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A Jersey-born comedian who recently won his first film festival accolade for his parody ‘rockumentary’ about local music culture is calling for the growth of a dedicated comedy scene on the island.
Christian Jegard, who grew up in Jersey and now lives in Brighton, won gold at a London film festival for his spoof documentary earlier this month.
The film, called 'Jersey: A Musical Journey', sees Christian playing several characters based on stereotypes of various personalities in the island's music scene who are all of an earnest disposition – ranging from guitarist Billy Unrest of punk band The Bloody Livid to Jersey Collage for Girls Tiktok influencer and pop-music Bailey-Mae LeBailhache.
"It's nice to win an award for something that has a lot of Jersey references," Mr Jegard said. "But it's also nice to see that it makes people laugh outside of Jersey.
"It doesn't hinge on local references. I think that's because the characters are quite archetypal so a lot of people recognise them."
Christian, who went to Grainville School and De La Salle College, explained that was inspired by his experience as the former frontman of the indie rock band 'The Valentines'.
The spoof documentary, which was commissioned by ArtHouse Jersey in 2021 at the beginning of lockdown, aimed to give islanders a laugh during those challenging times.
Christian said: "Everyone was really nervy at the time. It was it was like art almost stopped temporarily, especially films and comedy sketches, things that require a team of people.
"Because of that, I knew that I'd have to do something where I play all the characters and where nobody else is really on screen."
"In Jersey, all the bands were thrown together on stage, unlike in the UK where everything was fragmented. So I got to meet a lot of people from all areas and genres."
One of the characters included is St Ouen-based singer/songwriter/surfer 'Anton Decque', a shy folkster, who writes material about "important things", as well as Jersey-based protest songs such as, 'It Doesn't Matter Where The New Finance Centre's Going, I'm Against It'.
Pictured: Christian's film, 'Jersey: A Musical Journey' recently won the Gold for best UK Comedy Short at the London-Worldwide Comedy Short Film Festival.
We then head over to the 'Togetherness Festival', the annual highlight in the local music calendar, run by local festival impresario 'Graeme LeBreton'.
He tells us about the challenges of programming a ten thousand-strong festival in a field in Trinity, his regret about booking 'A Little Bit of Monica' star Lou Bega, and his exasperation with Jersey-peeved punk popinjay 'Billy Unrest'.
Christian also called for the growth of a dedicated comedy scene in Jersey.
He said: "There isn't really a comedy scene. When I was younger, I wanted to be a writer and I wanted to perform sketches on stage and things but there was no way I could do it in Jersey.
"They would have Comedy Nights, sometimes at hotels, but there wasn't an open mic for comedy. There wasn't a dedicated comedy night with all the different ingredients you need to make it work.
"So I had to kind of search elsewhere for it. But I think it's something that's really missing from Jersey. I think people from Jersey really want to see comedy.
"It could be that it's difficult to get on stage when you are in a small community and you know a quite of people. It's a bit easier in the UK when you don't know anyone in the audience. I was too scared to try it when I was younger."
"But I think there's there'll be kids from Jersey who want to do it. And maybe hopefully somebody will set up some open mic because it's really easy.
"Sometimes comedy gets forgotten about, but one most amazing things you can do is to make another person laugh."
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