electric Cinema in Notting Hill. Coming from a mixed-heritage background, he feels that he was subject to stereotyping in both white and Black venues, where he “wasn't seen as Black enough” (109).

The following chapter, “An Ethnography of Alternative Cabaret,” offers a broader context for Campbell's experiences by exploring the perspectives of a range of other performers and promoters involved in the scene. He does so by drawing on an impressive body of primary research, made up of 18 interviews and 17 questionnaires from key players like Tony Allen, Stewart Lee, and Roland Muldoon to figures who are less well remembered. Here, and throughout the book, Campbell uses ideas taken from Situationism, postpunk culture, and the writings of Pierre Bourdieu as a theoretical frame.

Campbell draws on more of his personal experiences in Chapter 5, “CAST, New Variety, and the Hackney Empire.” In 1989, he completed a work placement with CAST at the Hackney Empire, and his personal connection informs this account, along with primary research material in the Hackney Empire Archives at the University of East London, and interviews with CAST's Roland Muldoon. As I have previously argued, CAST played a crucial role in helping the alternative cabaret scene to grow and spread, and Campbell provides a vivid and detailed account of how this happened. He traces how this veteran left-wing theater company morphed into a promoter running a chain of cabaret venues, using public funding to pay performers well whilst maintaining affordable ticket prices, and eventually managing to bring an 85-year-old music hall, the Hackney Empire, back to life as a working theater.

The book finishes with a satisfying, punchy conclusion, ending with the stirring thought that today's reactionary populism might mean that “the time is right for a new cabaret revival” (225). What Campbell achieves in this book is less a comprehensive account of alternative cabaret, and more a deep dive into important and previously underexplored aspects of it. He expertly uses his direct personal experience as a performer not just to inform his analysis but also to construct a richly enjoyable read.