Over the past five years, The Comedy Knights have been forging their legacy one sketch at a time. The creator and executive producer of Malta’s fastest-selling Christmas show, Wesley Ellul, tells Iggy Fenech what goes behind creating the lovable characters, the memorable lines and the mix that has kept audiences returning year after year.

’Tis the season to be jolly, and we absolutely love having a good chuckle at all the quirks, idiosyncrasies and crazies that make Malta the country it is. So much so, that a look at the season’s most popular shows will quickly show that December’s most popular events are almost all satirical…

Wesley Ellul, the director of TAC Theatre and Big Ticket Events, is behind The Comedy Knights, and his exceptional formula of juxtaposing reality and comedy has proven to be a huge hit. It’s been so successful, in fact, that the show, by its third year, had become Malta’s fastest-selling Christmas show, spawned a TV series and had some of its characters – particularly the Sliema Girls – become celebrities in their own right, fronting campaigns and all!

“I think a lot of its popularity comes from the fact that we try to make the show as relevant to our audience as possible,” says Wesley, who has been involved in theatre for well over a decade. “Because the show is not driven by a narrative per se, we also have complete freedom to tackle as many topics as we’d like to.

“That, of course, comes with its own restrictions, because if the audience doesn’t care about the topics at hand, then they probably won’t bother laughing… So, while President Trump may be a big issue in the States – and has provided plenty of laughter for US audiences – he is more of a side note to audiences in Malta. That means that we have to tackle subject matter our audience is invested in: be it topics of national relevance, or characters our audiences can identify from their local cafés and hangouts.”

Even so, no show – no matter how well scripted or executed – can be a success without good chemistry on stage, and that was another of The Comedy Knights’ brilliant choices: getting a group of friends who had known each other and worked together before, and who shared a sense of humour, likes and dislikes, to hang out on stage. Over the years, the cast has changed a couple of times, but the originals are all still there.

The first show included Sir Marc Cabourdin, Lady Jo Caruana, Lady Pia Zammit, Sir Colin Fitz, Sir Steve Hili and Sir Chris Dingli. Then, they were joined by Sir Thomas Camilleri in Year Two, and then Lady Chantelle Micallef Grimaud, completing the Comedy Knights menagerie that’s now been in place for two years.

Sometimes whole sketches are based around a news point that would have broken on the day

As anyone who has attended a Comedy Knights show can tell you, the script always feel incredibly up-to-date. Sometimes with whole sketches based around a news point that would have broken on the day. That is no coincidence, as the Comedy Knights’ writers – Chris Dingli and Steve Hili – switch things around and add lines to the show on a daily basis. Even so, the majority of the work will have been done throughout the previous calendar year.

“When we’re working on the content, we ask ourselves a number of questions, including what is annoying us about life in Malta, what people out there are talking about and what affects us as business owners, as parents, as drivers, as voters, as citizens and as people,” Wesley continues.

“All this means you’ll have one sketch about the tal-pepe of Sliema going to a Maltese restaurant to have something ‘exotic’, another about someone looking to buy a house and becoming fed up with estate agents telling them about how much money they’d make by building flats, and another about the political situation in Malta… And then, you know, we hear about some peeps winning awards, and we go back to drawing board!”

Needless to say, there is a great leap between what is written and what actually ends up being performed. As Wesley continues to explain, it is once they start testing out their ideas that they’ll know what will work as a sketch and what was simply a good idea on paper.

Satire, however, is more than making fun of things. It’s about lifting a mirror to society and certain issues which allow both the creators and audiences to have a think about what’s happening all around them. Sometimes, that could simply be a way of – as Kylie Jenner famously put it in 2015 – ‘realising things’, or even a mild form of rebellion.

“It’s the spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down, I guess!” Wesley adds. “It puts across the message about the things that affect us much more digestible, and allows us, as Maltese people, to see how we are perceived without pointing fingers or saying ‘we’re wrong’ or ‘they do it better’.

“This is something that I, personally, have found to make us stronger because it gives us the chance to look at how others perceive us, and give us options on how to take things forward. And, let’s be honest, someone pointing out someone’s failures can be tricky; we just aim to find a tone which is cheeky, and poke fun at the issues rather than ridiculing out right and calling each other names!”

And, with 2017 now behind us – you know, the one year that trumped the pains and aches of 2016 – there’s a lot that The Comedy Knights will have to tackle in 5how Me the Funny. As Wesley and I agree: a lot of us are feeling lost, confused and very let down by the events of the past 12 months. Which is why, this year, The Comedy Knights will be focusing on what unites us as a people rather than what divides us: like our disdain for the term ‘Christmas Father’, which, let’s be honest, we all love to hate.

“I set a challenge to our writers and actors, this year… I wanted them to make this the funniest show we have staged so far and, hands down and without bias, I can attest they have really gone above and beyond,” Wesley concludes.

Well, I guess there’s only one way to find out whether Wesley’s words hold water: watch the show!

The Comedy Knights’ 5how Me the Funny runs between December 26 and January 7 (bar New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day) at 8pm at the Salesian Theatre in Sliema.