FESTIVAL PREVIEW #4: The Best of the Rest of the Fest (part 2)

Well hello there. With just 3 days to go until the start of the festival, I hope you're getting as excited as I am about the prospect of over 500 shows over 17 days in our town. To further whet your whistle, here we go with another preview post to help you pick which shows you fancy checking out...

An inventive visual representation of something you can't see: Comedy in the Dark.

UNUSUAL EXPERIENCES - There are plenty of events taking place that take comedy beyond the traditional format of microphone, stage and performer, to delight the senses and amuse the brain with a very new experience. Comedy in the Dark does exactly what it says on the tin - a selection of short comedy sets performed in total darkness. The Red Light Comedy Show takes the brightness up a notch, being an evening of stand-up in the haunted basement of the Town Hall lit entirely by bicycle lights. If cookery shows are your thing, the most amusing one you're ever likely see takes place at Chutney Ivy restaurant in the form of the Comedy Curry Cook-off. Fans of history and heritage (very big at the moment with all this ***King Richard III business) can take a guided walk around Leicester's historical places of interest with a short performance at each venue. Another intriguing prospect is Hotel D'Comedie, in which guests wander the suites of Hotel Maiyango, encountering a different comedian/act in each room, making for an unusually intimate, bespoke series of mini-gigs.

FREE Comedy Lessons for West Leicester residents!

Your friends think you're funny, right? You think you're funny too. Go on, admit it.
Secretly you fancy giving stand-up comedy a go, don't you?
You'd love to be on the bill at next year's comedy festival, wouldn't you?

Well, if you live in the west of the city, this may be the opportunity you've been looking for! De Montfort University's Mile2 project is offering free stand-up comedy courses run by real live comedians, to residents living in the Woodgate, Newfoundpool and Fosse/Tudor Road areas of the city. Not only that, but the course will culminate in a special one-off live show as part of Dave's Leicester Comedy Festival 2013!

15 lucky residents will get regular coaching from experienced comic Alan Seaman - founder of Ship of Fools comedy club, ably assisted by Leanne Mckie - stand-up and co-founder of regular open mic night Lions Eat Ice Cream. The classses start this Thursday (15th November) at Newfoundpool Neighbourhood Centre, so if you fancy giving comedy a go, don't sit around thinking about it, just sign up now - you have nothing to lose, and it could be your first step on the way to comedy stardom!

To nurture your comic talent with some true experts in hilarity, call 0116 257 7171 or email mile2@dmu.ac.uk for more details, and you can find out more about the Mile2 project here: http://www.dmu.ac.uk/about-dmu/the-mile2-project/the-square-mile-project.aspx

REVIEW: Hurricane Pat hugs his way into town

Winner of ITV's 'Show Me the Funny' and walking hug-factory Patrick Monahan was kind enough to pop into the Looking Glass for an hour or so last night, to do exactly what he does best - mucking around with the audience. The judges on comedy's version of the X-Factor tried their best to make him stand still and deliver jokes instead of actually being himself, but clearly they failed (thankfully).

After dashing up from London for the gig, Monahan arrived at the Looking Glass during the interval  to cheers, and treated us to a hugging workshop, lashings of ad-libbing and audience banter, and a small amount of material about Bear Grylls carrying the Olympic torch and the best costume in which to run a marathon.

He then dashed off to get the last train back to London, narrowly missing out on his target of hugging everyone in the room before he left. It was a fairly brief set, but it was enough to remind us why he's so popular on the circuit and why he won 'Show Me the Funny' despite the judges' best efforts to clip his comedy wings.

Also appearing on the night were Ian Crawford, a well-crafted character act with some hilariously daft safety advice about cutlery; and South African Brummie-convert Albert Smith, who was charming enough to get away with his treading-a-thin-line racial material and frequent references to his West Midlands home, although one couldn't help wondering how well the Brum stuff would go down outside the Midlands. The whole affair was compered in the usual assured style by Ship of Fools founder Alan Seaman.

The next Ship of Fools night is Writers Stand Up (part of the 'Everybody's Reading' festival) on Wednesday 3rd October at the Exchange Bar.

I pity the Fool that misses this, er...sucka.

So, good long weekend was it? Whether it was all street parties, bunting and comically-exaggerated notions of 'Britishness', or whether you just took the opportunity to crawl into a drunken stupor on Friday and have yet to emerge, I hope you enjoyed it. Anyway, to help pick you up from the inevitable crushing depression you're bound to be feeling after going back to work tomorrow, get yourself to Ship of Fools Comedy Club downstairs at the Looking Glass on Braunstone Gate.
It's billed as a 'new act/new material night', and they are providing seven, yes seven, fine comedians to get you through that work hangover, and since you asked, they are: Anthony King, Mark Cram, Leanne McKie, Graham Milton, Robert Kemp, Ian Hall (as Blake Incarcerated) and Kevin Greet, and if that wasn't enough, compere Alan Seaman makes eight!
It all kicks off at 8:30 and tickets are only £4, which this humble comedy fan believes represents good value.
Here's a link to the facebook page, should you wish to view a picture of a stuffed monkey holding a union jack handbag:

https://www.facebook.com/events/309535415797862/

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??)