If you like Indian food, alcohol and comedy, Kayal restaurant on Granby Street is probably your idea of heaven. As well as serving yummy food and a selection of booze, Kayal host a monthly comedy show upstairs.
As part of Magners Funhouse Comedy Club, 'Should I Stay or Should I Go?' features new acts performing short slots, who are judged by audience members holding up green glowsticks if they want them to stay on and red ones if they've heard enough - basically a Gong Show for the rave generation.
Compered by the ever-reliable Spiky Mike, the show has an intimate, informal feel to it and plenty of audience participation. The comics are mostly quite new to the game, and it's particularly fascinating to see the occasional sweaty, shaky-handed first-timer, who reminds you that performing live comedy to a bunch of judgemental strangers is definitely not easy!
The next shows are on Sunday 15th April and Sunday 27th May, and cost a very reasonable £5.
Visit http://funhousecomedy.co.uk/index.htm for tickets/info etc.
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 comedy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label comedy. Show all posts
Sunday, 18 March 2012
Saturday, 17 March 2012
Need cheering up? Try hitting the Bottle (Rocket)
Hahaaa do you see what I did there? It sounded like I was advocating alcoholism as a cure for depression!. Outraaaaageous. I should be on Mock the Week or something.
Ahem... Continuing my round up of excellent upcoming comedy in Leicester, I now turn my attention to Bottle Rocket, Leicester's longest-running comedy club. Based at a number of venues around the city and beyond, they've been putting on fantastic shows since 2005 featuring many big names, and it seems this year is no exception.
Their next show is on Saturday April 14th at the Y Theatre, and features the rock-solid line-up of Rufus Hound, Nick Helm, Tom Rosenthal, Pat Cahill and Ed Gamble.
Upcoming shows this year feature the likes of amiable kiwi Jarred Christmas, Peep Show's very own sweet little songbird Isy Suttie, the weird and wonderful Phil Nichol, Show Me the Funny series winner Pat Monahan and storyteller-par-excellence Rob Rouse.
As always, check the website for info, tickets & associated shizzle http://brcomedy.com/events/
And don't forget to drink lots of booze.
Friday, 16 March 2012
Reach inside the Cookie Jar...
The Crumblin' Cookie (next to Dominoes toy store on the high street) used to be a great little place to eat lunch or grab a coffee, but now it's so, so much more... This humble little cafe has grown in scope and reputation immeasurably over the last couple of years, into a great place to have a drink in the evening and a cracking little music and comedy venue (winning Best New Venue at the 2010 Comedy Festival Awards and Best Overall Venue last year).
And it doesn't stop there - for there is seemingly no end to owner Antony 'Tinny' Hopkins' ambitions for this place. In late January, renovation work complete, he opened the Cookie Jar, the Crumblin' Cookie's basement venue, which hosted a plethora of paid shows during this years festival, whilst the free comedy took place upstairs. My recommendation - follow 'em on Twitter, like 'em on Facebook, and get along there to meet Tinny himself - literally one of the friendliest men I've ever met!
Shows coming up include Matthew Osborn + Matt Richardson + Carl Jones + Andrew Ryan MC on Thursday 29th March, and Andrew Maxwell on Thursday 26th April
Go here for tickets: https://www.facebook.com/thecookiejarleicester?sk=app_211526985586920
Go on, do it then...
And it doesn't stop there - for there is seemingly no end to owner Antony 'Tinny' Hopkins' ambitions for this place. In late January, renovation work complete, he opened the Cookie Jar, the Crumblin' Cookie's basement venue, which hosted a plethora of paid shows during this years festival, whilst the free comedy took place upstairs. My recommendation - follow 'em on Twitter, like 'em on Facebook, and get along there to meet Tinny himself - literally one of the friendliest men I've ever met!
Shows coming up include Matthew Osborn + Matt Richardson + Carl Jones + Andrew Ryan MC on Thursday 29th March, and Andrew Maxwell on Thursday 26th April
Go here for tickets: https://www.facebook.com/thecookiejarleicester?sk=app_211526985586920
Go on, do it then...
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.
Just the Tonic - the name says it all, really.
Obviously no self-respecting Leicester comedy enthusiast could fail to be wetting their pants with excitement about the new Just the Tonic club that's opened on Granby Street. The venue, formerly Highlight and before that Jongleurs, has an absolutely cracking line-up including big names such as Milton Jones, Ardal O'Hanlon, Ed Byrne and 'that sound effects bloke from Police Academy' himself, Michael Winslow! Also appearing in the coming weeks and months are critics' favourites Daniel Kitson and Doug Stanhope, the wonderful Boy with Tape on his Face, and my own personal favourite, Dr. George Ryegold, to name but a few.
For full listings, get yourself onto http://www.justthetonic.com/leicester-comedy/ immediately and start salivating...
For full listings, get yourself onto http://www.justthetonic.com/leicester-comedy/ immediately and start salivating...
Stewart Lee is popular again, much to his annoyance. Richard Herring is also popular but less so, much to his annoyance.
It's been an absolute pleasure to have been able to watch both Richard Herring and Stewart Lee performing live in Leicester within a month of each other.
Their double act in the 1990s was edgy, cool and above all superlatively funny. Having recently watched some old episodes of Fist of Fun, I'm very pleased to say it's still just as funny almost 20 years on. I strongly recommend you visit http://www.gofasterstripe.com/ and buy Series 1 of Fist of Fun, which has been finally released after Stew and Rich, along with Chris at Gofasterstripe bought the release rights from the BBC after they'd repeatedly refused to bring it out on DVD (utter madness, obviously).
