Leicester Comedy Festival Blog

So, the first weekend of the Festival is over and it’s been a cracker so far. Discovery of the weekend was not a comedian, but finding a venue (The Y) which sells my favourite whisky and at a very reasonable price too. Buoyed with comedy good cheer, I also discovered that said whisky doesn’t go too well with Guinness, and woke up on Sunday morning with something of a Scots/Irish argument going on in my head.
 
Andrew Lawrence last night was quite an experience. Imagine if you can a cross between the “Choose Life” rant at the start of the film Trainspotting and the track Fitter Happier by Radiohead, make it last for an entire hour seemingly without pausing for breath once, make it very funny indeed, and you might get some idea of how it went! Seriously recommended.
 
Just one bit of practical advice for anyone attending sold-out shows at Kayal and more particularly Firebug – make sure you turn up a bit early if you want to ensure you get a seat, as I’ve been to a couple of shows already which have had standing room only.
 
TTFN,
 
Bruce

Does anyone else think the festival has really revved up a gear this year? Everything just seems so much bigger and more noticeable than before, and it’s great to see.
 
I had my first taste of the perils of being a judge last night, when I bumped into a friend from work at a gig last night, who asked me if I was going to see any other shows. I replied that yes, yes I was… quite a few in fact. Obviously at this point they noticed the official festival pass around my neck and the conversation would have gone on from there to the who’s, why’s, and how’s, but the thing is I really didn’t want to tell this chap that I was a judge, because it was a fairly small room and the act himself may well have overheard. So I just ended up looking like a bit of a dick and telling him and his girlfriend that my involvement in the festival was all “top secret”. Moral of story – hide the pass when entering a small venue.
 
Looking forward to 3 more shows tonight followed by a trip to the Charity Shop DJ at the Y, who I vaguely remember talking to about Mrs. Mills at the preview show back in January. If you are not aware of the work of Mrs Mills, this might give you an idea of her stylings: http://www.bizarrerecords.com/galleries/old/millsKnees.html
A quick google will find you some of her other covers, which are quite hilarious at first glance, yet become really quite sinister if you look at them for too long. Just one word of warning – I urge you, friends, don’t ever try to actually listen to one…
 
TTFN,
 
Bruce

I was one of around 80 people who kicked off their festival experience watching a woman put a rose through her tongue.  Miss Behave opened the festival on Friday with a performance at our breakfast launch.  Most of the people there (including me) then went on to watch the fantastic variety show that is The Crack.

Most of Friday day was spent doing some last minute bits and pieces.  I did manage to pop out and see the Festival flag flying from the roof of Leicester Mercury!  I also helped encourage Kate Owen on her way as she runs a double marathon raising money for charity.  Do support her if you see her running from venue to venue across the 17 days.

My Friday night ended late as I did a live interview on BBC Radio 2 promoting the festival.  I spent Saturday morning at the DMU Playing for Laughs conference before going down to watch our playful animation on the Leicester Big Screen.  People seemed to really enjoy the Hand From Above picking up and playing with members of the public!  Saturday night ended with me DJing as part of the amazing Charity Shop DJ.

I managed to see the John Lewis Drama Society perform at Phoenix Square on Sunday.  A great afternoon show which hopefully will become an annual tradition.  I then managed to see a bit of Andrew Lawrence’s show.  Andrew is a favourite of mine.  Only 14 days and around 300 shows to go!

So, we’re now looking forward to the final weekend of the festival. It’s been good so far and I thought I’d take a little while to think about those who win top marks for their involvement, and those who score nothing for being bastards.

So, top marks first.  To Grazia magazine for featuring us as a top thing to do this week.  You’ll be surprised to hear that I’ve not bought Grazia before but popped down to my local newsagent to buy a copy today.  One friend e-mailed, after seeing the piece, asking if we’d be in Heat magazine before too long.  All I can say is watch this space; it’s only a matter of time.  Top marks also go to the good folk down at The Criterion for running such great shows.  Fingers crossed the venue will be back next year.  I’ind and replaceve still not tried their pizza but am told pizzas at the venue are fantastic.  I’ve not repeated my âbag of twiglets for dinnerâ from the other night but I can’t say I’ve eaten well this festival.  Top marks to the people who put our banners up around the city who seem to have finally done their job.  Top marks should really go to Mark for sorting it out and shouting so well at the folk who actually put them up wrong initially and then had to go back and sort them out.

