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
7 May 2011
14 April 2011
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 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.
26 March 2011
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...
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...
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