Dave Fulton, and a great night at Laughter-House

Well, last night it finally happened. I've been attempting to get American comedian Dave Fulton to headline at Laughter-House for the last two years, and last night we finally achieved this. The evidence is below; he's the slightly dishevelled one.

I have to say he was worth the wait - what a cracking headline act he was.

The timing of his appearance was wonderful; Dave appeared fresh from his interview on the BBC Breakfast Show, where he uttered a somewhat naughty word. I won't say what it was, suffice to say it rhymes with 'tanker'.

One of our audience members had actually seen this little episode unfold before her eyes (you can catch it here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcaFJsBSA_s which made for some very entertaining dialogue.

Dave Fulton's comedy is clever; some of it political, with very sharp observations. He strides onto the stage with a couldn't-give-a-stuff-approach which is very refreshing. Definitely one of our most popular headline acts who we'll be asking back.

We were also entertained last night by Windsor - an award winning street performer who had some wonderful interaction with our audience. Chris Norton Walker completed the line up, with a very interesting set. At one point, it could have gone either way, but the audience ended up in stitches.

Phil Dinsdale compered for us last night; a warm and witty comedian of Newcastle origin. I've seen Phil several times, and booked him several times, and he never fails to do a fantastic compering job.

We're also very grateful to Michael Palmer Photography who came along to take some piccies. Michael is a superb photographer; some of his images have been used in TV documentaries.

Have a look http://www.michaelpalmer.com/laughing-at-people-in-basingstoke/ and see if you're one of our audience members featured.

Next show 1 March 2012 when we have Gary Delaney and Edward Aczel. Can't wait!

Tickets from our website www.laughter-house.co.uk or from the reception at the Red Lion Hotel in Basingstoke.

A Costa Cruise, a Cockroach, and me!

I've been reading with fascination about Captain Francesco Schettino's strange behaviour in the recent Costa Concordia disaster.

It must be incredibly difficult for an experienced sea captain to fall into a lifeboat and not be able to get back out. But having had experience of Italian crew ship members aboard a Costa cruise, I can't say I'm too surprised.

Many years ago I took a trip on the Achille Lauro (which eventually caught fire and sank in 1994). It was termed a 'luxury cruise ship'; an ambitious description.

On our first day in the cabin we were joined by a plump, satisfied, cockroach. I called the steward.

"There's a cockroach in our cabin."

His use of the English language inexplicably became a little hazier.

"Cockroach? I not understand."

"Down there. Look." I pointed at the cockroach which was cheerfully waving its antennae at us

He looked. "I not see anything."

Suddenly the cockroach sprung into action and scuttled enthusiastically towards my bed.

"THAT cockroach."

"Ah." There was a pause. And then, defensively, "It's come in from outside."

I gazed out of the porthole, at the deep waters of the Mediterranean.

"It must be a good swimmer."

He waved a nonchalant hand.

"Anyway, it's lucky."

"I don't need to know it's name. Just get it out of my cabin."

He turned to me, his English getting better as he became more excited.

"It is no problem. There is no problem him being here. NO PROBLEM. It is LUCKY to have a cockroach in your cabin. Ask anyone."

I glanced at the cockroach, which had reached my bed; no doubt in the process of slipping it's pyjamas under my pillow.

The Steward turned to leave. This conversation was not going in the right direction.

"I DO NOT WANT TO SHARE THIS CABIN WITH A COCKROACH. IT IS NOT ACCEPTABLE."

The cockroach was eventually removed, with the utmost hostility from the Steward; no doubt becoming a 'lucky' mascot for some other passenger.

And I was 'persona non grata' for the rest of the cruise.

All I can say is that if I had had to face that particular Steward in a tussle for a lifeboat...my money would have been on the Steward...

Oh what fun we had

It's been a funny few days. Our Laughter-House show came and went last Thursday.. the turn out was a little lower than usual - but the the atmosphere was still wonderful.

Lower turn outs (to be fair, we still had 60 punters in) are always the case when Other Distractions come along, namely Easter holidays, and the excitement of Pippa Middleton's Very Special Day.

Which reminds me, if I ever got married again (no chance of that) in a church (even less chance of that) I will be definitely be recruiting a bridesmaid with a beard, a squint, and a bottom the size of Baghdad, and definitely not someone who nearly brings an excited Twitter crashing to its knees.