& what about those who score no points?  At the very bottom of the pile are the friendly performers who tried to whip up a media frenzy by suggesting that we tried to ban them from the festival.  Given they are performing this year, it tends to suggest that we didn’t try and ban them or, if we did, we didn’t do it very well.  It’s always nice when you go out of your way to help people, work with them and then they bad mouth you to the media and try and cause trouble.  Thanks guys.

I guess second from bottom is the snow which is back again as I type.  It surely can’t settle like it did over the first weekend.  The roads are wet so fingers crossed it won’t be around for long.  When everyone is holed up for the weekend, unable to get out cos of the snow, remind me of my optimism.

Tonight I’m off to see Milton Jones at the Cathedral which should be an experience.  Sadly the bishop of Leicester can’t attend as he’s at a General Synod meeting in London.  However I hear a rumour that the Dean is leaving the Synod early so she can be back in time for the show.  I wonder what her colleagues think of that.  Hope she scores points for doing it.

We had a few worried calls yesterday from folk who have tickets to see Ed Byrne on Sunday.  We announced that Ed is rushing over to our finale show Comedy Heaven after his Curve gig and some people misread this and thought he’d cancelled his main Curve show.  Don’t worry people; he really is doing 2 shows in one night.  I know!  Who’d have thought it?!  It must be festival time.

Can I go to sleep yet?

geoff

If anyone managed to catch the great MJ Hibbett and his show at The Criterion here’s some thoughts from the man himself:

“Hello, MJ Hibbett here, tourist from the land of ROCK. For years I’ve been playing up and down the country with my band The Validators doing ROCK gigs (that’s ROCK, by the way, not just “rock”. That would be
silly) but for the past nine months or so I’ve been occasionally stepping over the border into the Comedy Nation with my show “My Exciting Life In ROCK!” (see what I mean? So much better that way).

Comedy’s a VERY different place – soundchecks are a lot quicker and a lot quieter for a start and everything seems a lot more Serious and Professional. People in bands turn up and hope for the best, not worrying much about if anybody’ll be there, what they’re going to play or, indeed, how they’ll get home afterwards. Comedians, however, all appear to have Career Plans, Theories Of Comedy and a phalanx of agents, managers and promoters. I might be completely imagining it, or maybe it’s just a show they put on for the tourists, but it doesn’t half make me feel like a lightweight!

The other big difference is in Audiences. NOBODY, but NOBODY ever thinks to themselves “Hmm, I like The Indie Rock, I think I’ll pop out to my local Indie Rock Club and see what sort of Indie Rockers they’ve got on. Also, once there, I shall sit through every act, on the off-chance.” Yet that’s how people appear to view comedy clubs – it’s brilliant, when we played at The Criterion there were people there I didn’t even KNOW! That NEVER happens at my normal gigs!

I’m back from my holiday now, returning to the rhythms or ROCK and even now my comedy holiday is fading from memory. Did I really do a gig that appeared in an Official Programme? Surely not?”

It’s day 5 of LCF09 and I now have a hole in my shoes!  Is this some sort of ploy to make my feet wet for the entire festival?!  Maybe this has some big significance or maybe it’s just a coincidence that both my shoes and boots have holes in them when the ground is still wet after the snow.  Anyhow, perhaps you don’t want to know about my footwear issues.  If you don’t, read on as I won’t mention it again.

The media coverage of things this year has gone a bit crazy.  We’ve been heard on BBC Radio 4 & 2 as well as BBC Radio 6 Music and BBC Radio 7.  BBC Leicester have loads of interviews with acts on their website as well as news & up to date information on the radio.  I’m told that even GMTV mentioned us on the first night and on Friday I’ll be at the winner of the ‘win a gig in your workplace’ promoted by Heart 106.  Leicester Mercury have covered the festival loads and their website features lots of reviews of acts.  They even include a mention of the fancy toilets at Gilded Balloon at The City Rooms.  If you haven’t paid a visit yet, make sure you do before the venue shuts to the public on Friday night.  I’ve been thinking maybe we should have a ‘best toilet’ category at the post-festival awards ceremony.  If you have any nominations, do let me know.  Tomorrow night, BBC will feature us in a documentary being made about LCF09.  Check out Inside Out at 7.30pm or watch it on their fancy iplayer thingy.

