For some reason, I’ve been watching a lot of stand up comedy these past few weeks – from the Bill Bailey Limboland that was on BBC last night, some Billy Connolly, some Eddie Izzard, some Dave Allen…….
Even though I’ve seen some of these multiple times, they still bring me great pleasure and some still have me in tears of laughter every time. It seems to be an art form that has always been there and whilst the formats may change over the years (from shaggy dog stories to one liners and back again) the fundamentals still remain solid – just someone with an great ability to make us laugh through their words.
I’ve seen many comedians over the years, both on TV and live – I spent many a summer from Uni and the years after going to the Edinburgh festival (my parents moved there when I went to Uni and so had free accommodation) and was lucky to see many of those that became stars later in their early incarnations – Eddie Izzard, Frank Skinner, Paul Merton to name but a few…..
I guess the one I come back to most is Billy Connolly even though I probably know most of the routines off by hearts. Unfortunately, he is one of the few that I have never managed to see live.
We’ve had our many lists in the past and discussed the best comedy movies and comedy TV series, so how about pure stand up. What tickles your fancy……?
I saw the Bill Bailey “Limboland” last night, just on the off chance, and I found it tear-inducingly hilarious. In particular, the “all things considered” section [which almost bled into poetry] and the story about his in-laws on a dog-sled in the Arctic Circle. The guy has something approaching comic genius, and not an eff in sight.
At the other end of the swearie scale, Frankie Boyle’s Tour Of Scotland, originally broadcast last year, was fucking un-fucking-PC brilliant.
Any idea why Episode 2 of Frankie’s Scottish Tour series is mysteriously absent from iPlayer?
I managed to find an eel copy of the whole series, just so I could see Episode 2, and for the life of me, having watched it with an eye for the out-out-outrageous, I can’t see anything particularly outre that he said which might have given the Beeb legals the willies, so its absence from the iPlayer website seems odd (the other three are all present and correct).
We don’t see a lot of stand-up (obv now!) but we really did enjoy Joe Mangel – sorry, Mark Little, when he did a couple of improv tours in the UK years back; he really stood out as brave (and possibly sectionable) and consequently stuck in the memory. The guy has fearlessness in spades, and balls of titanium. No worked up material, no try-it-out-on-the provinces pre-tour, no rehashed stuff from last time, just out and out make it up as you go along on the spot in the moment brilliance.
I went to a comedy night in New York City once, curated by Louis CK (remember him?), don’t recall too much except Jim Gaffigan was absolutely hilarious “Hot Pocket”!
Served on Air Canada flights as that tasty pre landing snack. I’m generally so bored by then I’ll eat anything, but even I have limits.
Had them many times!
Should add, only on a plane …
When I was working in Cornwall for the summer in 1980, some friends took me to see Billy Connolly in St. Austell as a birthday treat. I left the place with stomach pains from laughing so much.
My dad’s a Glaswegian, and he discovered The Big Yin early on in his career. We had all the Transatlantic albums in the house in the mid 70s, so I grew up with that stuff.
I thought Connolly was funny up until he married Pamela Stephenson and starting hanging out with minor royalty. He then lost it, especially as he all thought it was so funny himself that he could hardly get the words out.
I’ve seen loads of stand ups over the years – the last one I saw was Jimmy Carr (just before the pandemic was declared) – I went out of curiosity, not ‘liking’ him much, but damn he is very accomplished & funny.
It may me reflect that I’ve got more & more fond of performers who have a shctick & just stick to it brilliantly, even when it’s ostensibly corny as hell.
As a result, I’ve watched tons of Don Rickles & Rodney Dangerfield on YouTube during lockdown. They are both just so good, especially it seems when they actively ‘telegraph’ their gags – you know it’s coming, but it still kills.
Very different to to those with amazing ‘funny bones’, Billy Connolly being the most obvious example I can think of – not to suggest he isn’t a master of the craft- just a very contrary approach to ‘1, 2 3 bang!’ punch line masters.
I love it all but have a respect for schtick these days I never did when I was younger.
When I was kid my father would never have considered having anything as coarse as Billy Connolly’s records in the house, except he came from round the corner from us (he left his childhood home on Stewartville Street years before my family moved in adjoining Chancellor Street). I still think those early albums are the best of him, before he started signalling how hilarious his next bit was by cracking up before he delivered the funny lines That said, I’ve only seen him once and laughed so hard I thought I was having breathing difficulties.
