September 26th.

Another small, but perfectly formed night. (We'll have to spread the word and get back to the full rooms we had over the Summer.)

Steffen Peddie came down to kick things off and got the room going with tales of his wrestling days when he was known as Judge Mental. Another comic might have to make up a story like that, but Steff just dips into his checkered past.

Pete appeared as Lord Caruthers-Worthington, a time traveller from 1843. This is a character he's developing for a radio competition, so apologies to anyone who didn't know what he was talking about. Particularly when he explained why it's necessary to be naked and covered in goose fat when coming up his time hole.

Comedy magic from the Flash. He had a new box of tricks to show us, including his version of 'Play Your Cards Right' with Bruce Forsythe. He can't do the voice, but he's got the chin mastered.

Dan Bland was up from Leeds and gave us a great stand up set. Hopefully he'll be back when we've got a bigger crowd - that's a long drive to play for 10 people.

After Dan's brief return to 'normal' stand up comedy, we were back in to the weird zone with Nolbert stump. Actually this was two characters in one, as a magic potion turned Nolbert into an artist -saliva Dor Dali. This is brilliant physical comedy, at one point there was an audible gasp when Nolbert looked (somehow) as if he might pull his own head off. See the review of Nolbert on the 13th of June, where there's also a link to his own website.

19th September.

Les Paul Marshall, Dave Dynamite, Paul Gerrard and the Belly Rub Sketch trio.



Another great LLC last night. Not a big crowd and only 4 acts but everything went so well we all came away thinking it was one of the more successful nights. (Even if we did forget to ask for any money.)

We had Dave Dynamite, who we only realised after sticking him on first, is a pro who usually gets paid. So he joins the ranks of those we're lucky to get. He'll hopefully be back to headline at some point. Although it actually worked well, amateurs that we are, we're only just realising that a good first act to get things going is as important as a good headliner. Dave certainly got things going, he's a brash Essex (?) boy ranting against the world. Some reviews I've seen say he's all rant and no material - I can't agree. he's a lot of rant but there's some great material in there. 'I was watching Hollyoaks - with the sound off, I'm not gay.'

Next up was LLC regular Paul Gerrard with another set of snappy one-liners. Paul should be back again soon, and if you're a Sunderlander he's also a regular performer at the Royalty.

We also had the sketch group Belly Rub, with Tom Mitchell who's done stand up at the LLC before. Following a drop out they had free reign over the whole middle section and it worked really well and made a great change from more stand up. It's often hard to make sketch comedy work in stand-up venues, but Belly Rub have the confidence and the material to make it work. (And hats off to our audiences who seem to embrace the 'anything goes' attitude.) Their set included the brilliant 'Goth Watch' -what would happen if Bill Oddie set up a hide in old Eldon Square.

Les Paul Marshall was back with more debauchery in the form of the popular song. I've said before that Les tends to amuse and disgust in equal measure, but pretty much everyone is laughing. Half the audience in a 'this is funny as f@)%*' way and the other half in a 'I can't believe what I'm hearing' stylee. This time Les Paul promised he wouldn't do the 'really sick' one and instead did a song about roman showers. (I didn't know either- google it(but not at work.)) He then did 'paedolphile rock' as an encore anyway.

We finished with the competition, this week Proverbs, inspired by an item Al and Pete heard on the Mark Radcliffe show. Their best one was;

"If you think someone is a fool, walk a mile in their shoes. If you still think they are a fool, you're a mile away and you've got their shoes."

Inspired by this the audence came up with;

"A problem shared is still the same size, but now your friend is pissed off too."

"People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw swingers parties."

"See a penny, pick it up, all day long you'll look like a tramp for picking up a penny."

And the winner;
"When your balls drop, remember to pick them up."

5th September

This week we had a fabulous group of comedians, playing to one of the warmest crowds you can get in the North East.

Luckily for everyone there, Pedro Stonehouse bottled it completely and didn't even call ahead to say he wasn't coming, so we had a bill of 4 acts plus Callum and Al compereing. It actually worked out well because we were treated to longer sets from the more accomplished comedians.

Opening the night, Callum had a good range of Steve Irwin/ crocodile hunter gags, poor lad died (Irwin that is not Callum), but got the award for most ironic death ever. Just don't ask callum if he is homophobic.

Rob Riley gave us a good long set of fine material, political, sick, and a graphic explanation of the black death - guinness drinkers will know how he feels. I know I do. As a pretty well practiced act, he had a real range of material, and got the evening rolling well. He's from oldham. He isn't a huge fan of home.

Following that the rebirth of James Christopher continues, with some good off the cuff material, and the stunning revelation that he is the third step cousin twice removed from Peanut out ot the Kaiser Chiefs. Shame he can't stand them.

The second half was compered by Al Dawes, seeing as that is me, I don't really know what to say about it, apart from the fact that I found it a very cathartic experience, and did some new material that I was scared to use, but actually went quite well.

New boy Tom Roche - fresh from the Sarah Millican school of comedy - came on with some great material including a very good Hitler impression. His stage confidence never betrayed his lack of experience.

The competition yielded yet more gems. It was a Give-Existing-Words-New-Definitions comp, and the winner was Realise - eyes that are definitely there. Class.

Closing the night was Vladimir McTavish, one of the nicest guys in comedy (I can write that because I don't think he'll read this). Kindly giving us an extended set, he gave us brand spanking new material along with some of his greatest hits. His biting political satire includes an exploration of the ancient feud between Sweden and Trinidad & Tobago, and the gay solution to the Irish problem. Brilliant, and back at the Dog and Parrot for an hour long show in the festival. Seriously, you should come along.

So bad luck if you missed it, don't miss next week's....

LONG LIVE COMEDY