Speaking of our awards, last night we held our first judges meeting.  All the judges plus myself and Lucy met in secret to discuss the shows seen and venues visited.  Of course, I can’t say much at this stage but we’ll meet again on Friday and then the final decision meeting happens on Tuesday 17th February.  Who will win and who will loose?!?  Exciting huh?

Last night I spent most of the time with Arthur Smith, our special guest for our secret event.  Thanks to all those who trusted us and bought tickets for a show kept secret until the very last minute. Introduced by me, Arthur read from his soon to be published autobiography, which will be a big seller if the bits we heard are anything to go by.  I think we’ll do some more secret shows in future festivals so watch out for those.

Big noises being made about Tom Adams, Mike Wozniak, Bowies, Carey Marx, Sarah Millican and Ginger & Black.  There’s still loads more to come including Ed Byrne, Andy Parsons, Leicester Mercury Comedian of the Year competition, Comedy Heaven, Chortle Quiz, Stephen K Amos, Milton Jones at Leicester Cathedral, Mark Thomas, Hilarious, Gay Comedy Night, Jo Caulfield, Wil Hodgson, Jim Smallman ‘€“ I could go on but I won’t.  Enjoy.

geoff

Oh my lord have you seen the snow? SNOW can you believe it?

Well I know you folk haven’t heard from me in a while but the comedy festival has kicked off with a rather large bang (not an atomic bang, watching season 2 of 24 at the moment and thank god the comedy festival hasn’t made that happen.) So much has happened over the last few days that I’m finding it hard to put it into words.

First of all there was the fantastic launch of the Gilded Balloon in the Leicester City Rooms, if you don’t know it off the top of your head it’s the old building with the eerily lit green woman in front of it. That night there were fantastic performances from Phil Nicol who had the leader of DeMonfort Hall, Richard Haswell declaring that he was the only gay Eskimo. Then there were the delights of the Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre who actually made me miss most of their section because of their talk of Halloween having me laughing so much. Funtastic, one of this year’s children acts danced and sang for us in a beautiful and endearing way. Ali Cook performed some rather sadistic magic tricks which were a treat to behold. This was all tied together by Jarred Christmas who I can never get enough of.

And that was just one night in one venue! Other highlights so far have been Ginger and Black, you must must see them, Jim Smallman gives a rather revealing insight into past failed relationships and mental illness, which is much funnier than it sounds. Mike Wozniak at Bowies was a whirlwind of manic science based comedy. My favourite so far has to be Teakshow, a duo give a number of sketch shows in the same dark vein as League of Gnetlmen or Rocky Horror, you can catch them on Thursday and Friday at the City Rooms at 6.30 please do not miss them.

See you tomorrow dudes and dudettes.

David B

Judge

P.S. you can also catch up and follow the comedy festival goings on here at www.yourfaceisanadvert.com

Arrived on Saturday with a friend but in two cars which is not very carbon friendly but the snow closing airports in the soft south meant that friend had been stranded in Ireland for three days and so had to get here under different steam from me.  It never entered either of our heads not to make the effort.

On Saturday we saw Jon Richardson at the Phoenix.  We had got separate seats but thanks to two very nice people we all shuffled around so could sit together.  It is so much better laughing out loud next to someone you know, so many thanks to the two kind strangers, and Jon did make us (and the rest of the audience) laugh out loud, a lot.

Planned to spend Sunday early afternoon at Kayal  seeing a run of shows but one of them had been hit with illness and so Spikey Mike pulled together a guest line up at short notice and the comedy went on.  Last night was Pick of the Fest at the Gilded Balloon with 3 very different, very funny men – Jareth Rogan, Kevin Bridges and Rob Deering and compere Michael Fabbri.  All on good form but with a small audience – come on Leicester, the weather’s not that bad and a good old giggle is what’s needed to keep the slush and recession in proportion.

After that I came up to Bowies and was entertained and enthralled by Kent Valentine and his storytelling about napalm, Steve, petrol, vikings and all kinds of rainbows. Meanwhile friend drove back to London, giving a lift to another  performer, and his bike.

