FESTIVAL DIARY DAY 17 - All good things must come to an end

Okay so the Festival finished a week ago, but regular readers of this blog will know that I have had something of a gigantic backlog of work to clear so I hope you'll forgive me for the lateness of this final diary post.
After such an incredible final Saturday of the festival, I awoke late and rather fuzzy-headed to reluctantly get some much-needed work done, before heading out for the final evening of the festival, which I was to spend downstairs at the Looking Glass, which had become something of a second home to me over the past two and a half weeks.

FESTIVAL DIARY DAY 7 - fever dreams at the Looking Glass

Dear readers, I must apologise.
For I know that you have come to expect from me your daily round-up of the previous evening's festival shenanigans. Well it is my sad duty to inform you that yesterday I fell prey to the dreaded 'festival lurgy'. Too many days of racing from show to show in the icy cold, then sitting in hot, airless rooms stuffed with people and their various germs, meant that I was unable to go out into the festival yesterday, as my brain and body became gripped with an intense fever, and I became delirious for several hours.

I have had fevers before, but I have never in my life experienced fever dreams like these. Obviously I have spent most of my time in pubs and bars watching comedy shows recently, so it makes sense that most of my feverish mental journey was framed by the bare brick walls reminiscent of the Looking Glass basement - I went on some incredible and ridiculous adventures, but every now and then I would look around and realise I was still down there, surrounded by semi-familiar figments of my imagination, with no sense of time, no way out.

FESTIVAL DIARY DAY 6 - Paul Foot, Bridget Christie and A Finger of Judge

And here we go again... Tuesday was full of promise, with two of the more well-known 'alternative' acts performing in the city.

Alternative Star - Paul Foot

First up was Paul Foot at the Cookie Jar. Regular readers of this blog will know I'm a big fan of the mulleted oddball. Love him or hate him, to see his act is to know that there are people out there who are thinking in a totally unique way and are not afraid to just run with it on stage, taking you to places you never thought you'd go. He has never tried to tailor his act for a mainstream telly-viewing audience, which ironically, has led to him getting a fair bit of TV coverage, having popped up next to Noel Fielding on Buzzcocks, done a spot on Russell Howard's Good News and is now featuring in Comedy Central's Alternative Comedy Experience. Last night's show was all that you'd expect from Foot, starting with a ten-minute intro in which he awkwardly introduces himself to the audience and imagines out loud the different reasons why they might have come to see his show, eventually coming to the conclusion that the next hour's performance will more than likely ruin a couple of marriages within the audience.

You couldn't make it up - UFI play Just the Tonic next Thursday

For the last few months, Leicester's premier (and probably only) comedy improv group UFI: Unidentified Flying Improv have been literally making it up as they go along, all around the city on their World Tour of Leicester. The final leg of their tour sees them performing at Just the Tonic next Thursday (January 24th).

They describe themselves as performing "short-form improvisation, playing both classic and new games, many of which were made famous by Whose Line Is It Anyway?" I'm assuming since it's live there are no retakes, but they must be good because they were nominated for Best New Show for their Leicester Comedy Festival debut in 2009 (back when it was just called Leicester Comedy Festival).

They're a jolly nice bunch of local performers from varied backgrounds, and performers on the night will include former Leicester Mercury Comedian of the Year Matt Hollins, stand-up and host of the Emergency! night at The Y Theatre Tom Young, and Lions Eat Ice Cream regulars Ian Hall and Lindsey Warnes-Carroll. Your host for the evening is 'straight-talking, pork-pie eating comedy man giant' Jon Pearson. Definitely not Clive Anderson then.

To see this rowdy rabble of amusing alchemists create comedy gold from nothing in front of your very eyes, simply click yourself over to the Just the Tonic website http://www.justthetonic.com/Leicester-Comedy/shows/thursday-24-jan-2013/935/ and pick up your tickets for a very modest £6 each, or just £4 if you're a dirty student (or convincingly pretending to be one). Just don't expect a script...

