18TH APRIL.

Some magic moments.-Sorry we failed to snap everyone.





Everyone must have been partied out after the Easter weekend because it was far from packed at this week's Long Live Comedy. For a while it looked as if the performers might be playing to each other, but a handful of people at the last minute saved us. We decided to think of it as a gig-come-workshop.  As Sarah Millican asked, the gig is fine, when does the cum workshop start?

Al opened as compere, a bit late because we were waiting for an audience to show up!  Returning from Ireland and Amsterdam he did plenty of 'aren't accents funny' material.  Probably best done when there are no Irish people in the audience (Hello Donnacha) - but Al did point out that it was the Irish adverts which had the most over-the-top accents- he didn't meet any real Irish with phone numbers such as; 0800 tree tree tree oh tree tree tree.

Chris Cross opened, and brought some support as well!  He's another comedy magician, cut from the same cloth as last week's Flash. He has some good tricks and jokes, and will no doubt get a little slicker with a bit more experience behind him.

Next up we had Donnachda back again after he did so well last time.  He's preparing for the Final of the Chortle Comedy Awards, so was happy to come back and try some new material. If you missed him, more fool you.  This boy is good.

Pete took the next section, but we were already running out of time, so he cracked on without doing his planned material. Though he did give a taster of the postponed material by pointing out that he'd brought a cowboy hat and playing an alternative intro jingle based on 'dueling banjos' from 'Deliverance.' So come back next time to see what thats all about. Pete introduced our first visitors from far afield - Manchester - and bless 'em thats a long way to come to perform for 12 people.

Ian Fox previewed part of his 'butterfly effect' show that he is taking to Edinburgh this year.  This will involve stories of how one tiny event can lead to huge repercussions. This story started with a monkey called dave and ended - somehow - with a huge plane crash, via post orgasmic narcolepsy and poo flinging. Good stuff, lots of monkeys - who all call themselves Dave in private.

Next was Swab.  A noun/verb you wouldn't expect to see as a name.  He was a second magical comedy act, and mercy, it was something else and had the focus more on the comedy. He illustrated a mathematical series in party poppers - 1, 6, 36.. it goes up at an alarming rate  And performed a rabbit from the hat with a very reluctant rabbit, a gun and lots of fake blood.

Callum had found a strange rant from the west end to tell us all.  Surreal but funny, and served to compere the final section.

Sarah Millican treated us to a load of new material.  Some remarkable sexually agressive stuff that really had people laughing, not sure it would work in a WI seminar between cake decorating and Blair baiting, but it was one of the night's highlights.

Finally Al returned and talked about the toilet.  Some good old lavatorial humour to finish off a quiet but enjoyable night.

The competition was the Butcher's songbook - songs that a butcher would enjoy e.g. liver and let pie, Give beef a chance etc.  Winner got a bottle of hock, and a pile of Ferrero Rocher.  Da da-da-da da-da da-da-da-daaa.... We were really spoiling you.

APRIL 4TH.

Some pics of some of the performers this week. They are Paul Gerrard; Flash; James Christopher; John Scott; Callum and Al reading the audience competition entries.


So what happened? Pete compered section 1 with a few bits of new material including his theory on the evolution of the cat, 'tiny lion spies.' He also tested the theory that there's nothing funnier than reading trivial pursuit questions with the wrong answers. This lead into the new competition based on the old Two Ronnies 'Mastermind sketch', where the answers arrive a question late;

What's the current most popular girls name? Paris.
Who is Peter Parker's alter-ego? Chantelle.
Who is Premiership footballs all time top goal　scorer? Spiderman.


Which meant we gave away 2 prizes at the end. Mad Dog 20/20 AND le piat d'or? We really are spoiling you.

Paul Gerrard was our first act, making his second appearance at LLC, was back with all fresh material and produced another blast of fine one-liners.

James Christopher was on second. He is one of the best exponents of taking his image and working it as a full set. Check out his picture, can you guess what he mentions a lot? That's right, Doctor Who. He has perfected his set of spoddy sci-fi fan material. We've seen the routine before, but the delivery and new touches mean it's still a joy to watch. (And in real life he's a boxing steelworker on his third marriage.)

Section 2 was compered by Al, with new material, contemplating possible future fatherhood and the fact that he might be impotent, but not imPOtent. (He wanted to stress that.) Al has a lot of clever material but it has to be said, people still seem to like it best when he brings out the knob gags. As he said after the show...

"You can't escape the fact that the big laughs originate from the genetalia, or their functions. I'll be honest, I'd like to think I was bigger than my cock (gags), but rule 1 is be funny."

John Scott, who plays at Jongleurs and other places you've actually heard of, came down to help us out. (Hats off to him.) He showed the difference between a pro (him) and a new act (The rest of us.). He took hold of the room, and made people more comfortable, as well as making them laugh. The night settled down and got even better after his set.

Ned Nineacres (Pete thompson back again disguised in waistcoat and scarf) was next experimenting with a wurzles type character. He had some good gags, sang 'cross town traffic' in a (vaguely) west country accent and chinned 2 pints of cider. He regretted this soon after, which was even funnier.

