Leicester Comedy Festival Blog

So, within probably hours of being told that David Morgan had got through to the quarter finals of the Laughing Horse competition, we’d got him a slot on our official radio station BBC Radio Leicester.  Sadly, David had left his phone at home that day so wasn’t able to get on for 48 hours….  there’s a lesson to be learnt there.  Anyone know what it is?  You can hear the interview via http://www.bbc.co.uk/leicester/entertainment/

along with loads of other interviews with acts and performers.

didn’t write a blog yesterday cos was kinda busy.  whilst the world was buying cards and flowers, we had our heads down at Leicester Comedy Festival towers trying to sort stuff out.  overall things are going well though so maybe the flower shopping will start today; although at those prices we might give it a miss.  Who said romance was dead?

So, what’s been happening?  Quincy premiered his first one-hour show at Bambu on Tuesday.  Fingers crossed he’ll be taking it to Edinburgh so watch out for that.  Random Ramblings sold out their shows at The Quarter.  Bachman Turner Improvise packed them in at the Basement Bar on Tuesday night and someone called Dave Parkin did his first ever solo show at the same venue last night.

You’ll know we produce various shows ourselves and last night we premiered our Those YoungMinds show at Phoenix.  The show focuses on young people and their emotional health; try and catch it if you can…..  If you went to see Helen Keen at The Looking Glass, i hope you liked her yummy biscuits, made especially for the audience.

Elsewhere, the next edition of 10 days is out.  Read it for the latest news and gossip.  & our next podcast is out too and you’ll be able to download it from our website and itunes as soon as they put it up there.

For those of you heading off tonight for laughs instead of romance, check out the main website for details of shows that haven’t sold out yet…….  many have which is great news and makes us really happy.

leave comments on our Forum Chat, found at the top of the main website homepage.

nearly the 2nd weekend and we can’t wait….

geoff
Leicester Comedy Festival

So, it’s been kinda busy so far. Its day 5 so we’re almost half way there. As long as we survive tonight we’ll have achieved 50% of our 15th birthday. Fingers crossed huh?

Folk occasionally ask us why they should take part and perform at the annual festival. In the past, loads of new acts have been spotted and gone on to bigger and better things. Some of the acts who have won Leicester Mercury Comedian of the Year Competition are now comedy circuit headliners, and you’ll be able to hear more from them at our Winners Reunited event on Sunday 17th.

Anyhow, this year’s festival has had its fair share of successes so far…

Bethany Black did a full show on Sunday at Halli and ended up getting a good review from our friends at chortle. They said the show was a “very funny hour from a decidedly different angle”. Read the full review on chortle.co.uk

Leicester’s own Random Ramblings (maybe better known as Michael and Jason) are doing their very first shows tonight and tomorrow at The Quarter. To warm up, they did a 10 minute open spot as part of Mek Mi Laugh on the first night. The promoter (Carlton from Da Comedy Room) was so impressed he’s said he’ll book them for other gigs across the UK.

& King of Facebook David Morgan, a stand-up from Leicester, did really well at the Laughing Horse competition last night and is now going down to London for the quarter finals. Hurrah!

On top of that Hathi Productions have been on local TV news and Gujarati Comedy Group received a brilliant review in Leicester Mercury today.

If you managed to get into Frankie Boyle last night, let us know how it went. Allyn Lawson, who won our short film competition, managed to get 3 tickets and some lucky person bid for tickets on ebay.

So, tonight I hope to catch some of Quincy’s show as well as James Sherwood, Jim Smallman and maybe Late & Live at the Looking Glass. People are saying it’s really festive so keep going & enjoy the shows.

geoff
Leicester Comedy Festival

According to Leicester Mercury when Duncan Norvelle supported Ricky Tomlinson at De Montfort Hall last night he was “gut-bustingly funny”. So, now you know….

Do let us know who your highlights have been so far. Folk have been telling me that:

Annette Fagon was great at Mek Mi Laugh on Friday night
Carl Donnelly was sold out at Bambu on Friday
Steve Day was great at Richard Attenborough Centre; shame about the small audience
Hotel D’Comedie gets odder and odder…. More below
Dave Spikey was brilliantThe Mental Health Benefit Show raised a few hundred quid for charity

and sadly Rob Gee had his bike stolen last night as he watched Sarah Millican at Bambu. Maybe we should start a fundraising campaign to get him a new one?