This month, the run up to Laugher-House was a Bit of a Worry, beginning with a call, the day before, from compere Danny Dawes. "I'm ill" he croaked. "If you can't find someone else I'll come along. But I won't be funny."

Desparate to avoid the disaster of Danny coming along and Not Being Funny, I telephoned our second-in-command Laughter-House compere, Phil Dinsdale. But no..he was washing his hair...and my stress levels rocketed skywards as I reached for the valium.

"Can't you do it?" somebody asked me. Well I could, but I'd be about as good as a porcupine in an advanced embroidery class...

The Laughter-House audience were saved such a spectacle however, as amazingly the wonderful Jeremy O'Donnell happened to be free to help us out.

http://www.beyondcompere.com/home/profile/jeremy-odonnell

Jeremy is a superb compere, every time I've seen him I've admired the way he makes it all look so easy. He settled our audience down beautifully. We were very lucky he was available...as quite understandly he's a busy bloke.

We were also privileged to have Rich Wilson and Brendan Dempsey on the bill; two of my personal favourites and two of the nicest men in comedy.

Rich Wilson http://www.comedycv.co.uk/richwilson/index.htm is a charming comedian; always so natural, and a big hit with our audience. It's the third time Rich has done a Laughter-House gig; his anecdotes and observations are brilliant, and he remains a firm favourite both with me and the crowd.

The same can be said of Brendan Dempsey;

http://www.comedycv.co.uk/brendandempsey/index.htm

Brendan has unique charm and superb material, ranging from the country's bygone concern about healthy chickens, through to a touch of cynicism about Children in Need. It's so lovely to see my audience in tears of laughter...after all that's what it's all about.

It's great being a comedy promotor. Especially when you receive emails from customers like this

Jan,

Now that I’ve recovered from a fantastic evening on Thursday, I wanted to say that we thought the evening – again – was a blast.

We thought Simon Evans was great when he came a couple months back but this time, headliner Brendan Dempsey, was superb. The funniest guy I have ever seen. Sharp guy, great material and bang up to date issues.

Great comedy on our doorstep!

Thanks Paul...really appreciate your sentiments...and looking forward to the next show on 9 June when we have Tony Cowards and George Egg joining us.

Tickets available here www.laughter-house.co.uk

See you then.
Jan

Pictures from the comedy world

What makes 20 people travel hundreds of miles to a comedy event?

The answer is I really don't know,but it happened in Basingstoke last month.

I managed to work out that about a fifth of our audience had taken quite a long journey to be with us (the furthest being from Manchester and Doncaster) which is just amazing.

Many were friends from the national networking group 4Networking. www.4networking.biz

I'm pleased to say they all thought it was worth it; their loyalty is amazing and they knock my socks off.

Many people came along because they had found me on Twitter...so who says that Twitter doesn't work?

We were privileged last week for have some pictures taken by Michael Palmer Photography. Have a look at these! www.laughter-house.vpweb.co.uk/event-photographs.html

Okay, let's forget the fact that I'm heading up the photies, and that any photo makes me look like a well fed muppet...have a good look at the others. They are, quite simply, stunning. These were taken in very poor lighting so imagine what Michael can do with good lighting and a non-muppetish subject.

You can see Michael's own take on these at www.michaelpalmer.com/comedy-photography

Ignore the glamorous lady at the top of the post. She's just there to make me jealous.

The next Laughter-House show features the fabulous Brendan Dempsey http://www.comedycv.co.uk/brendandempsey/index.htm
and is on 5th May. You can book tickets online here... www.wegottickets.com/event/111399 or obtain them from the Red Lion Hotel reception in Basingstoke...

Look forward to seeing you there.

The Sound of Silence - Naomi House Charity Auction

Last night I was honoured to be compering a fundrasing auction for Naomi House Children's Hospice; a much loved local hospice, which relies very heavily on voluntary contributions.

I was compering this event with Matthew Baylis, another comedian who had kindly come along to support me, and having checked out the sound system (always sensible when performing) all seemed fine. We did however request an extra microphone which the hotel provided.

The guests filed in; the atmosphere was happy, there was a huge buzz in the room. And then it all changed. It all changed when I picked up the microphone.

