We love a good interview profile here at Read The Room. As it’s been a bit quiet on these pages in recent months, we decided to ease ourselves back into publishing by asking if any of our lovely creative friends would be willing to answer a few questions about the cool things they do. Shevek Fodor was the first to reach out to magazine co-editor Alfie and we’re so glad they did!
Comedy, queerness and spreading those good hope-punk vibes - Shevek is a talented creative with many fascinating strings to their bow. We’ll leave it to Shevek to introduce themselves and tell us all about Mr Funbles’ Sunday Portal - the brilliant queer comedy variety show they’ve been developing.
Alfie Whitby: You describe yourself as “a creative sort of person” with a passion for making people laugh. As a bit of an introduction, can you tell us a bit about yourself and all the wonderful creative things you do?
Shevek Fodor: Sure thing, I can try! I never entirely know how to answer this sort of question, and it feels like it's constantly evolving and depends on the day and who I'm talking to. But yes - I'm a genderqueer, neurodivergent (AuDHD) multifarious creative from and based in Newcastle upon Tyne.
I think I'd describe myself as a writer-performer-sound person, but I also make zine & badges and often facilitate workshops for these too. A lot of the time it comes down to what are people willing to pay me to do, but from a more liberating, anarchistic point of view, it's feeling what's bringing me joy and following that - what stories do I want to tell? What do I want to say? What's the best way to do this and possible within the resources at my disposal?
I've got a very DIY mentality, which is how I've fallen into a lot of production sort of roles, especially like sound editing/design and video editing. I don't want to wait to be given a platform; I'm determined to make platforms for myself, and other folks in my communities. But I do also genuinely enjoy a lot of these more technical creative things too. I can find editing really satisfying because it's all fundamentally storytelling. I like finding out how to make things sound cool. And I'm finding a fun, weird niche of performing as a technician with an offstage voice through a microphone and reactive sound effects that I program as hotkeys and play with from the back.
I'm always just trying to make things tangible and shareable, engaging with people with as much authenticity and fun as possible.
AW: What was your journey into comedy? Was there a specific moment when you realised that making people laugh and bringing them joy was your calling?
Shevek: I think I'm still on this journey! Life is pretty ridiculous… I've always sought out laughter to feel better about things. It's how I cope as a sensitive bean.
I grew up interacting with comedy in various forms. I enjoyed loads of family friendly stuff like Shrek and Aardman. My folks showed me a lot of old films - things like the Marx Brothers and classic kids TV. I think my first sketches I ever wrote were basically “fan fiction” for Sorry I've Got No Head and Horrible Histories. My mum got me a DVD of Do Not Adjust Your Set, a kids sketch show from when she was growing up, which had people from Monty Python in before they did Python. I then moved from that to Fawlty Towers, The Goodies, and to Flying Circus. It's all things we'd watch as a family - Outnumbered, Ghosts, Friday Night Dinner… I'd also listen to lots of classic comedy on Radio 7 as it was then. I really vibed with it, especially the Navy Lark and Round the Horne. And also the newer stuff that was going out - I love John Finnemore’s Souvenir Programme and Cabin Pressure, Bleak Expectations. More recently my massive inspirations are Aunty Donna and Stamptown - [which are responsible] for inspiring me with the possibilities of integrating live sound into comedy and being a tech-performer.
Life doesn’t make sense, and comedy leans into this, it expresses and explores this. So the things I create will always be weird, odd, surreal, absurd. I have been told (by, errrr, mainstream producers) that what I'm doing isn't necessarily comedy, but it's definitely not serious… I might not do “stand up” but I'll play with character and sketch and I wanna make narrative stuff longer term.
I got involved with the pantomime society and comedy society at uni, both performing and writing. Within the past few years since moving back to Newcastle I started going to open mics of various sorts, finding the queer friendly ones. I got involved with the Good Name Clown School and Cabaret, Felt Nowt’s Feeling Sketchy, SoreSlap’s Sketch Slap, and slowly found my people among the queer, indie scene up here. Since there wasn't anything doing exactly what I wanted to do I've meandered into setting it up with some like-minded folks.
AW: You’ve been developing a brand new queer comedy variety show called ‘Mr Funbles’ Sunday Portal’ and recently had your first big show at the Alphabetti Theatre in Newcaslte. I’m curious to know more about this Mr Funbles character, what’s their backstory? How and why did the variety show come about?
