FESTIVAL DIARY DAY 16 - Romesh rules and Al rocks the Korma-bunker

So on to Saturday 23rd Feb, the penultimate day of Dave's Leicester Comedy Festival, and my appointment with destiny as I took my place on a panel of comedy luminaries to judge the prestigious Leicester Mercury Comedian of the Year competition.

I met with the judges in the lobby of the Ramada Encore Hotel, where most of them were staying for the night. I was first to arrive and I sat sipping tea with Geoff Rowe the festival director, as one by one the great and good of the comedy industry joined us - Steve North (General Manager of the Dave TV channel), Andy Leitch (formerly part fo the festival organisers, now working for Off the Kerb who represent some of the biggest stars in comedy - seriously check out their website and be amazed at the number of famous names!), Sarah Farrell (Head of Content & Development for Comedy Central), promoter Mick Perrin (whom I had watched on BBC iPlayer just the previous night along with his star client Eddie Izzard) and last but not least Bruce Dessau, comedy reviewer for the Evening Standard and writer of the 'Beyond the Joke' blog). To say I felt honoured and privileged to be amongst such company is a somewhat cheesy and oft-used sentiment, but thoroughly appropriate under these circumstances. After the meeting and greeting we headed several yards along the street to Chutney Ivy and enjoyed a lovely selection of Indian treats and a chatted over a cheeky beer, before proceeding to The Y Theatre to take our seats at the judges' table.

Host - Jarred Christmas

For a while, this table seemed jinxed as a series of small disasters unfolded - first, Bruce put his fresh pint down on his glasses and it toppled over, soaking the tablecloth and spilling onto the floor. Then, no sooner was that mopped up than one of the water glasses was smashed as it was delivered to the table, spraying the already sodden tablecloth with shards of glass. The judges looked at each other bemused at the spectacle as The Y staff dutifully collected up the poor tablecloth and replaced it with a fresh one. My pint was also spilt as it was delivered to me but not in anywhere near as spectacular a manner as the previous one. "What else could go wrong?" we all wondered, but thankfully the show started without any further calamities.

Runner-up - Lucy Beaumont

Jarred Christmas hosted proceedings with the usual blend of high-energy schtick, creative audience banter and tight gags. Before we knew it the room was warm and ready to see the first of the acts, all put forward by promoters across the land who believe they are ready for stardom. I'm only going to do a quick summary of the eight contestants - see fellow judge Bruce Dessau's blog for a lengthier set of spot-on descriptions. The first half consisted of the nervous energy and lightning-fast gags of Adam Hess, the superbly crafted character comedy of Lucy Beaumont, the unusual observations of Danny Ward (you don't get many comics talking about magic mushrooms these days) and finally Kwame Asante with a very relaxed style and an original take on race-based observational comedy. A very strong opening then, with Lucy's fantastically acted 'dumb but loveable Hull girl' set proving to be the highlight. Then came the interval, in which I caught up with fellow staff from the Mercury building, including reviewer for the evening Sian Brewis, photographer Beth Walsh and the Mercury's former Features Editor (and the man I'd replaced on the judging panel) Alex Dawson... Thanks Alex! :)

Hands up who's just won a comedy contest - Romesh Ranganathan

Four more acts took to the stage after another spot of banter from Jarred Christmas, again a strong and varied selection - first, Tez Ilyas, who put in an assured performance of racy material revolving around sexy texting; Jamie Demetriou whose bizarrely fascinating character 'Michael' (spelt with two Rs apparently) baffled the audience and left me wanting to see him again in a more intimate setting, playing to a more alternative crowd that's willing to get on board with his whole 'super-confident jazz-poet lothario gradually suffering a nervous breakdown' vibe; Romesh Ranganathan (the eventual winner) whose confident and perfectly timed set delivered laugh after laugh with some clever material on race and the teaching profession, which expertly tiptoed along the line of taste and decency without ever overstepping the mark; and finally young 'one-liner' merchant Mark Simmons, whose deceptively smart quickfire gags earned him a runner-up place alongside Lucy Beaumont. The judges then left the room to deliberate, whilst last year's winner Matt Rees then performed a set which I cannot describe for obvious reasons. All I can say is that it all went very quiet when, after reaching a quick and pretty much unanimous decision over coffee and biscuits, the judges returned to the main room to deliver their verdict. Needless to say Romesh looked over the moon to have won, and overall it was a fine selection of acts, all of whom have the goods to make a decent career in stand-up.

"Surprise!!" - Al Murray

The final destination of the evening was the afterparty at Just The Tonic, but the quick decision by the judges meant that we were too early to get in, so we headed to Dave's Curry House to see who had turned up to perform a random late spot downstairs, and boy were we in for a treat. Host Ian Stirling introduced quirky Welshman Lloyd Langford, who delivered some very impressive material on the unusual subject matter of face removal; Nish Kumar who kept the audience laughing along with some clever takes on racism, ignorance and mistaken identity; and finally the room erupted in delight as the surprise headliner Al Murray was announced. Fresh from his Curve show, he sizzled in the 'korma bunker' with half an hour's quick-witted, devastating audience banter, followed by some characteristically 'smarter than you're expecting' material on the Euro debt crisis. Obviously, to see such a big name in such an intimate setting was a special little treat indeed.

So, finally around midnight, and full of Dave's Comedy Booze, we headed to Just the Tonic to sup from their Late Bar, whilst chatting to performers, promoters and festival folk, every now and then attempting to bust some moves upon the dancefloor (I particularly enjoyed trying to dance to ska and hip-hop with fellow groovemonsters George Ryegold, Phil Kay and Leanne Mckie) and chatting to a suitably inebriated Bob Slayer - all most amusing. I left at just past 3am, just as a gaggle of festival judges were arriving to join in the fun (where they get their energy from I do not know), and I headed home with my bike in a taxi, to get some much-needed sleep before the final day of the festival.