TUE 16th Sep. - Adverts.

Tue 16th Sep ADVERTISING -A packed night tonight- the fullest LLC has ever been. Compere Paul Gerrard was talking annoying ads with new acts Tony Jameson and Lewis Gray (pictured), and Nick Cranston. When new acts are making up most of the show, we can get worried but these were amazing first attempts. Tony's flights of fancy in an Eddie Izzard style and Lewis' rambling style in particular were impressive. Regular Sean McLoughlin started the night in assured style as usual, and local DJ Graham Mack finished the night in fine style.

The competition was- Are you a marketing guru? We've got an exciting new product, can you sell it? It was a nail in a bag and Pete made a quick presentation to get the brainstorming ideas flowing.

TUESDAY AUGUST 5TH.

Aug 5th The Animals of Butter Bridge.
Our last Edinbrough preview, the sketch troupe try out their show 'Joe Levi's Short Stories.' We saw one of the 3 stories that the animals will be performing in Edinburgh, a tale of the search for fame and the desire to be the greatest punch and judy man ever. Wow - a proper mini play on our wee stage. Also appearing were Alistair Greaves, John Scott, James Christopher, Graham Mack.

Tue 29th- PHIL BUCKLEY

29th July Phil Buckley Laughable.
-Phil's new edinburgh show following on from last year's 'Stroke the Panda'. With compere Paul Gerrard chit chatting to the audience, support from John Scott honing new material, Anthony P and Patrick Devine and Pete Thompson playing comedy songs through his Nintendo DS.

July 15 / 22 The Dog Eared Collective / Justin Moorhouse.

The Dog Eared Collective.
The edinburgh festival previews continue. This week a troupe of actor/comedians pitted hilarious sketches against each other. It was a comedy smack down! Ahhh! In a show encompassing the art of shadow puppetry, and a lecture on STD's which seemed to be aimed at the under 5's (beware the herpes dwarf!) the dog eared collective gave us a little bit of everything. Paul Gerrard was trying his hand as compere for the first time - and overcame the nerves with a sterling effort. Carl Hutchinson and John Whale appeared as Jimmy & Jackie (think Cannon and Ball after the BBC stopped calling)stopping off at the dog and parrot from their sold out Laz Veegaz tooah. Greg Larmouth, Stephen Baines and Graham Mack all chipped in with the funnies too.

And on the 22nd Justin Moorhouse appeared in his new show -'Ever decreasing Social Circles.' We've had a great crop of previews from performers we're (frankly) lucky to get at our small club and Justin was another big name with a great show. Justin's show whittles down his friends, from the 600 he has according to Facebook, to 5 he can call on in a crisis. We were all sucked in and desperate to get the questions right and stay in with a chance of being Justin's newest pal.

With Chris Ramsey, Ben Sayers and Paul Schmitz all trying out some great new material and oldest member Barry was back on stage as alter-ego Arthur Fernshuttle- always a treat.

July 8th Matt Tiller - Tillerpop!

8th Matt Tiller
Matt Tiller, comedy song writer, in an hour long preview of his new show. A great night despite the technical hitches (matt brought his brand new projector 200 miles just to play us the windows close-down music.) With support from Dutchman Wouter Meijs, Eddie O'Dwyer and Liam Mcleod.

Why is our picture here? Well It's been relegated after the comments of 'ourman' - "Please please - I never want to see that pic again. Would you want to see these people by only seeing the picture? They all look so incredibly smug. I swear, that picture haunts me. Can't they get a new picture?"

We wouldn't normally give in to blackmail from a single internerd, but he does represent 100% of the feedback we've had in the last 3 months. So maybe we do need a new picture. One with me in the middle, looking more smug than you can possibly imagine.

July 1st-Sarah Millican.

Edinburgh Preview -Sarah Millican's not nice.

Sarah Millican tells the truth. About her divorce, about fancying gorillas and about being thrown off the Asda Shuttlebus. It was great to have Sarah back with what will be her first Edinburgh show. She started just a few years ago (about when Cal, Al and Pete also set out) but she has rocketed through the comedy ranks and is now surely on the verge of stardom, or at least on the verge of sortofheardofher,isn'tsheonradio4,guestonbuzzcocksdom. As this is her first major show, this brilliant hour can take in all Sarah's best material. But it still feels like a complete themed show - great writing and a woman so adictively funny that we even laughed when was explaining her editing technique.