Shevek: So yes! Mr Funbles appears to be an ageless, clown-like figure who seems to have lurked in the background behind silly joymakers since the dawn of time. I’m putting together a zine at the moment but the figure of Mr Funbles has cropped up all over the place - it’s very bizarre.
I grew up on some old VHS tapes just recorded off the telly of repeats of a relatively obscure but surely a hit 60s Mr Funbles’ Sunday Portal TV show. I’m so mad that the last live show seems to have been in early 1996 so I was this close and yet so far from seeing them live. I’m obsessed!
August, my co-producer and our show’s Portal Engineer, was the first person I’ve met (aside from my sibling) who also has a deep love and esteem for Mr Funbles. It just made sense that we’d try and revive it (again). So we have! Alphabetti Theatre have taken a punt on us, and we’ve been able to share it with new audiences. We’re also very grateful to the Cumberland Arms for also being very game and giving us space to do WIP/Scratch nights to road test our concepts and material.
Our Mr Funbles’ Sunday Portal is a cosy home for weirdos, seeking to provide rejuvenating laughter and hope-punk energy to help survive (surviving but also vibing) the horrors of the increasingly volatile everyday world. We’re trying to cultivate a model that is adaptive to meet our intersectional needs as queer, neurodivergent beings, and somewhere where we can be authentic without having to inhibit, adapt or limit work to “fit in” with what is seen as how things should be done in mainstream settings. This is of course all very much the spirit of Mr Funbles, even if they’ve proved a somewhat elusive host thus far…
Our first shows have been super and it feels really special to be able to create an anarchic DIY platform for alternative comedy performers, and for it to be received as a much needed space for silliness by our audiences.
AW: Will there be more Mr Funble shows to come? What can audiences look forward to?
Shevek: Yes! We’ve just found out we’ve got a spot to perform as part of Newcastle Fringe Festival on July 24th, and we’ve got another couple of dates pencilled in at Alphabetti for the rest of the year - Saturday 13th September and Saturday 6th December.
We can always promise that Mr Funbles’ Sunday Portal will be, positively, an experience. Audiences can look forward to organised chaos with a variety of acts: alternative-comedy-circus-drag-burlesque-clown-music-theatre-sketch-comedy-maybe*
*Anything that may be defined as “performance” may be present at Mr Funbles’ Sunday Portal
**Anything is possible at Mr Funbles’ Sunday Portal. The show may not even be on a Sunday!
***Mr Funbles’ Sunday Portal may not include: snails, balloons or Mr Funbles.
AW: What do you enjoy most about performing? What have been the highlights of your career so far?
Shevek: In a lot of ways I still don't really know why I perform, but it's an itch that I definitely feel if I haven't performed in some capacity for a while. I just like making things, being silly… Co-creating Mr Funbles is definitely the thing I'm most proud of and what's lovely is that, while I'd say it's a career highlight, it feels like the beginning of something rather than something we've done.
I love collaborating, facilitating spaces where folks can come together and play, bounce off each others’ ideas, build each other up and concoct glorious ridiculous laughter and absurdity. A lot of this too is about losing ego, trying to be a Kermit the frog, working out what exactly brings me joy and following that - even if that's pressing buttons at the back rather than being on stage all the time. In that sense it's about the people feeling less alone in the world - as a creative and as a person (does that mean creatives aren't people?!) and sharing joy and silliness. As long as that's something I can keep doing I think I'm relatively content.
AW: Do you have any creative plans or projects for the rest of 2025? Please tell us all about them!
Shevek: Mainly just more Mr Funbles, doing the live shows but also trying to write and produce things for online audiences, with some lo-fi audio and video sketches, and also some zines. I’d also love to cultivate energy to work on some longer form writing projects/spec comedy scripts. It’s a weird one bumbling around as a freelancer bouncing from one project to another, so while I don’t have loads of definite plans, there’s quite a few potential silly things in the pipeline so watch this space…
Insta: @soundslikeshevek | soundslikeshevek.com
Words and interview: Alfie Whitby (they/them)
If you are a creative or run a small independent business and would like to be considered for a profile feature, please get in touch. Our focus is amplifying women, LGBTQIA+ and marginalised voices within arts and culture.
----------
Read The Room is a volunteer-run magazine! Enjoyed reading our articles and content? Please consider supporting us on ko-fi to help us cover the cost of running the website!
----------