Callum compered section three, and kept things moving with a combination of tried and tested material and new stuff.

Penultimate act was a magician (woo) -the Flash. He has a funny likeable style and, while some of his tricks are just gags, he is a talented magician and some bits are really impressive. I must say that I preffered tonight's trick last time I saw it, as the audience member was a bit thicker and was utterly astounded, like she'd wittnessed a miracle.

Last act was, Donnacha O'Connill whose dry one-liners on failure in love, life and everything make him sound like an Irish Woody Allen. We forgot to get a picture but he is on next time (18th April), so if you want to see a truly funny act on the up and up before he grows up and gets a proper job, i recommend you come along.

21ST MARCH.

Here's a few photo's of some of this week's performers. We'd hoped to get some on stage shots, but the camera battery was too low to use the flash so we had to pose them under lights afterwards. Not very flattering in most cases, though Christian looks cool.
They are; Christian Steele; Lee Teah; Sarah Millican; Tom Mitchell.



Another good show, a slightly smaller crowd than opening night but a great atmosphere. The format changed a little, the 3 regulars compered one section of the show each, trying new material in the links. As for rest of the lineup, it was a pretty stellar one:

Callum warmed up his section with musings based on the weirder stories from 'Metro' free newspaper. Then our first act was Tom Mitchell, who's sometimes seen as part of the 'Belly Rub' sketch group, so he has plenty of experience. He went on to a cool crowd and warmed them up nicely.

Sarah Millican (Our only genuine pofessional) was originally going to headline, but, poor thing was knackered and needed her bed so she went on early. She treated us to some great material and saved some new stuff for last. As usual Sarah asked permission to try the new material and apologised in advance in case it was rubbish. By this time she had the crowd well and truly on her side, the new stuff turned out to be great too, and it was feeling like an event.

Pete brought along his guitar and in his section filled the gaps with reworkings of TV themes and other musical treats. Lee Teah was on next and, despite being still quite new to comedy, already has some great lines in his set.

Catherine Scott (No picture as she slipped away before we snapped her, sorry) came on next, and her style is very relaxed and friendly, which went well with the crowd who were happy to settle in at this stage. She even prompted a friend of Al's in the crowd to say "I thought girls were rubbish at stand-up, but they aren't." Al informs us that from this particular friend this is high praise indeed.

Al MC'd the third section trying out new ideas following his full set last time. His first guest was our very own Callum who relaxed into some great material. Cats Vs Dogs especially found favour with the crowd.

Christian Steele finished the night off for us in style. God bless him he was brilliant. A few bits that I had never seen before, to go with his new hair I suppose. And all his old stuff has been finely tuned - there's not much fat left on the act now, and though he'd stepped into the spot at the last minute he proved a confident headliner.

One funny moment (for us) showed that great minds think alike when Christian did a Particularly good James 'rhyming slang' Blunt song. Bizarrely the song had been similarly parodied last week by Les Paul Marshall - Both swapping 'beautiful' and 'face' for 'hideous' and 'disgrace'. Of course, both had their own style and twist, but even spookier, they both played it on a ukulele! What are the chances of that happening?

Another great night!

7TH MARCH.

Our first gig went without too many genuine hitches, though admittedly a few teething troubles. First a run down of who did what...

Al's health and safety inspector started off the show - "All accidents must be noted in the book, there's been some minor ones already, in rehersals Callum laughed too hard and a little bit of wee came out." After a quick introduction from our 3 hosts, Paul Gerrard was on first and is getting better and better, and set the night up really well. We lost James Christopher to gut rot (poor excuse), so Peter Thompson had to go on and fill the gap with the routine he did at the student comedy awards. ('Not without promise', raved the reviewer from Chortle) Al Dawes did a good 10 minutes, incorporating a lot of new material. Peter appeared again with Callum Cramb in an elongated sketch / link about a magician who makes 'the bird' appear from nowhere. Les Paul Marshall almost didn't get there but when he did get there he managed to delight some and disgust others. Alex Collier boldly finished off the show in fine style.

One success of the night was the audience competition, this week it was to think of a word, and write a new definition (e.g. supercedes; the best budgie food in the world, or collonade; a fizzy enema). We weren't sure if the audience would be willing to take part, and had a few sneaky 'entries' already in the box. However, when we opened it at the end of the night it was stuffed with ideas from nearly every table. The winner was the rather spurious Contagious; used to describe a council worker. As in 'any job will take that lazy contagious.' They made it away with a lovely bottle of Blue Nun. Here's a few more of the best entries;

copper nitrate - overtime for policemen.
DNA - national dyslexics association.
trampoline - a skinny vagrant.
boomerang - a startling pudding.
Quincy - a fruity medical drama.
Dilate - to live too long.

Some of those teething troubles involved the fixable - only one mic and a few of the stage lights had missing bulbs. Others were more problematic - some people think we should just get one experienced compere, instead of linking through a mix of banter, competitions and sketches. Our philosophy here is that if we go for the compere option we'll be the same as every comedy night going - we'd rather be different, even if that means risking some things falling flat.