Ho Ho Ho

Well, it's the day after Laughter-House and I'm emerging blinking into the daylight.

We've been running our comedy club for three years and despite the snow, we had a full room last night, so I think a massive group hug is in order for that achievement.

Interesting audience interaction last night from a new visitor to Laughter-House...leading me to realise that one person's concept of enjoying a live comedy night isn't necessarily everyone elses.

Throughout most of the opening act, he delivered an uninvited loud running commentary almost as annoying as it was pointless. The atmosphere changed and there was increasing tension in the room as audience members became irritated with his interactions, some telling him what they thought.

When our compere Danny Dawes invited him to cease, he was puzzled. "But that's all part of it, isn't it?"

Er...no, not exactly. The odd amusing heckle adds to live comedy. Friendly spontaneous audience interaction is a large part of the Laughter-House fun, but he was impervious to the fact that he was potentially spoiling a great night out for the rest of the audience.

Sadly, I think it spoiled his evening too, to be invited not to shout out after every line. But when he was persuaded to stop it made everyone's elses a whole lot better. Unfortuntely, our opening comedian's Laughter-House experience had been effectively disrupted.

This episode demonstrated to us that December is often a strange month for comedy; it invariably seems to attract someone, who, on the night, remains completely and blissfully unaware of the delicate path that live comedy treads.

We never want to be heavy handed with any guest, but if it's not sorted we end up feeling anxious for the rest of the audience, and the comedian affected.

Time to reflect, and to be grateful about the rarity of such behaviour at Laughter-House, and a fervent hope the person concerned will conclude that live comedy is not for them in future, at least not one of our events.

A little harsh? The heckling wasn't ill-natured, so perhaps it is. But there you are. We didn’t all make huge efforts to travel through the snow for that...

So, on to the next show Thursday 3 February with the wonderful Simon Evans...

Book tickets through www.laughter-house.co.uk
And many many thanks for supporting our comedy club. We look forward to sharing a fantastic 2011 with you all.

Jan