I don’t see much live comedy even when venues are open. If we’re in London and fancy a sit down between a long day and dinner we’ll sometimes see if we can get for tickets for the Top Secret Comedy Club on Drury Lane. That’s also the only venue where I have ever seen Eddie Izzard, in what was meant to be her last live work. Sadly the show was disappointing.
The only comedian whom we make a point of seeing on every tour is Ross Noble. His is a high wire act, and when the riffs and improvisation come together he is as funny as anyone I have ever seen. When he doesn’t quite spark and falls back on prepared material, as his did last time we saw him at the Palladium, he is still funny, but frustrating when you know just how great he can be.
Similarly to Ross Noble, Milton Jones was brilliantly eccentric in his early days. Now he seems content to appear on Mock the Week.
Harry Hill was also a great rambler, but he seems to have disowned standup for making TV clips shows.
There’s a reason they call it the Idiot Lantern.
Not much wrong with Mock The Week. It’s better now they got rid of the old regulars, Frankie Boyle etc. Plenty of laughs apart from the stand up section ironically, unless it’s Milton Jones or another like him using word play, deadpan. Actually much stand up is bad, all the observational or political stuff, comics referencing their minority status all the time. The Steven Wright approach is the best.
I’m another who never misses Ross Noble on tour, several times I’ve been to 2 or 3 shows on the same tour and apart from the first and last 5 minutes of each set I’ve seen very different performances. David O’Doherty is always a good show and so is Ed Byrne, Shappi Khorsandi made me laugh a lot the one time I caught her set.
Stewart Lee is a strange one, I usually find him hilarious but the last time I saw him live it just didn’t click, I don’t know why, his former comedy partner Richard Herring does some good shows but over the last five or six years has put out so much content via podcasts that he has very little live material that his audience hasn’t heard before.
Richard Herring had testicle surgically removed a week or two ago (cancer one assumes) so given the nature of his material I think can already guess the basis for his next routine.
I’ve always found Michael Mcintyre very funny, I know…. Micky Flanagan live was brilliant as was Russell Brand, I know…..
Like many though I’m a huge Billy Connolly fan. I think the reason other comics love him so is his lack of preparation. To hear some comedians talk it takes months to perfect their script. Connolly just gets on stage and sees which way the wind takes him.
I’ve often wanted to learn his “Audience With” by heart and take my tribute act on the road Barely Connolly. My fear of being centre of attention means it will never happen….
“……cares not a jot!”
Finlay!!!
License to shit in the street.
Another vote for McIntyre. Put me on the AW naughty step.
Absolutely loathe McIntyre – his jokes are not funny but his mannerisms even less so.
Like most others love Billy Connolly and each time I have seen him on TV I have cracked up
I did get to see him live a couple of years back and I think it was at start of his illness – the cutting edge had gone sadly. I also love him as a person – a great humanitarian and his tv programmes are very good.
As a brummie I have always loved Jasper Carrott and his routine about being at an old firm derby still cracks me up.
Of current comedians I would say Mickey Flanagan and Sarah Millican.
It’s been forgotten how good Jasper C was in the 70s. The album Rabbits On… is a classic – I love the routines about the charity football match and his adventures in local radio.
Another vote for Carrot here. At his 70s peak he was hilarious. “There’s only one way to get rid of a mole….”
I saw him in 1983 – very funny indeed. Had a whole routine about people who read The Sun.
In 1986 I went on holiday to Spain for the first time, staying in a villa owned by a posh lady my mum did the books for. I forgot to pack any tapes, so only had the one in my Walkman – The The’s Infected on one side and Prince’s Parade on the other.
In the villa next door was Mr & Mrs Carrott. He was properly funny even when ‘off duty’. I played tennis (badly) with daughter Lucy (later: Dawn in The Office), who is 3 years younger than me (so 13 at the time). I wonder if she remembers?
Ace tape!
I wonder what your posh host would have made of New Position and Out Of The Blue (Into The Fire)?
The risin’ moon…. faces the sickening sun….
And the lights in the towerblocks…
Go on one by one…
Woahhhh funky moped!
Whenever I hear either of those, in my mind’s eye I see a swimming pool and feel a bit sweaty. Probably not what most people imagine.
I still have the Trilby I bought at a Malaga craft market to keep the sun off my fizzog.
The Davis’s lived 4 doors down the road in Major’s Green, the first house I “bought” (had a mortgage on). Not for long, mind, fame allowing him a move into a bigger house in Solihull.