Also on the night we had 3 lads up from York, regular LLC chum James Christopher who this week put aside story telling, satire, knob gags and defiently gave us a plethora of puns, 2 of which were good enough to stay in his normal set. (Puns eh? We groan but we love 'em really.) Fellow Yorkies Paul Schmitza and Lee Morris also bumped up the laugh quota for the night.

June 24th -Magners Pub Comedian of the Year.

Magners Pub Comedian of the Year.
Winner Carl Hutchinson

The race to find the best pub comic and the best comedy pub. Some of our regular acts were battling it out for a chance to win the award and a chance to perform at the glasgow festival. And the pub could win an appearance from a top comic! Maybe somone who's been on telly! Competitors this year were:
Lee Chamberlain, Richard Scully, Carl Hutchinson, John Whale, Paul Gerrard, Greg Larmouth, Jeffaz, The Flash, Cath Scott, Little Mo, Martin, Callum Cramb and the Flash.

A great night this week. The lure of the competition had brought a huge mix of comics. We had the first timers hoping their first gig at LLC would lead to a second gig at the Glasgow comedy festival. Among them was little Mo, who'd been calling Al every day trying to get on the bill 'I'm a bit like Bernard Manning, but ruder and funnier' she'd said. We also had a few faces we haven't seen in a while. Cath Scott, the diabetic pixie was back and came 3rd when the votes came in. Jeffers (aka Les Paul Marshall) was another face we haven't seen in a while, actually we still haven't seen it as it was covered in his trademark panda make up and beard. But in the end the worthy winner was Carl Hutchinson. Carl had his first gig at the LLC 18 months ago and has already made it to the final of 'So you think you're funny?' he does comedy all over the country but he loves coming back to the Dog and Parrot to try new material and go through his best bits with a welcoming local audience. So Carl will be the local representing our local in the next round.

June 10th Joy!

June 10th Joy!
June17th Jason Cook "Best International Show" at the New Zealand Comedy Festival Awards 2008. Bloody hell! How'd we get him? Jason was previewing his new show 'JOY' and it was a corker! Joyous, yet thoughtful, a little sad sometimes but we emerged stronger happier and perhaps a little moist. AND it finished with Santa coming on stage and giving us socks. (I said socks.)

Plus the return to the north of (also)awardwinning Rick Wharton. And support from myspace podcasting nonsense merchants Pirate Chat.

June 3rd- ART.

Gavin Webster, James Christopher, Chris Tavner, Ging and Chris Brooker's Edinburgh Preview.
Al Dawes took the job of compering the evening with his confident compere chat stylee, had me in fits when asking a girl in the audience a question a male friend spoke for her, to which he replied "you look like a girl but that sounded like a mans voice? Unless you're a man who's put alot of weight on specifically in the chest area" tee hee. First up was Chris Tavanagh with a strong opening set, commenting on how Harold Shipman had significantly depleted his aging mothers social network and giving us a taste of the comments he gets from his celebrity sat nav voiced by Brian Blessed....

...review to be continued. (possibly. I don't know. Callum was doing it this week, that's as far as he got. Maybe he's keeled over and is now dead on the floor of an internet cafe being mistaken for a drunken tramp. Well, I say 'mistaken'.)

May 13th Getting old / Birthdays.

As Al Dawes hits 30 we were going to look at aging and birthdays, but Al decided he'd prefer a nice meal out with his woman. So Chris Ramsey stepped in to compere, Gav Webster and John Scott showed up to try out some new bits (Thanks lads, always nice when the professionals support out wee club)Paul Gerrard, Sean McLoughlin, and the magic Flash also appeared and real life American also graced our stage.

April 29th Rubbish Movie Club. / May 6th.

