Comedy in the area

[SeanMacGabhann]

With Gut Rocking comedy coming to the EDT and EDComedy going great guns at the hob I thought I'd check the pulse of the comedy goers out there. Are there many of us?

Best gig? Favourite club?

Most memorable for me was the first time I saw Bill Hicks. The first time I saw Russell Brand do his Edinburgh warmup at the Hob was special as well as it transfomed my opinion of the guy 180 degrees from out and out.... to very intelligent and funny guy. Adam Hills at the Magdala was great as well - it just kept on going

Favourite club for me was possibly The Meccanno in a basement on Essex Rd N1 - now some bar or other

[georgia]

Do they still do the comedy night at Dulwich Hamlet on a Friday? Raj and I went a couple of times but it was never very busy and not that great to be honest.

Have been to the comedy on the Tattershall Castle on Embankment and that was a good night.

[TillieTrotter]

Bill Bailey at the Edfest on Goose Green a few years back was hilarious. Billy Connolly at Blazers in Windsor has got to be my fav!

[SeanMacGabhann]

I couldn't get in to the Edfest that day - it was sold out and rammed

Georgia - by the Hamlet you mean the Vale right? Can't remember comedy ever happening there. I have been to the Tattershall on Monday nights - definitely a different feeling there being on the water

[georgia]

No I mean the football club / gym near Sainsbury's. They did start doing a comedy night there.

[TillieTrotter]

Twas good indeed. The guy that used to put that event on is thinking of starting comedy night in the banqueting rooms above the dog. Will post on here should anything come off.

[fonson]

I managed to miss Both Mark Thomas (had booked a flight to Gemany) and Eddie Izzard (I was off to the Southport weekender)at the EDT back in he mid 90's......What bad luck!!!

[Domitianus]

Chap called Brian Damage (BRAIN Damage...gedditttt??) at the Bedford in Balham a few years ago. Played guitar and told jokes....EXTREMELY funny. Best act by far on a reasonably good night.

Take my mother-in-law. No, please, really, somebody take her. Boom boom! It's the way I tell him.

[SeanMacGabhann]

How could I forget the Bedford - great place

And Georgia, yes I remember that Hamlet now. I saw it advertised a few times but never made it unfortunately

[buggie]

I'm a big comedy fan, don't go to EDComedy as much as I should because my friends run a club in covent garden (the funny side of covent garden - just a 176 away!) so I'm normally there helping out, but my top 3 local highlights include:

*Celeb pub quizzes upstairs at the EDT - Arthur Smith comparing and me and friends were the only all girl team - he helped us out with a few answers!! Repeated having Steve Frost and his brother trying to turn me away from going in!

*Omid Djalili at a packed out Magdela - I was stood at the back and ended up right in his eyeline as he was demonstrating how Iranian men shout about their passion to their ladies (he shouted at me about how he was so in love he'd chop his arm off or something!)

*Mark Thomas at the Hob last year - engaging, thought provoking and laughout loud funny.

[snorky]

Funniest thing is ED ?

Go to LL and check out the nick nack shops and takle a close look at the prices on their utterly useless goods

Its hilarious, utterly side splitting. I laugh even now as I think back to last weeks visit.

They look like shops, but sell nothing of any use to anyone on this earth.

Its obviously some kind of Guerilla art happening to warn us of the excesses of rampant consumerism.

they arent real shops, they cant be. It must be a joke.

[Keef]

Fonson, I saw Eddie Izzard at the EDT, and you didn't miss much to be honest.... I also saw him a couple of years ago at Wembley Arena, and didn't really think much of that either..... Will he ever regain the form he was showing in "Dress to Kill", one of my all time fave comedy shows!!!!!

I'm from Europe.... Where the history comes from!

You, CAKE OR DEATH? >:D<

[Jah Lush]

I was there that night when Eddie Izzard played to a packed out EDT. That must be getting on for 15 years ago and I'll go along with what Keef says about that night. I thought he was really overrated. Best local one for me though was Al Murray, The Pub Landlord in the same venue about four or five years ago. Absolutely hilarious. Other than that Mark Thomas at the Pheonix Festival in '94. Thought provoking and bloody funny at the same time. Wish I'd seen Bill Hicks though. Am dead jealous of anyone who caught him live. Genius and still inspiring. Tragic he died so young.