I remember one line clear as a ball from a JC tape I borrowed from the library as a youngster.
“My agent got a phone call the other day for a gig. The voice on the other end says “Do Jasper Carrott want to play Scunthorpe Baths?”. My agent, he’s no fool, he thought for a moment and said “They might….”
The car insurance claim quotes were a meme before memes were invented?
Totally un PC, but it’s Patrice!
Very un PC but very funny in places.
I had to leave after 45 minutes though as it was too much.
I do love John Mulaney.
Yes. I don’t often go a bundle on standup anymore, but his Netflix specials (esp Kid Gorgeous) are real repeat-watchers. It’s his delivery as much as the excellent jokes: the precise, slightly camp and flourishy enunciation and body language. He’s a joy. No cynicism to him at all, but also not annoyingly wholesome. And he just writes really excellent jokes. Several of his phrases have made it into our house lexicon: “It’s an hour!” when describing an onerous upcoming task, and “… and I don’t care for THAT shit at ALL.”
In what way was that funny…none!
We viewed his Netflix “Comeback Kid” special based on this clip. Excellent stuff, cheers.
Comeback Kid is wonderful, but Kid Gorgeous is something else. Treat yourself.
I’ve been looking for a way of levering this into an AW Thread, and now I can
Mickey Flanagan – live = brilliant, live live = brilliant
(do you see what I did there?)
This particular riff got me giggling for a couple of days, including his uncanny Gregg Wallace impression:
Well this is a pleasant surprise. Usually stand ups get a shoeing on this site, which brings me down as I think even the feeblest practitioners of the art can usually raise the odd chuckle and, I would imagine, all of them are at least trying to make people laugh..
One of my favorite acts seen in a good few years. Afterworders will probably get the jokes a second or two before the rest of the audience…
I dun a LOL
Quality
There is a bunch of stand up shows in addition to the excellent Bill Bailey set mentioned in the OP in iPlayer right now. The Victoria Wood and Dylan Moran shows are good too, but the most laugh out loud one I have seen so far is Frankie Boyle. Plenty of swearing and sexual content is this one of course, but very, very funny.
Dylan Moran is always a delight. Puts me in mind of a sort of Dave Allen in recovery.
I’m really sorry everyone but I’ve never got Billy Connolly. Really not sure why but he’s never done it for me. It’s the same as music though isn’t it, you either like it or you don’t?
Same here. Getting stand-up seems to need the ability to identify with the person on the stage and their world view. Billy seems like a friendly, outgoing, relaxed guy, so um…
I’ve already proven on a previous thread that I have almost no sense of humour. Many things others like I just don’t find funny. Mind you, the first two minutes of this sketch do make me happy
That sketch has stayed with us since we first saw it. Just gobsmacking against most FNL stuff! He’s still performing, too, I think.
Not a great fan, tbh. I’d rather gnaw my own leg off than go to a Comedy Nite at the pub.
I’ve seen Eddie Izard, Dylan Moran, Bill Bailey, Tim Minchin and Nina Conti, and all were brilliant. But I was a fan of all of them before I booked. I don’t seem to be interested enough to discover other people – whenever I give someone a go on YouTube I tend not to be amused.
A couple of years ago I went to a chazza show in the West End, headlined by Frankie Boyle. He took it upon himself to introduce all the other acts, at great comedic length, in effect doing a bit of his act each time. It was a fantastic misjudgement – you could see the minnows coming on thinking, how the fuck am I going to follow that? And mostly they couldn’t. I left at half time, feeling I’d seen enough of the main attraction anyway.
Saw Billy Connolly live at Hammersmith about 22 years ago, and he was brilliant.
The one I rate who I would love to have seen – Jerry Sadowitz. His Terry Waite gag makes me smile whenever I think about it.
I’d totally forgotten about Jerry Sadowitz. He was certainly near the knuckle but often uncomfortably hilarious also. The one joke I do remember which wasn’t controversial at all was something about submarines being powered by vimto. 😂
Besides Stewart Lee, Jerry Sadowitz is the only standup that can have me wet myself with laughter from start to finish. The only time I saw him, he memorably described Michael Howard as: “The kind of sick fucker who uses dead kids as condoms to rape other kids”.
Not to everyone’s tastes, perhaps, but for some reason it still brings a smile. You could tell by the way that he set it up that he was about to come out with something designed to really offend.
Which begs the question: what’s his Terry Waite gag?
