Frankie Browne (English 2022) seeks laughs on stage and screen, believing being registered as visually impaired can be an asset to his comedic impact.

Frankie spent this summer directing a touring sketch comedy show with the Cambridge Footlights. He finds that his visual impairment encourages creative approaches to working on performing arts projects.

“I love sound,” says Frankie, who has recovered some of his sight following several operations. “There’s a radio sketch show which Chris Morris did called Blue Jam, which had music, lots of ambience, and then very strange bits of dialogue soundtracked by really great songs. I really wanted our show to be more like that, so I was very particular about the sound and what songs we were using and how the sound could change.

“There are a lot of sketches which have quite specific sound cues, because I really like this idea of having relatively consistent accompanying music.

“I also struggle with navigating new spaces. Going on tour, it’s always new spaces. And it’s harder for me to be confident about how something looks on stage.

“But the thing that made me more confident was that I was quite sure about how I wanted the show to move around. I was keen to think about very visual, active transitions, as it creates a nice mood when you’re always with the performers and never not watching them. I don’t enjoy blackouts when I perform, as being unable to see anything in the dark stops you from being present in the mood of the show.”

Frankie has been writing and performing his own comedy since school. Since coming to the University of Cambridge, he has enjoyed working on shows with the Footlights, Cambridge’s primary student comedy troupe, including putting on his own stand-up comedy hour, Lonely Stupid Violent, in November 2024.

This year’s touring Footlights production, Fragile Contents, was performed at multiple venues across the UK and the Republic of Ireland between June and October, beginning and ending at Cambridge’s ADC theatre. For Frankie, it was his first opportunity to direct comedy beyond the familiar Cambridge sphere.

He adds: “You have to start with what you like and not care if other people don’t like it, because it’s impossible to please everyone. I found that a hard lesson to learn but a really interesting one.”

Frankie is this year undertaking an MPhil in Film & Screen Studies, focusing on horror films, a genre which much of his own sketch and stand-up comedy is based on. When thinking about films, he is largely drawn to the non-visual aspects and has a keen interest in and admiration for well-written dialogue. He hopes to find creative work and to continue learning to write well after university.

“I would also like to try and learn more about shots and visuals,” he adds. “I struggle to make sure that things are in focus and that I like the shots I’m composing.

“I was filming a short sketch a few days ago and realised I like being very close to the camera. And to make sure something is focused enough, I have to be very close to the actor’s face. So I quite often get these close-up shots and what I’m hoping is that it might create a strange claustrophobia.

“I’m excited to edit that because I would like to get more confident with filming. I don’t usually film things because I feel quite tentative, but I want to see if my impairment can actually create some filming advantages rather than just disadvantages.”