Comedy Central Funniest Student 2010/Party Piece
There was a comedy heavy start to this week, as I went to see the Comedy Central Funniest Student Final at the Comedy Store on Monday before gigging at Party Piece in Stoke Newington on Tuesday. I went to the former partly to support Ian Smith and partly because I've never been to the Comedy Store before. It's an iconic venue and you get some sense for the history of the place and its role in shaping stand up comedy in this country. It must be amazing to play there. It was a really good night with some strong acts, compered with a sense of mischief by Patrick Monahan and headlined by the excellent Jarred Christmas, another master of crowd control.
Ian had a stormer of a gig and was unlucky not to win it. I imagine he'll be disappointed but as a confident performer and an intelligent writer, he's got a big future in stand up. Ian finished second with Rhys Jones (who had great stage presence but his material was lacking) in third. Joe Wells was the winner and he had an impressive gig with a diverse range of material (a joke about the Welsh flag was a particular highlight). It was tough one for the judges (including the very funny Shappi Khorsandi) to call and it was difficult to argue with the decision.
I had a middling sort of gig at Party Piece on Tuesday night. There were only seven audience members in, less than half of the number of acts on the bill. That was not surprising, bearing in mind that Party Piece is a weekly gig (run and compered by the excellent Tom Webb) and Stoke Newington doesn't strike me as a thriving cultural area. I was experimenting with a reasonable amount of new material, some of which worked and some of which went down to silence. Most of my tried and tested stuff got a good reaction though, which is always encouraging. Bearing in mind that the audience were relatively subdued throughout proceedings, I was reasonably satisfied with it. My next gig is at Emergency, a comedy/poetry night in Camden on Tuesday.
Before then, I'm heading back to Royal Holloway to drink like the student I no longer am and going to Windsor to watch Richard Herring's critically acclaimed show Hitler Moustache. Fun weekend in prospect.
Ian had a stormer of a gig and was unlucky not to win it. I imagine he'll be disappointed but as a confident performer and an intelligent writer, he's got a big future in stand up. Ian finished second with Rhys Jones (who had great stage presence but his material was lacking) in third. Joe Wells was the winner and he had an impressive gig with a diverse range of material (a joke about the Welsh flag was a particular highlight). It was tough one for the judges (including the very funny Shappi Khorsandi) to call and it was difficult to argue with the decision.
I had a middling sort of gig at Party Piece on Tuesday night. There were only seven audience members in, less than half of the number of acts on the bill. That was not surprising, bearing in mind that Party Piece is a weekly gig (run and compered by the excellent Tom Webb) and Stoke Newington doesn't strike me as a thriving cultural area. I was experimenting with a reasonable amount of new material, some of which worked and some of which went down to silence. Most of my tried and tested stuff got a good reaction though, which is always encouraging. Bearing in mind that the audience were relatively subdued throughout proceedings, I was reasonably satisfied with it. My next gig is at Emergency, a comedy/poetry night in Camden on Tuesday.
Before then, I'm heading back to Royal Holloway to drink like the student I no longer am and going to Windsor to watch Richard Herring's critically acclaimed show Hitler Moustache. Fun weekend in prospect.
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