I popped into the Musician yesterday afternoon, after being interviewed by BBC7 for their comedy club show. Alex Riley and Ben Motley from BBC7 sat on a bench on New Walk and did our annual interview; the glamour! They’d been up and spoken to loads of acts about the festival and thought the whole thing was really festive – hurrah! Tune into BBC7 for coverage of us all week. We had a brief chat about some plans for next year and a special BBC7 event; hopefully that’ll come off.

Top marks for audience participation so far goes to the man who saw Hotel D’Comedie last night and ended the show with a rendition of “Two Little Boys”. If you were there, it all makes sense but to me it just sounds strange. Whatever takes your fancy I suppose.

Hope the group of 20 13 year olds enjoyed Pete Firman at The Y last night. It was someone’s birthday treat; happy birthday Reuben (not the eldest son of Jacob; the chap whose birthday it was…). Good show and fingers crossed Pete will be back as part of future Leicester Comedy Festival’s.

Was disappointed Markus Birdman cancelled his show last night as I was really looking forward to seeing him. Missed him at Edinburgh 07. Guess I’ll have to wait longer till I get to see him.That’s all for now.

geoff
Leicester Comedy Festival

So, hands up if you saw Jason Byrne at Phoenix on the first night? If you did, what did you think? Jason told me later that night that it had been his favourite show ever; a pretty good endorsement huh? I arrived at the show just after the interval and was surprised to see the “set” that he had on stage. After 10 minutes or so I realised what he’d done and couldn’t quite believe it! Brilliant stuff.

I wasn’t able to see all of Jason because I was at the world premier of Hotel D’Comedie at Hotel Maiyango. I think everyone who was there (including the acts!) would agree it was a bizarre but good experience. It’s not often you see comedians performing in dressing gowns and, from the acts point of view, it’s not often you invite 30 paying guests into your actual, real hotel bedroom. Anyhow, it was a great show and thanks to the acts, hotel staff and audience for being so “up for it”. Tickets are selling well for the rest of the festival so act quickly if you want to experience Hotel D’Comedie.

Friday night ended for me with some late night comedy at Phoenix and then a table football contest in a bar with Jason Byrne and friends until the early hours…… I think there might be a festival on.

Yesterday was a real compilation of stuff. I was up early (oh good) to welcome delegates to the Playing For Laughs symposium taking place this weekend at De Montfort University. Roger & Tracy have done such a good job putting it together. Last night they had a break from discussions to see the mighty Rich Hall at Phoenix, after a meal at the lovely Halli. If you come to Leicester from outside the area, and want an amazing meal, go to Halli – we just can’t get enough of their food.

I then walked through Leicester, stopping off to buy my Leicester Mercury and get my free joke (which was actually funny; thanks Dave) and head to The Contact Project as they started discussions about the show they are performing tonight (Sunday). A group of young people slowly arrived throughout the morning as members of John Lewis’s drama society and Rob Gee led the plans for the show. I’ll let you know how it all went once I’ve seen the show later today. I then saw Little Howard at Phoenix which was yet another sold out show. Apparently the show is targeted at children but I reckon the adults enjoyed it as much, if not more than the kids.

Then I saw Hathi Productions new 2-hander show at Halli. I’ve seen the performers many times before but never on stage doing a “proper” show. The sell out crowd loved the show and I was really pleased to have gone along. What was brilliant were the references to Leicester and Leicester Comedy Festival throughout the show; very clever and fun.So now I’m in the office catching up on some bits and pieces. Must eat sensibly today; need something fresh and a proper meal…… & mustn’t forget to meet Ben and Alex at 5pm. It seems to be going well so far.

Well, what a week it’s been. As we got ready for the launch tonight, we have also been busy:

- launching our exhibition (Make An Exhibition of Ourselves - which runs until 21st February)- contributing to the Cafe Culturel Happiness discussion- looking at our lovely arches on TV news
- doing interviews for BBC Radio Leicester, Heart 106, Leicester Sound, Smooth FM, Reload magazine, Fix magazine, BBC Asian Network- looking at press cuttings from Attitude, Guardian, Independent, Time Out, Daily Mirror & Good Housekeeping magazine
- distributing our Make Me Happy yo-yo’s across Leicestershire (thanks to Kate & Chuck!)
- selling tickets
- getting mentioned in the House of Commons, c/o Sir Peter Soulsby MP
- putting the finishing touches to the programme and opening the doors of Hotel D’Comedie

So, we’ve not been idle. We also learnt this week that tickets for festival shows are exchanging on ebay for 6 times their face value. We kinda feel like we’ve arrived.