So what am I really doing here?  As well as seeing some good comedians and comedy I’m running drop-in advice zones for artists and performance students called “Equitea”. If  you want to ask about industry stuff then swing on by – some of the things that have come up so  far include helping an artist who hasn’t been paid for a tv commercial; helping another one with a National Insurance issue; working on a marketing plan for a new act; advising on how to move from studying performance to working as a performer; looking at ways of expanding and diversifying a career and a load of other stuff.  There’s also been a lot of nattering about the state of the business  and it’s all fuelled by Equity cups of tea and coffee and muffins.  So if you’re an artist with an issue or just want to pop in, say hello  and take the weight off - you’ll be very welcome:

Monday 9th and Friday 13th at the  Gilded Balloon, City Rooms from 3.30 – 5.00pm.

Saturday 14th at Bowies, Belmont Hotel, 3.30 – 5.00pm.

Time now hit the comedy trail again and then drive back to London tonight.

Louise Grainger

Equity

It’s day 2 of Leicester Comedy Festival 2009 and I’m doing alright.  Last night we launched at the Town Hall and then I wandered around some shows and soaked up the festival atmosphere.  For the last week or so I have wondered why my feet have been soaking when I arrive home; it turns out my good, hardy boots have a hole in them which has let the snow seep through.  Will have to try and get a new pair at some point’€¦  I may include other things I need to add to my shopping list on future blogs so watch out for the latest on that.

The subject of women swearing has come up.  At the Playing for Laughs conference today a women mentioned that she thought it was OK for men to swear but not women.  She thought women swearing ‘let the side down’.  Most of the folk at the conference seemed to disagree and I have to say I think I’m with them.  Is it an ‘old fashioned’ view that women should keep to clean material whilst on stage?  The conference also focused a little bit on material about anal sex and it what context such jokes would be OK.  There was a suggestion that this may be the overall topic of next year’s conference but I’m not sure a day long discussion could be sustained by such a thing.  The things you have to consider when putting on a comedy festival!

In the last 24 hours I’ve not slept much, have visited 7 venues, eaten badly (dinner last night was a bag of twiglets), kept sober, seen some great comedy but missed Ruby Wax who was present at Hans Teeuwen’s show at Phoenix.  Tonight I’m hoping to see bits of 8 shows and will probably end up at Late n Live at Gilded Balloon at The City Rooms.  Tomorrow things will start early with a show at 2.15pm and then more comedy.

What is great is the number of folk who come from outside Leicester.  Most acts ask where people are from and there are people visiting the festival from across the UK. At last nights Junior Simpson show there were people in from Belfast, Manchester, Birmingham and Australia.  Long may this continue and a big welcome to everyone coming from outside the city.

Top marks go to the flyering teams who are out and about in Leicester spreading the word.  Hopefully their boots don’t have holes in them and they keep their feet dry.

Geoff

Festival Director

I’ve done some things in my time but have never promoted a secret show.  On Monday 9th February we’re promoting a secret show as part of Leicester Comedy Festival 2009.  Only around 5 people in the entire world know who will be performing at the event, taking place at The Quarter, Cultural Quarter, Leicester.  Around 50 people have already trusted us and parted with their well earned cash which isn’t bad (a) given the current economic climate, (b) given the capacity of the venue is only around 80 and (c) there are loads of other great shows to see.  But one thing is certain about the secret show and that is that the name of the act will remain a secret until they walk out in front of the audience.

Blimey!  I have to admit I am a little apprehensive about the show.  What if folk don’t respond well to the act?!  I think this is unlikely given the act is one of the most loved acts on the circuit.  What folk will see will be a true first.  No one has seen this before and no one will guess who it is.  I’m apprehensive and excited in equal measure.

On my way to work this morning a good, good friend of mine admitted that they’d been texted by various people who said ’surely you know who is performing at the secret gig!’.  She doesn’t.  No one knows who it is.  It’s a secret.  I can’t tell anyone.  Otherwise it won’t be a secret.  I said it was exciting.  Grab a ticket whilst you can and in five years time you’ll be able to tell your friends that you were there.  Honest.  I won’t even tell our friends at BBC Leicester.  Intrigued?!  Hope so.

Geoff

Festival Director