Anyhoo, I reviewed Richard Herring's 'What is Love Anyway?' show at Curve for the Leicester Mercury on February 15th (aka St Skeletor's day) - here's the link http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/St-Valentine-s-Day-gets-massacred-restored/story-15254959-detail/story.html and last night his erstwhile partner-in-crime put on a cracking show to a near-sold out and very appreciative DeMontfort Hall. I was reviewing that one for the Mercury too, I'll post the link as soon as it appears online.
I've tried not to gush too much in my newspaper review and stay fairly objective, but it was a fantastic show, and an absolute delight to see him performing in front of the sort of large, knowledgeable crowd he deserves, whilst still being able to mock said crowd continuously for not really 'getting' him, or just coming along because he'd won an award. I remember seeing him in the comedy tent at Glastonbury in the late 90s, when he was first starting to develop that slow, repetitive style that so characterises much of his recent work, and the festival crowd were really not going for it. He was getting booed by the majority of the audience, and yet the more they disliked it, the slower and more repetitive he became, as if feeding off their contempt. I guess this means he was ahead of his time, because now people regularly call him a genius for doing the same sort of material.
Having said that, last night's show did seem slightly more tailored for a larger, perhaps less knowledgeable audience. There were many references to his style, and lengthy, weary-voiced explanations of how his jokes work to an imagined section of the audience whose only experience of live comedy is watching Michael MacIntyre's Comedy Roadshow. Nothing new there, of course, but perhaps more surprising was his frequent use of fairly conventional observational gags and fairly snappy topical gags in the first half of the show. But of course being Stewart Lee, he didn't just leave it at that - any standard gags were generally used a springboard for more deconstructive material, either explaining at length why a poor gag didn't get a great laugh, or berating his audience for laughing louder at obvious, Mock the Week-style jokes than his more cerebral material.
Of course this is what makes him a great comic, this ability to deconstruct jokes, routines and the nature of comedy itself whilst still making the audience laugh. He has taken the old notion of a joke not being funny if you have to explain it and proved the exact opposite, and as a result I'm sure we'll see a whole raft of Lee-inspired 'deconstructionists' on our comedy stages in the years to come. I doubt if any of them will do it as well as he, though - after all, he's had 20 or so years practice...
Their double act in the 1990s was edgy, cool and above all superlatively funny. Having recently watched some old episodes of Fist of Fun, I'm very pleased to say it's still just as funny almost 20 years on. I strongly recommend you visit http://www.gofasterstripe.com/ and buy Series 1 of Fist of Fun, which has been finally released after Stew and Rich, along with Chris at Gofasterstripe bought the release rights from the BBC after they'd repeatedly refused to bring it out on DVD (utter madness, obviously).
Anyhoo, I reviewed Richard Herring's 'What is Love Anyway?' show at Curve for the Leicester Mercury on February 15th (aka St Skeletor's day) - here's the link http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/St-Valentine-s-Day-gets-massacred-restored/story-15254959-detail/story.html and last night his erstwhile partner-in-crime put on a cracking show to a near-sold out and very appreciative DeMontfort Hall. I was reviewing that one for the Mercury too, I'll post the link as soon as it appears online.
I've tried not to gush too much in my newspaper review and stay fairly objective, but it was a fantastic show, and an absolute delight to see him performing in front of the sort of large, knowledgeable crowd he deserves, whilst still being able to mock said crowd continuously for not really 'getting' him, or just coming along because he'd won an award. I remember seeing him in the comedy tent at Glastonbury in the late 90s, when he was first starting to develop that slow, repetitive style that so characterises much of his recent work, and the festival crowd were really not going for it. He was getting booed by the majority of the audience, and yet the more they disliked it, the slower and more repetitive he became, as if feeding off their contempt. I guess this means he was ahead of his time, because now people regularly call him a genius for doing the same sort of material.
Having said that, last night's show did seem slightly more tailored for a larger, perhaps less knowledgeable audience. There were many references to his style, and lengthy, weary-voiced explanations of how his jokes work to an imagined section of the audience whose only experience of live comedy is watching Michael MacIntyre's Comedy Roadshow. Nothing new there, of course, but perhaps more surprising was his frequent use of fairly conventional observational gags and fairly snappy topical gags in the first half of the show. But of course being Stewart Lee, he didn't just leave it at that - any standard gags were generally used a springboard for more deconstructive material, either explaining at length why a poor gag didn't get a great laugh, or berating his audience for laughing louder at obvious, Mock the Week-style jokes than his more cerebral material.
Of course this is what makes him a great comic, this ability to deconstruct jokes, routines and the nature of comedy itself whilst still making the audience laugh. He has taken the old notion of a joke not being funny if you have to explain it and proved the exact opposite, and as a result I'm sure we'll see a whole raft of Lee-inspired 'deconstructionists' on our comedy stages in the years to come. I doubt if any of them will do it as well as he, though - after all, he's had 20 or so years practice...
Hello you and your comedy face.
Welcome to LeicesterComedyScene, a weblog (or 'blog' as the kids would call it as they're knifing you in the balls and uploading it to YouTube) all about the comedy scene in Leicester. The clue's in the title.
Obviously there's bugger all on here at the moment, but over the coming months I hope to be bothered enough to put up any news of upcoming live shows heading Leicester's way, and post my own reviews of shows I've managed to get off my arse and see. That way you can come here for all your local comedy news and not have to trawl around endless venue sites and search underpopulated generic listings sites.
Well that's the plan anyway. We'll see how it goes shall we?
Obviously there's bugger all on here at the moment, but over the coming months I hope to be bothered enough to put up any news of upcoming live shows heading Leicester's way, and post my own reviews of shows I've managed to get off my arse and see. That way you can come here for all your local comedy news and not have to trawl around endless venue sites and search underpopulated generic listings sites.
Well that's the plan anyway. We'll see how it goes shall we?
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