Behind the scenes things are going well, if a little manic. We generally spend much of our time giving support to acts and promoters who are organising shows and running around trying to “set up” for the 10-day festival.

I might try and see some of the shows happening today in schools/colleges and community centres before heading out tonight for the premier of Hotel D’Comedie and then hopefully catch some late-night shows around the city. If you’re seeing Jason Byrne tonight, expect to see something very special that he hasn’t done since his last Edinburgh performance. Can’t say anymore but you’ll love it.

Up early tomorrow morning to help open the Playing for Laughs Symposium at De Montfort University. We now know the difference between a conference and a symposium (cos we looked it up in a dictionary!).

Take deep breaths and don’t forget to eat well.

geoff
Leicester Comedy Festival

The festival is now in full swing and launched with Friday night’s spectacular ‘The Pearl’ in Braunstone.

Some of you may have caught up with Preview show star Rhod Gilbert at his sell out show at the PHOENIX or seen the all female ‘Laughing Cows’ at The Y.

Pam Ann asked her frequent flyers to strap in at De Montfort Hall, with a host of other shows across Leicestershire seeing packed audiences and aching sides…

With Russell Brand and Paul Merton sold out tonight, why not catch up with some of the rising stars of the Comedy world. Deep breath…Paul Sinha, Josie Long, David O’Doherty, Steve Day, Men with Bananas, Leicester Stands Up, Jarred Christmas or late night comedy at the PHOENIX…and that’s just tonight!

Let us know your thoughts on what you’ve seen so far!

Here’s the area you can leave comments on venues in the festival…

A joke to get everyone started

“After her accident, my nan had a plastic hip put in. But I thought they should have replaced it with a Slinky, coz if she did fall down the stairs again … - Steve Williams, Appearing Feb 11th, Bambu

Here you can leave comments on different aspects of the festival so let us know what you think about what we’re doing and the shows you attend….

Well, Leicester Comedy Festival is now just over 2 weeks away and shows are beginning to sell out fast!  Sales are above what they were this time last year and we’re looking forward to a fantastic 14th birthday.  If you came along to our Preview Show at De Montfort Hall last Friday you’ll have had a sneak preview of what to expect, if not, here’s some information we’re sure you’ll need to know:

- Russell Brand, Paul Merton, Midlands Stands Up Comedy Competition Final (Sunday 18th) & Jimmy Carr (Friday 16th) are already sold out!!!

- tickets are selling well for Tim Minchin, Leicester Mercury Comedian of the Year Competition, Count Arthur Strong, Rhod Gilbert, Russell Howard & Comedy Heaven.

If you’ve not yet visited our up-graded website, check it out at www.comedy-festival.co.uk

You’ll shortly be able to add comments to the site so do let us know what you think about what we’re doing and the shows you attend.

If you’re visiting Leicester Comedy Festival from outside the area, and fancy making a night of it, check into our Official Festival Hotel from just £65 a person.  Information about the Best Western Belmont House Hotel is available from our site here.

Leicester Comedy Festival 2007 will open with a spectacular pyrotechnic performance, The Pearl.  Taking place at 6pm on Friday 9th February at Braunstone Park, Leicester, The Pearl is performed by Plasticiens Volants, France’s leading celebratory company who have previously performed the opening ceremony for Barcelona & Sydney Olympics.  The show will involve a procession and then a finale with an amazing firework display.  Wrap up warm and come and join us for the show of a lifetime.

Once you’ve seen The Pearl, you can then head off across Leicester and Leicestershire to enjoy brilliant stand up by Pam Ann (launching her UK tour at the festival), Laughing Cows, Mat Fraser’s Sex Variety Cabaret, Rhod Gilbert, Mitch Benn or Bottle Rocket Comedy Club in Loughborough.  And that’s just the first night!

Leicester Comedy Festival

9th-18th February 2007