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!