I know you're all horrendously busy and will already have forgotten my post about the free nights on Wednesdays at Just the Tonic, so here I am to pester you further! It's Big Value Comedy Showcase auditions time, and if you book your tickets online you will get to watch a plethora of funny folk competing for a spot at the Edinburgh Festival tonight FOR FREE!
It costs £2.50 on the door, so to save yourself precisely that amount, get thyself to http://www.justthetonic.com/Leicester-comedy/shows/wednesday-21-mar-2012/681/
Your ticket also gets you into the nightclub for free afterwards, which is great if you don't have a job to get up for in the morning!
Live in Leicester? Like live comedy?
Well you've come to the right place then. Well done you.
Peril: Design for Comedy and the creative arts
Showing posts with label Edinburgh Festival. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Edinburgh Festival. Show all posts
Wednesday, 21 March 2012
Tuesday, 20 March 2012
Spoiler Alert! Daniel Kitson previews Edinburgh show
Reasons I Love Leicester, Number 47: I've been able to see stand-ups of the quality of Stewart Lee and Daniel Kitson within a week of each other, both within a couple of miles of where I eat, sleep and poo... AND Doug Stanhope's coming up very soon... AND it's not even Comedy Festival season any more! This city is clearly a hotspot for quality comedy right now, and Mr Kitson obviously felt as many others do, that Leicester was a good place to test out his latest Edinburgh Festival show, which he did to a very appreciative Just the Tonic audience last night.
This was something of a mock exam for his new show, and Kitson clearly needed to be able to concentrate to get through the entire 2-hour show without an interval. He brought notes with him which he referred to infrequently, stammered more during sections of the show he was less comfortable with and did not tolerate distractions from the audience. Hence the bar was closed during the performance and latecomers were warned in advance that they would not be admitted.
If all of this sounds like the opposite of a good time, it was more than balanced out by the quality of the material, and by the fact that you were seeing one of stand-up's greatest talents up close, in your home town, for a fiver. It would have been £12 according to Kitson, but there was no trademark life-affirming story arc to this show - it was more like a series of amusing musings on the nature of life, love and beards, delivered with a contrasting mixture of eye-opening insght, self-deprecating honesty and occasional feigned arrogance.
The opening section addressed his drastic change of appearance - freshly shorn of hair and beard, he explained how he was becoming too easily categorisable by his appearance (glasses and a beard - you must own a micro-brewery!). He also railed against the current comedy boom (don't hold your breath for a DVD release any time soon) and celebrated acts of defiance and those who swim against the current in all walks of life.
As it went on, the show became more anecdotal, as Kitson shared with us stories of unrequited love and pig-decapitation amongst other things. The themes of the night were loosely tied together at the end of the show, but not in a terribly satisfactory way - one senses he'll be doing some work on the ending before taking the show to Edinburgh in August.
All in all though, it was a very enjoyable two hours spent in the company of a master of his craft. It's difficult not to admire his intelligence and invention, and it's difficult not to respect the way he stays true to his art and refuses to let himself become popular, mainstream or commodified. True, the show in its current form was was rough and unfinished, but I for one will be seeking out the finished article if I make it up to Edinburgh this year.
This was something of a mock exam for his new show, and Kitson clearly needed to be able to concentrate to get through the entire 2-hour show without an interval. He brought notes with him which he referred to infrequently, stammered more during sections of the show he was less comfortable with and did not tolerate distractions from the audience. Hence the bar was closed during the performance and latecomers were warned in advance that they would not be admitted.
If all of this sounds like the opposite of a good time, it was more than balanced out by the quality of the material, and by the fact that you were seeing one of stand-up's greatest talents up close, in your home town, for a fiver. It would have been £12 according to Kitson, but there was no trademark life-affirming story arc to this show - it was more like a series of amusing musings on the nature of life, love and beards, delivered with a contrasting mixture of eye-opening insght, self-deprecating honesty and occasional feigned arrogance.
The opening section addressed his drastic change of appearance - freshly shorn of hair and beard, he explained how he was becoming too easily categorisable by his appearance (glasses and a beard - you must own a micro-brewery!). He also railed against the current comedy boom (don't hold your breath for a DVD release any time soon) and celebrated acts of defiance and those who swim against the current in all walks of life.
As it went on, the show became more anecdotal, as Kitson shared with us stories of unrequited love and pig-decapitation amongst other things. The themes of the night were loosely tied together at the end of the show, but not in a terribly satisfactory way - one senses he'll be doing some work on the ending before taking the show to Edinburgh in August.
All in all though, it was a very enjoyable two hours spent in the company of a master of his craft. It's difficult not to admire his intelligence and invention, and it's difficult not to respect the way he stays true to his art and refuses to let himself become popular, mainstream or commodified. True, the show in its current form was was rough and unfinished, but I for one will be seeking out the finished article if I make it up to Edinburgh this year.
Monday, 19 March 2012
Daniel Kitson Edinburgh Preview show tonight (joy!)
I've been lucky enough to pick up a last-minute spare ticket (thanks James!) for the awesome Daniel Kitson, who is previewing his Edinburgh Festival show at Just the Tonic tonight. The tickets were very limited and sold out almost as soon as they were first advertised, so I'm double-chuffed because I've never seen him doing a full show before. Review will follow in the next day or two...
Friday, 16 March 2012
FREE comedy shows at Just the Tonic
Forgot to mention - Just the Tonic are also doing FREE comedy nights (if you book online), in the form of auditions for their Big Value Comedy Shows. Comedy wanabees can come along to these shows and compete for a place in one of the Edinburgh Festival Big Value shows. Obviously not all the comics will be great, but it's free and you might get to see a star of the future!
The next one's Wednesday 21st March. To book your free seat, visit http://www.justthetonic.com/Leicester-comedy/shows/wednesday-21-mar-2012/681/
Note: By the way, I'm not in any way working for, or sponsored by, Just the Tonic. I'm just an excited comedy fan. I will be mentioning many other venues as the blog develops. That is all.
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