Cheer up Englebert, Europe may not like you but Leicester still loves you...

(actual Englebert, pictured preparing for the show yesterday)

Rising like a Phoenix from the Eurovision ashes, everybody's favourite Leicester crooner Englebert Humperdinck will be appearing at the Crumblin' Cookie tomorrow and Friday... but he may look a little different in the flesh!

That's because 'Eng' is just one of the many characters played by Leanne McKie & Suzanne 'Sooz' Rowland in their Leicester-centric cavalcade of craziness entitled "What have you done with Denise's 30p?". Originally developed in Leanne & Sooz's living rooms (just off The Narb), the hour-long show was a big hit back in February, earning the pair a special mention at the Leicester Comedy Festival awards, and returns tomorrow for two nights only, for the benefit of all those who missed the original show.

Expect popstars, ghosts, fictional vigilantes, famous film stars, quizzes, badges, moustaches, wigs, cheese and bucketloads of general insanity from Leanne, Sooz and their comic collaborators Ian Hall, Barnaby J Thompson, Lindsey Warnes-Carroll and Neil Johnston.

Tickets are a jolly reasonable £5 and can be bought using pounds of electronic money from here (Thursday): http://www.wegottickets.com/event/169591 or from here for Friday's show: http://www.wegottickets.com/event/169811

Now, if you'll please release me I need to go to the toilet...

Here is the Headline. This. Here.

(The following is a 'lost' post, written for publishing on 2nd May, which I just found in my drafts folder. How very remiss of me!)

Leicester's finest topical wits gathered downstairs at the Looking Glass last night to record a pilot episode of a new panel show entitled Here Are the Headlines. Tom Young is pitching the idea to BBC Radio Leicester in the hope of bagging himself a series, using an edited version of last night's proceedings as the pilot.

The setup is a familiar one, with Young and Chris Norton Walker as the 'regular' panellists, joined by guests Jim Shields and Lindsey Warnes-Carroll. Hosting was Bruce Edhouse, who in his most (quiz)masterful voice, asked questions about international, national and local news for the panel to give their best funny answers, and engage each other in witty, off-the-cuff banter.

Obviously it's a tried and tested format, and on the evidence of last night it should work pretty well on the radio. The guests were largely entertaining in their delivery of both prepared and ad-libbed material (even if occasionally the panellists forgot they were doing this for the radio and entertained us with a visual gag), and the inclusion of locally-focused and audience-inspired rounds gives a nice twist that should appeal to Radio Leicester.

It will be interesting to hear what makes it to the final cut, as there was plenty of laughter when things went awry, lines were fluffed or the panellists reacted snappily to each other's prepared jokes bombing. It would be nice to hear a quiz that kept in these kinds of blooper-reel moments, but I suspect the pilot will need to sound as slick as it can to secure the makers a series. Good luck with the pitch guys!

Topical panel show and midweek stand-up at The Looking Glass

This week, The Looking Glass is the place to be for midweek laughs. Tuesday night sees the recording of the pilot for a new topical radio show called Here are the Headlines. Regular panellists Bruce Edhouse, Damien St John and Tom Young are joined by guests Jim Shields and Lindsey Warnes-Carroll to chew over some tasty current affairs, in an effort to digest them with lightning speed and excrete the finest nuggets of topical comedy (nice metaphor, Paul, hope you're proud of that one).
Entry is FREE, so get yourself down to Brauny Gate before 8pm for a little slice of local radio history.


Then on Wednesday, Alan Seaman's regular Ship of Fools stand-up night returns to the Looking Glass. Starting at 8pm, the line up features Bruce Edhouse (again), as well as Ben Clark, Jon Pearson, Jon Wagstaffe, Vinnie Vitriol and James Hately. I have been reliably (I hope!) informed that tickets are usually a fiver, but you might get in for half price if it's your first time - be prepared to present your comedy hymen on the door to prove it! (Good grief man - what is it with you and the metaphorical wrongness today??)