April 29th -Long Live Comedy rubbish movie consortium
A special night - we showed King Kong Escapes on the Big Screen, and Pete, Cal and Al pointed out all the flaws in this awful film. Inspired by the Bad Film Club A brave comedy experiment, a late start (after the computer failed and Pete went home for his playstation) and a few sore bums after 80 minutes on bar stools. There were some great moments. My favourite was when the submarine stopped. 'This looks suspicious' said Pete 'I think they've got some ulterior motive for surfacing here' - Sure enough, the sub comes up, the hatch opens and the captain gets out and has a fag.

May 6th Geeks
Five acts this week- though not the 5 we expected. We had 2 people who didn't show up but they were replaced by 2 professionals who just happend to be in the area. Score! So Dan Willis and John Smith (pictured) gave a pro polish to the start and end of the show. Rob Gilroy is becoming another LLC regular who's doing great things. Every few weeks he's back with a new charachter and so far they've all been brilliant. And in the mix as usual a couple of new guys trying things out. Steve Robertson looked confident before, but fell apart slightly (Yes, Steve, it is harder than it looks.)Eddie O'Dwyer (a pint sized Simon Amstel - if that's possible)looked nervous before but did a well written and nicely performed little set. But hats off to all for trying - from the newbies and the big boys and of course the people who come to watch.

Tuesday 11th March - Food and drink.

OUR SHOW THIS WEEK...
March 11th Food & Drink
Compere Chris Ramsey ably introduced...
Yorkshireman Richard Scully opened the show slowly with some measured delivery,
Double yorkshire man Lee Smith followed,
Then an excellent protest song from Jerry Buckham,
Club comic Reece Bowman told us a few classic gags,
with Al Dawes being described by chris as a headliner. He blushed.

CAN I HAVE A GO?
If you've always wanted to try your hand, or you've done a few gigs and want more stage time - just pick a date and drop us a line. Send an e-mail.

THE BEST OF LLC, Newcastle & Gateshead Comedy Festival

We didn't write a review this week - we didn't have to - it was in the Evening Chronicle.

Best down to earth comedy
Mar 5 2008 by Gary Beckwith, Evening Chronicle

THE Best of Long Live Comedy – The Dog & Parrot, Newcastle

Only a great show could top such a fantastic festival opener on Monday and after watching a brilliant two-hour stand up comedy session, it’s safe to say Long Live Comedy did just that.

The show was low-key, but nonetheless provided a night of down-to-earth comedy – all with only a stage and a microphone.

Compere Al Dawes warmed the crowd up superbly with his witty remarks and interaction with the crowd (including myself) on topics such as employment and relationships. Nothing seemed to faze him and, like a true comedian, he had a quick-witted reply for everything.

First up was young comedian Chris Ramsey and his use of colloquial language during his various sketches elicited large laughs from the crowd.

Following was Sean Mcloughlin, an edgy comedian who performed a dark and explicit routine, which was shocking, but funny.

John Whale then appeared and did a set on everything from posh jumpers to clichéd phrases. He was excellent and really had the crowd in stitches.

Callum Cramb was next and mocked Chavs, commenting on everything from their dialect to their dress sense, which was hilarious.

Carl Hutchinson closed by mocking X-Factor. He was just as eccentric as some actual competitors and had great fun with the crowd during this sketch, who laughed along throughout his entire routine.

Long Live Comedy was fantastic and proved that you don’t have to be famous to be funny.

CHRIS CONWAY

Tuesday 26th Feb, CLASS

With regular hosts Al and Callum (I'll let you guess which is which)



OUR SHOW THIS WEEK...
Feb 26th - Class
Opening the show, Donnachda O'Connil, who has taken some time off from gigging, so it was a pleasure to see his classic material after a long lay off.
Gagsmith Paul Gerrard was bemoaning having to suck up to his new boss.
Danny Jackson is another of the comedy flowers of newcastle that is really starting to flourish, with a well worked theatrical set of off-key stories.
Greg Larmouth, was very upset that he didn't get a mention in the press after his last gig! So, you know. Well done on your second gig, we promise to get you in the Metro next time.
Freaky-funny Sarah Speak, and angry young man Carl Hutchinson (can't we all just share?) finished the show.

Tues 19th Feb, Valentines

A bit late, but the theme was valentine's day.

