You'd better do. You're going to see Stewart Lee, and I'm going to a local storytelling night THEY DO NOT COMPARE.

Last week I went to a sketch night, saw

Totally Tom,

Who did 2 very very similar sketches (not particularly funny), and finished on what I can only say was an abomination.

Katy and Anna,

Good ideas, well acted but didn't particulary grab me or make me laugh, and hated the 'if you don't know how to end a sketch, we find gunfire works'. Actually no it doesn't, think with good writers they could do well.

Three English Men.

Enjoyed these immensley, good sketchs, lots of laughs and the start of a good connection.

Pappy's (now dropping the fun club since the 4th member 'left').

Always good and love the rapport betwen the guys, even did a new song for us.

Penny Dreafuls

Excellent, and good to catch them as they are mainly doing solo work, no new stuff but all ways love seeing 'Mr Princess'.

Was a good night mainly, the compare was from Tommy and the Weeks, and kept us entertained.

However me being methat after chatting to a woman who was at the gig on the tube, then having to dash off at my stop; a complete stranger pointed out 'you should have got her number' and Damn! He was right, I am useless

Saw Tim Key's very final The Slutcracker show last night. I did laugh a lot but I'd have preferred slightly less surreal and a bit more funny to be honest.

Good, but no cigar.

Dan

Yes, it was, the very final, final one. Until he reforms to make some extra cash.

Also, it was not as good as any of those things you mentioned. But then, pretty much nothing is as good as All Bar Luke. It is one of the all-time best things ever.

Dan

I've seen Tim Key a few times, he's very good.

It started from the beginning last Sunday on that new, fangled Radio 4 Extra. Stotty, if you like Key, and you did want to get more into that there radio comedy stuff, this is the perfect thing to listen to.

Dan

I saw Slutcracker in Edinburgh a couple of years ago and thought it was fantastic. But if you're not open to comedic anti-poetry then you probably won't enjoy it.

Quote: swerytd @ April 5 2011, 11:33 AM BST

It started from the beginning last Sunday on that new, fangled Radio 4 Extra. Stotty, if you like Key, and you did want to get more into that there radio comedy stuff, this is the perfect thing to listen to.

Dan

View original

I shall investigate!

I went to see another of the showcases run by Camden's Comedy School a couple of weeks ago.

I wouldn't normally comment even when the acts are really good, as some of them are, but in this case I feel I have to as one act (Philip Simon) really stood out on the night.

I hope he won't mind me saying, but Philip wasn't the funniest of the acts, though his jokes were very well polished and extremely funny in themselves, but just before he went on there were some drunk idiots who started heckling the compere. He tried to control the situation, but before we knew it bottles were being thrown, glasses smashed and the atmosphere became very tense. How horrible for Philip to then have to come up on stage and try and tell some jokes. He must have been so nervous anyway, and this can't have helped, but he handled the situation very profesionally, humourously commenting on the situation before and during his set when the fighting kicked off again. He never seemed to lose his cool, and was funny throughout. Why do these idiots feel the need to ruin these events for people who are just trying to do something they would never dare to do?

I really hope Philip continues gigging as his set really was very funny, and I for one will be googling him so I can go and see him again. I have been to a number of these showcase gigs and even without the awful heckling (in what was supposed to be a friendly crowd) I really think he's one to watch.

Saw Henning Wehn's first Edinburgh preview of No Surrender last night. Very good already so I imagine it will be excellent by the time it gets to August.

Nice, intimate venue too: Betsey Trottwood near Farringdon, London. He's there all week if anyone's interested.

Recommended.

Dan

Hi all, went to a wedding the other day as a guest of a friend of a friend of the happy couple. There was a guy there who read out a poem (whose name escapes me)and it had me on the floor laughing. I asked about him and was refered to his blog. All of his poems were equally funny especially the one entitled "lessons in posh fingering".

Definitely worth checking out cobblersdog.blogspot.com

Saw Jon Richardson and Shappi Khorsandi last night in Dorking. They did an hour each (their current 'combined' tour). Both were excellent and better than I expected. I went to see JR to be honest and he didn't disappoint. Shappi was a bonus but she was much funnier than I expected, especially towards the end as she got her momentum up.

I did think Shappi was taller though. She's not.

Both recommended and will go see both again given the chance.

Dan

Saw Milton Jones tonight. Some funny gags, obviously, but not for me over an hour. It just becomes one note and unsatisfying, and just sort of ends; though I'm sure a shorter set would be great.

An exciting moment before going in, I exploded in an uncharacteristic loud, sweary verbal assault at man at the bar. So that was interesting

Peter Kay at the O2 last night. Oh, the trouble he has with electrical appliances! £47.50 well spent...

Seriously, he is a very competent performer and I was laughing lots. It's the usual observational stuff but the man has a lot of very good one-liners and genuinely seems to have funny bones.

I didn't think the act was that tight (I am fully aware I am a massive comedy snob) but you can't doubt the man is funny and it was a good show.

There was no need to take a 35-minute break in the middle of his set though. Completely lost the momentum he had built up and it took a while to get it back. That actually annoyed me much more than I thought it would.

Support was provided by Rick Astley. Yes, you read that right. He treated us to a medley comprising one line from every single song you've ever heard in your entire life, including the saxophone intro to Baker Street, by the saxophonist, but no subsequent line from the song! Then he did Never Gonna Give You Up and order was restored.

I bought a Chorley FM 'Coming In Your Ears' t-shirt for my mate, who's from Chorley and thought Phoenix Nights was a documentary about his old man's working men's club for the first three episodes...

Dan

Edinburgh warm-up shows in Guildford last night at Paul Kerensa's You Must Be Stoking were Tom Deacon and Marcel Lucont.

Not many people there unfortunately (though Krenz informed us that a group of 40 students had cancelled last minute), so about 25ish in the audience.

Tom Deacon is a likeable chap. His stuff is all very embarrassment comedy a la The Office: long pauses to allow us to take in the uncomfortable things he's describing about himself. (To be fair, the show is called 'Can I Be Honest?') This is not for everyone as wifey found it hard going (though putting her head on my shoulder while we're the only two in the front row was probably a bit rude), but I was laughing along.

It's not the most ground-breaking of comedy and not completely to my taste (in that I feel like it's an area covered by other stand-ups before) but it's enjoyable and if that is the sort of thing you like, you'll like him a lot. He's a competent comedian though, and certainly knows his stuff. Will no doubt tighten a lot of it up before Edinburgh.

And on to the 'greatest UK-based French comedian around', Marcel Lucont. The guy is *so* funny! Brilliant stand-up section before he did 20 minutes of interview-based stuff; this will be his entire show in Edinburgh, as he interviews involvees of the Festival each night, though we both thought this might be wasted as his stand-up is excellent. He plays the arrogant Frenchman who would look down on us all in the UK if he could be bothered, which is excellent schtick.

Jokes, poetry, a song! It has it all and, despite only having 'the ginger cornishman' to interview, made that section extremely funny, improvising around the audience questions. Particularly the stuff he came out with when asked about 'the current E.Coli scene', something that will unfortunately not survive after last night.

We'd go into London to see him in and around London if and when he has a show running. Thoroughly recommended. One of the best recent comedians I've seen.

Dan