As a comedian who has gigged in some very strange places, a change of atmosphere isn't a brand new experience for me, however this one was out of my control, in that my microphone had strongly objected to Matthew's.

The result was chaos, with feedback squeals emanating from every corner, and guests grimacing and stuffing their fingers in their ears, and whilst I might expect my husband to react to me, on occasion, in this way (usually at the mention of a trip to Sainsburys) I don't usually get that reaction from my audience.

We immediately ditched Matthews's microphone (which was, by now, nothing more than an ornament) and shared mine. My microphone, perhaps struggling under the weight of this extra responsibility, subsequently decided it had done quite enough work for one evening, and stopped working.

The answer (apparently) was simple. The microphone simply needed re-charging. This however proved a step too far for the venue. A couple of staff members made half hearted attempts to help, but we did notice the person responsible disappearing faster than the proverbial horse in a glue factory.

At one point, it appeared that all was lost. We were actually asked to stand in the middle of the room and call out all the auction items to the assembled throng. A surreal suggestion; this being a very, very long room with 120 guests, who had paid for, and were expecting, a professional and slick evening.

Eventually the problem was solved by one of the paying guests, who doubtless did not expect to double up as a sound engineer for the night. But speaking on behalf of Matthew and myself, we were very grateful that he did.

We can't speak on behalf of the venue of course. Let's just say it's a good thing I don't suffer from abandonment syndrome, or last night I might have sat on the floor and cried.

Fortunately, we were still able to raise much needed funds for Naomi House. But not as many as we probably would have done.

So the moral of the story? If you're booking a venue with a sound system, always ask for a back up microphone, and if it's a radio mic check that it is either fully charged or has spare batteries.

And if the venue can't promise you either of these....then don't say you haven't been warned...

Why does Judy from Clapham still send me a Christmas Card?

What's your view of Christmas cards? A contributor to the downfall of forests? A canny way for the Post Office to get more money out of us? Or essential for imparting Christmas goodwill wishes?

There are of course the unbelievably flimsy ones; guaranteed to collapse in a nonchalant heap the minute someone opens a door. Believe me, the message conveyed by a card that's the quality of a sheet of Tesco's Finest Loo Paper says far more than the heart felt "Best wishes from Tim and Jane" that's invariably scrawled inside.

I'm still receiving a card from Judy of Clapham; the daughter of a family my parents met at a holiday camp in the seventies. They've obviously been interrogating my parents for my address, because I wouldn't know them if one of them landed on my head displaying a neon sign with their name on.

But I do know that the extremely spotty (and gobby) Judy ended up marrying Derek and they now have two spotty and most likely gobby heberts of their own. They also have a cat called Harrington. I'm never likely to meet them (or Harrington)and they've never received a card from me, so why do they do it?

My parents were obsessed with Christmas cards. Each year, out would come their handwritten list and each new arrival would be ticked off carefully and placed on the mantelpiece. Then, on Christmas Eve, they would spend a good couple of hours expressing their disgust over why Tony from Liverpool hadn't sent them a card; how they never liked him anyway and how he's never ever getting another Christmas card from them.

Give me strength.

Anyway,if you know me, don't worry if you didn't send me a card. I'm truly not bothered; friendship has far better ways of proving itself.

And if I didn't send YOU a card, it doesn't mean I don't like you. I just find the whole thing a bit daft.

Bah Humbug.

Comedy competitions

Last night I watched the final of the FHM stand up comp, and I'm still at a loss to understand why the lovely Nathan Caton didn't win.

Out of all the contestants, it was obvious that the audience loved him the most, but then he's a particularly endearing performer with a real likeability factor. He also has very original material.

It was lovely to see three Laughter-House comedians (the two others were Liam Mullone and Andrew Watts) being showcased on the final, and I'm proud to say that our line ups for next year are continuing to get better and better.

But comedy is very subjective. One person's Couldn't Stop Laughing is often someone else's What's all he Fuss About. Personally I didn't think the person who won the FHM stand up comp was the best.

But then we can't all like the same things. Or else we'd all be in a real pickle.

Wouldn't we?

I'm off to write my Christmas Cards. A job I hate. Expect some moaning about that soon.

JJ