Matt Davies talked about the old west shootout style excitement of trying to press the pedestrian crossing button before the guy on the other side of the street.

Pirate Chat Another surreal Q and A session from the podcast gurus. Chris had so many lovehearts this Valentine's that his shoes fell off. Ian was worried that he might have married an invisible witch. See them in Durham Sunday March 9th.

Dr. Carlos- Cutting political satire.

David Richards-existential angst and surreal humour. The weirdest thing he did was walk off with Calum's notes.

Chris Martin- he's half posh and half cockernee geezah! (on his mum's side.) Back with some new material, -how rock and roll can you be if the only instrument you play is the recorder?

Tues 5th Feb, Money

The big news is PETE WENT AND HAVED A BABY!

So welcome to the world young George Thompson. Everyones best regards to the Thompson fambly.

OUR SHOW THIS WEEK...
Feb 5th - Money

Long Live Comedy introduced:
Martin McAllister,
Jim Park,
Mikey J,
David Larkins,
James Christopher
John Scott
and
Chris Ramsey

Feb 12th - Dreams

Al Dawes introduced:
John Scott,
Gareth Johnson,
Edward Patrick,
Arne Gahmig
Joby

Tues 22nd Jan, WEATHER

With regular hosts Al, Callum and Pete.

Because of no internet, new job and a real baby, we fell behind with updates. Just to keep up, in the last two weeks we had:

Jan 22nd - Weather
Al Dawes introducing:
Christian Steel, who was a scary ranty man, but camp with it
Alex Ryden, bought along a posh man called bertie, and talked about bernard, from bernard's watch
Lee Teah, sang a tribute to james (rhymingslang) blunt's you're beautiful
Carlos, who was less weird than normal
Don Barr, who nearly broke his guitar
Gareth Urwin, who was cheeky and chatty
Callum Cramb who I've seen before. Terribly funny fellow.

Jan 29th - Locals
Al Dawes and Pete "seen a baby come out of his wife's clacker" Thompson introduced: Carl Hutchinson, who got angry at strange drunken ladies from Redcar
Rex Purnell, who was sad to see the ladies from Redcar leave
Chris Martin, who is still somehow 8 years old inside
Sean Mcloughlin, would rather he just wasn't here
Paul Gerrard, who has a friend that does voodoo - very funny gagsmith
and Greg?

What to say about Greg? ? Well, there were pretty girls in the room who nearly punched him. And he knows a girl who isn't very good looking, who most likely has self esteem issues, and deals with them the old fashioned way. I don't think he does much to allay those issues to be honest.

CAN I HAVE A GO?
If you've always wanted to try your hand, or you've done a few gigs and want more stage time - just pick a date and drop us a line. Send an e-mail.

Psychology, Tues 15th Jan

OUR SHOW THIS WEEK...
Jan 15th - Psychology
With John Scott, Chris Ramsey, Chris Martin, Tom Roche, Beth Anderson, Sarah Speak, Danny Jackson and Robbie Hearst

Al Dawes opened the show with a bit of a concern that he's the only guy in the north east that didn't get a wii. He was wrong.
Chris Martin had some new ideas, and memories of childhood. And being rude at train ticket inspectors
Chris Ramsey had a few ideas to try, but in Chris' normal way, he mostly enjoyed telling the audience they weren't as cool as him.
Tom Roche finished the first section with tales of scaring off motorway drivers. He's a high energy, slightly scary performer, who is a little too old to still be throwing his weight around like that.
Callum Cramb looked after the middle section with his scary alter-ego. I imagine we will see more of the freak that lives in callums head in the future.
The middle section consisted of the frankly scary Sarah Speak - singing and dancing and frightening me. Danny Jackson explained his recovery from being a serial rapist, and Beth Anderson was trying to be cool, but then failed because she was scared of turning into Pauline Fowler.
Pete Thompson looked after the final section, including Robbie Hearst, who likes that the schools secretary is called Ed Balls (fnurr, fnurr) and finally John Scott, with tales of holidays and prunes. Once again, a pleasure to have such high quality acts topping and tailing the night.

And this week's competition...
What does our Rorschach picture remind you of?

It came down to two options - Bat sex, or a sneeze. And the sneeze won.