“Terry Waite. What a cunt. You lend a guy a fiver and then he just disappears on you”
😂✊
Weegies are vey creative with the C word. It’s used as a term of endearment. “You’re a good c—” etc
As are the ozzies: my daughter picked it up as term of endearment during her 3 years in Sydney.
I saw Jerry Sadowitz five or six times back in the day. He’s extraordinary and hilarious but also relentless. The mask never slips. He’s also a jaw droppingly good magician. The last time I saw him was at the Edinburgh Festival. He did an amazing Madeline McCann themed card trick – appalling and astounding at the same time. No one is in the same league when it comes to shock comedy but he is also great with gags especially in his Rabbi Burns persona. I wish he could find a way to a wider audience.
I love watching stand up shows. Happy to have the kids seeing a bit of (contextual) swearing just to experience having the house full of laughter. ABC TV plays Live at the Apollo on a friday or saturday night; probably years old episodes, but still fun.
My first stand up show was Billy Connolly at the Sydney Opera House. Still remember the looks on my friends’ faces; we couldn’t believe we were laughing that hard.
Been enjoying Sebastian Maniscalco’s American Italian routines. The televised Melbourne Comedy Festival gala is a good introduction to new international comedians – Paul Foot was hilarious – but Australian comedy seems to be going through a ‘naturalism’ period: lots of laconic Aussie guys doing ‘have you ever noticed’ stuff.
Ken Dodd, late 70s summer show in Scarborough- crowd hysteria over three painful hours. He was a live phenomenon – TV shows didn’t do him justice. I really think it was a “death of a thousand cuts” with him.
At the moment I like Ronnie Cheung.
Only 3 hours from Doddy? You were robbed! Saw him a few times over the years and he was always brilliant. However, the best stand-up I’ve ever seen live was undoubtedly Dave Allen – had a good weekend, as I saw him the night after Barry Humphries (both Dame Edna and Sir Les).
Any mention of Ken Dodd causes me to face towards Knotty Ash, put my hand on my heart and solemnly intone the incantation:
“Hey willy-wollocky,
Hootch can-doodle-aroo
A rashety roo-roo-roo”
Stewart Lee, who according to the Times is the 41st best stand up ever. Actually so good that it spoils other stand up.
The last gig I saw just before lockdown was Jimmy Carr and he was as good as ever.
However one of the very funniest comedians I ever saw was Mike Harding – saw him at Fairfield Halls in Croydon probably 30 plus years ago and I laughed so much I felt ill. I also love Dave Gorman.
I saw Mike Harding about a decade ago and found myself mouthing along to the punch line of every gag. Literally every single one of them. The songs were much better than the gags though, and when I left I was humming a tune rather than groaning over a decades old gag. And he didn’t even do the one about the tortoise.
Great tunes – When the Martians Land in Huddersfield etc.
I agree with just about all the endorsements above – excepting Jerry Sadowitz who I always found was actively trying too hard to antagonise the sensitive types-I felt he was almost *desperate* to offend. I saw him several times in small London clubs in the 80s & he never landed with me. I did however see him him at some point in the 90s doing close magic & he was genuinely impressive.
I’m always in awe of comics who can take off on flights of fancy but manage to ‘land safely’ after going majorly off piste – Ross Noble, Eddie Izzard at his best & Dara O’Brein (sp?) spring to mind- but one of my faves at this was Mark Lamarr , who I think is now sometimes forgotten as being a very fine comedian. I saw him a couple of times in front of a few hundred people & I rate him up with the very best I’ve seen. Absolutely fearless & totally at home ‘out on the ice’.
Seen dozens and dozens over the years. The ones we’ve seen the most are Ross Noble, Milton Jones, Rich Hall and Jeremy Hardy. Think I’d happily see Rich Hall every month.
Once The Simpsons was syndicated it became possible to see him every day..
Yes, that’s true!
I cannot commend Stewart Lee highly enough. Once you’ve read his books on how he puts the shows together there is an element of seeing behind the curtain, mind. I was minded to tell him how much I enjoyed his work when I saw him at a Long Ryders gig in the company of Roman Abramovich once. He didn’t seem to be at work as ‘The Character Stewart Lee’ at the time as he was very kind and humble.
Rich Hall was painfully and funnily on point as the character Rich Hall – borrowing heavily from Otis Lee Crenshaw -, Milton Jones reduced me to tearful pains of laughter, Russell Brand – before he went all Booky Wooky – was brilliant, Harry Hill was king of the throwback, and Bill Bailey stole a charity show at the Hammersmith Odeon once, despite hotfooting it over from his own show and doing a hastily cobbled-together ten minute excerpt.