[fonson]

Keef,

I don't feel so bad now. It couldn't have been more than 11 years ago because I have been in ED for 13 years now. There was a black comedian on Have I got news for you a couple of weeks ago who is on at the EDT at the moment.

If only Richard Pryor could pop in to see us in ED,he was the master!

[*Bob*]

The Bedford is a good comedy venue, but 70% of the acts they have are the same old so-so circuit stand-ups who trudge from Banana to Jongleurs and back, doing the same old gags about the (hilarious) 'differences between men and women' etc etc.

I wasn't around when comedy was at the EDT so I dunno what sort of acts they had on there.

By contrast, places like The Red Rose comedy club (Near Finsbury Park) tend to avoid the 'filler comics' and make an effort to get new and more offbeat stuff in - as well as allowing 'names' to try-out new shows and hone their stuff before they go on tour.

[fonson]

Whose comedy do you find unacceptable/Acceptable?............Dave Chappelle? Jim Davidson? Chris Rock? Bernard Manning? Richard Pryor? Roy Chubby Brown?.................and Why?

[SeanMacGabhann]

Reg D Hunter is the comic you are referring to Fonson - top bloke

Stewart Lee is also a recurring favourite of mine - did an all too short set at the Hob a few weeks back but he was one of my highlights of last Glastonbury

I saw Bill Hicks twice - once in a small room and once on his last UK tour in a big student theatre size place - place was half empty (but that was Exeter for you)

[Keef]

Think Izzard was about 1995, possibly '96.... Pretty sure I was in 6th form (and thus slightly underage) at the time... :)-D

Racial jokes in comedy are a tricky one... I love Richard Pryor and Chris Rock to a point, and part of the reason for that, is because I don't get the impression they actually hate white people....

Bernard Manning however, is just a horrid racists tw@t!!! I remember seeing him on The Mrs Merton Show (was that the right name? You know, Caroline Ahearne dressed as an old dear), and he basically said if he broke down and had to walk miles in the rain at night, he'd rather that than accept a lift from a black person!!! This was a few years ago, so maybe I've remembered that wrong, but I'm pretty bloody sure that's what he said!

For that reason, when he makes a joke, you know it's based on a genuine recismm inside him (td)

[Keef]

Just going back to Izzard, to be fair, the Thursday nights at the EDT used to be for bigger comics to try out new material before taking it on tour, so that probably explains why it wasn't his best performance.

[fonson]

Keef,

I get your point and I do remember that episode of The Mrs Merton show. Manning actually said, "A dog born in astable is stilla dog so a P*** born in Britain is still a P***" (What a sad man).

When you see an audiance with Manning you get the impression that no other races would be welcome there. Watch Pryor or Chappelle and you see a pretty mixed venue but I suppose it will have more black faces than most.

[fonson]

Mark Thomas is great and is a South London man. I saw him in Catford a couple of years ago.....He and Rob Newman are good pals.

[*Bob*]

I think it's great when you see someone you think you know (from mainstream tv work, usually) really surprising you in a small venue - making you laugh more than you ever thought they ever could.

Roy Chubby Brown is near the bottom on the list - save for one 'joke' which I still believe is the perfect example of how it is possible for something to be both totally out of order and yet still very funny - something which I really believe is important in comedy.

Speaking of which, why doesn't Jerry Sadowitz get more tv work? (hmmmm...)

[*Bob*]

and.. Bottom of the list? That's a hard one. Bernard Manning's an obvious easy target (literally).

Jim Davidson?

[georgia]

Yes Jim Davidson, can't stand him. Though probably joint bottom of the list with Bernard Manning.

[Michael Palaeologus]

Bottom of the list has to be Royston Vasey hiself - Roy Chubby Brown. The most objectionable comedian I have ever heard.