INTERVIEW: Ian Hall and Bruce Edhouse talk to us about all things Smashing

Leicester's newest monthly comedy night arrives with a bang (or should that be a smash?) on Wednesday 18th March at The Cookie. Club Smashing is the brainchild of Leicester mirth-merchants Ian Hall and Bruce Edhouse, who both had successful solo shows in the recent festival, as well as performing their first full show together as The Two Syds. 

Looking smashing in knitwear: Ian and Bruce

There is a general buzz about this night going around the local comedy scene at the moment, primarily because of the people involved and also because of the promise of something a bit different to your average comedy night. So, to give you the lowdown on what to expect from Club Smashing, Leicester Comedy Scene spoke to Ian and Bruce...

Nominations announced for DLCF awards 2015

Move over, Oscars - the judges have deliberated, the public have voted, and the nominations are in for the 2015 Dave's Leicester Comedy Festival awards. This year's festival featured a whopping 640 events in 47 venues across Leicestershire, so the chosen few should feel very proud to have been picked out from such a huge field of contenders. Some of the awards are decided by a panel of judges, some by the public and some by the festival organisers.

Another year, another nomination: Romesh Ranganathan

The Best New Show award includes the 2013 Best Show winner and Fosters nominee Romesh Ranganathan, alongside Fosters Best Newcomer winner Alex Edelman and Leicestershire's own Jim Smallman.

Dan Nicholas: photo courtesy of Lucy Peel Productions

Local hero Dan Nicholas is up for Best Festival Debut, a new category which also features two acts from last year's Leicester Mercury Comedian of the Year final, Phil Jerrod and Elliot Steel.

Local newbies done good: Leicester Fridge

Leading the way in the other categories with two nominations each are newbies Leicester Fridge and Heroes@LCB Depot, and previous festival winners The Cookie, Curve and Just the Tonic - who are all up against against each other in the Best Promoter category.

The awards will be presented at a special ceremony on March 16, where it will also be revealed who won the two public votes that took place this year, for Best Poster and Legend of Comedy.

The full list of nominees is:

Best Venue (over 200 capacity):

Curve
De Montfort Hall
Just the Tonic @ Hansom Hall
The Little Theatre

Best Venue (under 200 capacity):

Firebug
Heroes@LCB Depot, Grays & Lightbox Studios
The Cookie
The Globe
Upstairs at The Western

Best New Show:
Andrew Ryan
Alex Edelman
Jim Smallman
Pippa Evans
Romesh Ranganathan

Best Festival Debut:
Colin Leggo
Dan Nicholas
Elliott Steel
Mark Stephenson
Phil Jerrod

Best Promoter:
Curve
Just the Tonic

Leicester Fridge
The Cookie

Best Poster:

Ian Hall: Out of Touch, Out of Time

The Further Adventures of Shirley

Alfie Moore: The Naked Stun

Just the Tonic Comedy Club

Mark Lucero: The Sauce of It

Contribution to Dave’s Leicester Comedy Festival 2015:

Leicester Fridge
Heroes@LCB Depot, Grays & Lightbox Studios
Nick Wisdom & De Montfort Hall

Make Me Happy community project:

Applause Productions
Leicester City Libraries
The Contact Project

Legend of Comedy Award:

Michael Crawford
Lee Mack
Stewart Lee
Rik Mayall
Tim Vine
Les Dawson

Huge congratulations to all the nominees from Leicester Comedy Scene!

Best of the fest - our favourite shows from DLCF 2015

Aaaaand so another fantastic festival comes to an end, and somewhere in Leicester the judging panel will be meeting in a secure bunker for the annual food-fight to decide who wins the awards.
It'll be interesting to see what they pick, but personally I was glad to be free from judging responsibilities this year. It meant that I could take it easy, enjoy myself and see pretty much whatever I wanted to (when I wasn't reviewing for the Mercury, helping to organise the Leicester Fridge shows or shamelessly begging people to vote for my designs in the Poster of the Festival competition, that is!)
As always I didn't make it to some shows that I really wanted to see, but I managed to get out almost every night of the festival and see some cracking comedy. So just for the record, here are some of my personal faves from the 2015 fest.

Recommendations for Dave's Leicester Comedy Festival 2015

Click to visit the DLCF website

Okay comedy fans - it’s that time of the year again, when the whole city is taken over by funny folks with funny shows, and with over 650 events in this year's festival, the temptation is to just hold your hands up and say “it’s too much to take in, I have no idea what to go to!”
So, because I care about each and every one of you, my little comedy lambs, here is my official guide to what I personally would recommend seeing at this year’s festival. And remember - this is my own personal view, your tastes may differ significantly from mine. This article is just here to point out stuff you may not be aware of already, like, for example...

Autumn/Winter Round-up: what's happening in Leicester

Hiya folks, long time no see!
Couple of bits of admin for you plus a general round-up of what's happening on the scene at the moment...

Firstly, you may or may not have noticed that I'm not really posting much on this blog any more, due mainly to time constraints, but I still frequently post news and links to upcoming shows on the Leicester Comedy Scene facebook page which now has almost 500 likes - I shall shortly be going crazy with power no doubt...

For nutritious, locally-sourced comedy, look inside the Fridge...