My best gig? Peter Kay, Mum Wants a Bungalow. Over exposed after the arena gigs, but comedy gold at the rime.
And who goes to see comedy at the O2? Why?
Sorry ….”in the company of Roman Abramovic”????
It was at Under The Bridge, the venue at Chelsea’s ground. There’s a roped off booth with two massive bouncers at the back. He’s smaller than you’d think.
To this day, Stewart Lee does not regret his principled refusal of Abramovich’s life -changing 25 million pound transfer offer. Says the stocky West Midlander, “I’ll admit it was tempting, he wanted me to tell a few jokes to the team at half-time, for morale. He told me he enjoyed my set and thought I was a lot funnier than Andriy Shevchenko. And I’d get my own club anorak with my initials on it and a yacht, and everything. But, y’know…John Terry.”
“…and then I got *off* the bus…”
Born the same year as me apparently.
Dude, so were, like, hundreds of thousands of people.
I’m getting my data from the Blue Oyster Cult, other sources are available.
Have you considered a career in stand up? This is either genius or.. not genius.
Absolute props for James Acaster and all of his Netflix specials, but especially “Cold Lasagne…”. Beautifully straddles the fine line between confessional misery lit and ‘come on, can we at least make this funny?’.
I used to go to a comedy night in the late 80s and pre-fame Eddie Izzard used to compere. This is one of many great moments :
I was a big fan of Sean Hughes at his peak. We were the same age and came to London at the same time. I knew him to talk to and he’d look out for my friends and me, give us freebies into gigs or tip us off when big names like Emo Phillips were playing small venues. His early death was very sad. For anyone only familiar with his TV stuff, later shows especially Life Becomes Noises about his father’s death are as good as any long-form shows I’ve seen.
That sock still isn’t dry and, while we’re at it, put that chicken away missus.
Bill eviscerating the King. So fucking funny!
The only reason I know of Bill Hicks is because his monologues play a significant role in Preacher, the, um, interesting books by Garth Ennis
When BH was alive I used to conflate him with Will Durst. Do you remember Will Durst? No, of course not.
HE DIDN’T DIE
Are you suggesting that Tim Vine is just a superterranean Mitch Hedberg?
Two I’d have liked to have seen.
Chic Murray and Max Miller.
Max Miller – yes.
One I’d want to see ( although may not he classed as stand up comedy) is Tommy Cooper.
SPOONJAR spoonjar spoonjar spoonjar spoonjar….
That’ll do it. Don’t need to invent a time machine now.
The greatest stand up I have seen is Jerry Sadowitz. I have seen him three times, on two of those occasions he was mind bogglingly offensive, interspersed with genuinely jaw dropping card tricks. I came out amazed.
But the special occasion was the third time. It was during the Edinburgh Fringe, and it was a one off show in a venue called The Caves. He decided that night to not do any jokes and just have a conversation. He got a girl up from the audiance, they both sat on stage, they had a nice chat, and when people in the audience got bored, he just blew our minds with a card trick.
What blew me away was the realisation that this was a guy who knew he could literally, do anything on a stage and it would be fine. And also the realisation, that the hate he can spew (which he does better than anyone) only counts if you realise he is as equally capable of love. And that night he decided on love. I left that room thinking that Jerry Sadowitz was a human being so full of love.
Stand up is an odd thing to do. But Jerry Sadowitz is a genius, if you define a genius as “person who can do one thing and one thing only better than literally anyone else.”
No one else can do stuff on a stage quite like Jerry Sadowitz.
Apart from Jerry Sadowitz the best comedians I have seen live are;
Daniel Kitson
Stuart Lee
Dara O’Brien (genuinely, brilliant live)
Rich Hall
The most interesting was Jimmy Carr. I saw him in The Comedy Cafe in east London before he was on the telly and the crowd HATED him. His set consisted entirely of his heckler put downs because the crowd hated him so much he couldn’t actually get a joke out. But the sheer bloody minded determination he showed on that stage impressed the shit out of me. I have never seen a comedian take on a room that hated him to such an extent.
Seen Jimmy Carr live and he was great. Like a gag machine, not always hitting the bullseye though. But really entertaining.
But … much as I enjoy stand up comedy, I never made it to the end of one of his DVDs as it just didn’t work being removed from the live setting.
Live and in the moment you can’t help but admire. Watching from the sofa it just felt a bit contrived
I’m seen some very aggressive comedians and after a while it does become a bit draining. Just picking on the nearest table and trying to ridicule them gets a bit old when it’s done repeatedly.
I saw Russell Peters in Canada and there was a table close to the stage – it looked like a bunch of college kids. Earlier comics and had picked on them so by the time the main act came on, I was starting to feel a bit sorry for them.
Sure enough, they got a bit of treatment from Peters. Not as hard as the others but still – I felt the audience were feeling the same way I did, so he wasn’t getting the laughs he thought he would. And then a bombshell that actually silenced the room. He said “so what’s up with the guy in the cap – is he a retard?”. I would guess by his mannerisms that the guy in the cap had cerebral palsy. Other comedians hadn’t picked on him personally. Peters immediately knew he had dropped an almighty clanger and did his very best to rescue the situation. He just about managed it with the rest of his set – he is very good at stand up – but I guarantee that he never used that word ever again.
Seen Dave Gorman a couple of times.
Not so much a stand up, more an invitation to question the absurdity of humdrum life
I saw Lee Evans at the Palladium in the mid 90s. Not sure if it was the size of the venue, the size of the audience or what, but I found it a bit flat.
A few weeks later got tickets to a night at the Comedy Store – Jack Dee plus a few unnamed guests. When we sat down Dee takes the stage and announces that Lee Evans is on the bill. I groan as I think it’s going to be another disappointment – but how wrong was I? A brilliant performance and so different to the one at the Palladium.
I saw Al Murray and Sean Lock – again mid 90s – so relatively early in their careers, I think. The both made me laugh so hard I was struggling for breath.
Seeing Ross Noble at the Palladium I wondered if the problem was the apron covering the orchestra pit, which put a distance between him and even the front rows.
I’m surprised that we’ve got this far with no mentions of Bridget Christie or Simon Munnery they’re always near the top of my list of people to see at the Edinburgh Fringe (perhaps next year!).
The top of the list is reserved for Paul Foot, not a good idea to sit in the first couple of rows but otherwise I normally laugh so much it hurts. He’s clearly not to everyone’s taste though and it’s certainly amusing having a quick look round the room at the baffled faces of those that don’t get it.
Steve Martin, although he had stopped touring by the time I heard of him, and that was through his early films with Carl Reiner. It was a strange act using old-time vaudeville turns like balloon animals and playing the banjo, and I have to use the word, surreal patter. Others have tried this, and I don’t know if people like Reeves and Mortimer were influenced by him, but I don’t think anyone has equalled it.
I’d like to pay tribute to Eugene Cheese – otherwise known as Paul Jay – who for a long time ran The Chuckle Club. Over about fifteen years my wife had a lot of terrific Saturdays there, for most of that time in the students’ union bar of the London School of Economics. We used to get five comics – a couple of newbies, a couple of circuit regulars and often a big name – for a tenner, and the atmosphere was always friendly which meant most of them were able to bring out their best.
We saw a lot high profile comics do sets there – Stewart Lee, Shappi Korshandi, Tim Vine, Mark Thomas – and plenty of others who have never become stars but were always good value, people like Mandy Knight and Simon Bligh.
I’ve been told that Eugene Cheese treated the newbies a lot better than most club managers, which was why a lot of well known comics were ready to do sets in the club.
I believe it fizzled out after an enforced venue change about ten years back, but great memories of the place and Mr Cheese – and his wife Margaret who took the money at the door – are fondly remembered.
Great call, RH!
I hadn’t heard that name in years, or I confess even thought about him.
Me & Mrs Jim went to the Chuckle Club regularly in the 90s & Eugene was a gorgeous host & MC . We were pretty skint at the time & the Chuckle Club was also great value.
One of my fondest memories was seeing the enchanting Arnold Brown there ‘ I’m Scottish, I’m Jewish – two racial stereotypes for the price of one, perhaps the value in the West End. Perhaps not.’
In contrast, on other weekends, we went to the infamous Tunnel Club, south of the river. That place was a bear pit & the MC was the notorious Malcolm Hardee. He’s rightly a legend, but he was a psychopath compared to the absolute sweetie that is Eugene Cheese.
And I’ll put in a word for Arnold Brown. A master of laid back drollery.
Have an ‘Up’! ( see post above).
Who is this fellow in the pit?
One quick mention for a stand up “act” – The Doug Anthony All Stars from Australia who I saw in London.
They’re back again, after a lengthy hiatus. Worth every penny.