Ah jolly good - weren't you paintball lot down at the front?

No, there were 2 sets of 8 passes, and we won the 1st set. We were right at the back, but at the front of our table, so we still had a bloody good view. First time I'd actually been to Jongleurs and it was a rather nice venue, I thought.

Yeah, just don't eat there. Fried food city!

But surely that's a good thing?!
I mean salads and fruit are all well and good, but I LOVE CHIPS!

Having said that, I did order the Chicken Tikka Masala, which came with pilau rice and a poppadom. Oh, and chips. I see what you mean - chips served with a curry is a bit too far...

Okay, chip-freak.

ps. I adore your avatar.

I highly recommend him. I have a mate who has followed his career a bit - or spent an hour on the Internet - and so knew a lot of his material, but he still was completely fresh. Consistently funny (like truffle).



BTW Best of luck Chris on your producer meeting - That's a damn cite exciting.

I just found out he's here in NY for some shows, and it's cheap. I must try to check him out.

Why thanks very much for your best wishes. I have some news on that front...but it looks like this isn't the thread for it so i'm going to update those that want to know in the creations?? thread.

C

I went to see Noel Fielding last night at the Corn Exchange as part of the Brighton Comedy Festival. He was great and my stalking of him was appropriately rewarded with handshakes and signatures. But I wanted to stay another night and see Ross Noble too...

Just some Stewart Lee

This year I have seen Dara O'Briain, Jack Dee twice, Rich Hall, Marcus Brigstocke, Rob Brydon and Omid Djalili and am off to see Ross Noble in December.

Not quite stand-up, but I also went to see the filming of The Catherine Tate Show.

How do you know it was his wife?

I went to see Ross Noble twice on the same tour and there was about ten minutes material overlap in a cumulative four hours.

Bill Bailey used plants every single show on the Part Troll tour, but I don't see anybody whining about that.

Because she was his wife.

I guessed because she was Australian and sat in a position by the stage which I'm sure had anyone else sat in she would have been asked to move, the fake adlibbing that followed only strengthened by conviction.

Later I saw her with the promoter of the night and it was confirmed that she was, indeed, his wife.

This was a very small venue - Cabaret in Nottingham, only seats about 300.

And if I'd ever seen Bill Bailey live and seen him use a plant I would have said exactly the same thing - I have nothing against Ross Noble, or else why would I have gone to see him?

He was a disappointment live.

Yet if it came out of Bill Bailey or Bill Hicks' mouth you'd all be rolling around biting the carpet and spewing hypocritically positive reviews.

What is this dragging up of random portions of old discussions about Ross Noble all about?

Defending the surreal comedy genre with terminal intensity?

People are entitled to subjective, differing opinions.

I'm not 'dragging it up', it's just that this is the first time I have read this thread.

And I merely dislike the hypocrisy displayed in this thread, because I know that if Bill Bailey, also highly surreal at time, said exactly the same thing that Noble was being mocked for in this thread, it would be listed repeatedly somewhere over in the favourite quotes section.

I always wondered what kind of simpletons they drag in to bray at that shit.

The kind that are proud not to be as pompous as those who sneer at it.

I'm not a massive fan of Bill Bailey's stand up - I like it, but I don't love it.

We're not one big organism with the same opinions on everything - just because someone quotes Bill Bailey in the 'favourite quotes' thread doesn't mean I'm not allowed to criticise a live gig I saw and it certainly doesn't make me a hypocrite.

I actually really enjoyed 'Ross Noble Goes Global' and think he benefits greatly from structuring - but I didn't enjoy his stand up very much and I think his self-conscious surrealism is a little irritating, particularly when this particular bit of ad-libbing was so clearly planned.

When you come across so aggresive in your opinions you're going to get people's backs up. It's great that you love Ross Noble and there's nothing wrong with that, but it's also OK for us not to like him.

The worst kind then.

It's the Manchester comedy festival this week! I'm off to see Richard Herring on Tuesday night as well as a whole bunch of open-mic no-marks like myself throughout the week. Also going to see Toby Hadoke's one-man-show "Moths Ate My Dr Who Scarf." He's the resident compere at Manchester's best comedy night XS Malarkey and yet somehow I've never seen him do a proper set. Intrigued indeed.

Catherine Tate is relaxing and entertaining.

Something doesn't have to be original and high brow to be funny. Get off your high horse.

You remind me of twenty-somthing, London-based males who pretend to love really shitty films like The Blues Brothers in a desperate attempt to cling to their youth, but simultaneously do everything in their power to appear hyper-intelligent, ie, bashing any TV show that isn't "near the knuckle."

Not until I've knocked you off yours.

Edited to remove slight over-reaction.

No.

Can we perhaps try and keep this discussion a little more about comedy and a little less personal?

I like some Catherine Tate sketches and the second series was a great improvement on the first - I don't care how uncool it is a swearing grandmother will always make me laugh (my Nan will only ever swear via acronym "Oooh he's an S.O.B. that one").

Going to see the League of Gentlemen on 10th December. Yay!

All posts after this one have been moved for the time being.

It is extremely rude, not to mention foolish, to ignore multiple warnings from a Moderator.

If any of you need a reminder of the rules, you can find them here.

If you're a bit hazy on the bit I might be referring to, I've kindly quoted it for you below:

Huzzah. And feckless dykey prostitute is going to see the League of Gentlemen by the way, since her post seems to have gotten lost in the mix.

Cheers, StellaMM. I'd still quite like Ghost to see the last part of it, though, if that can be arranged. Sorry again - I'm just not the backdown type. I should've taken it to PM, though.

right back to this thread is anyone going to see little britian maybe?
Im not but im just trying to get back on topic.

I've moved a few more posts from this thread for now. To echo Zoe and Stella, please don't hold any more personal arguments in this thread (or any other). If you do, they too will be removed.

Back again! (sorry about that )

Thanks whoever put it back. I wondered where it went.

I see some of the posts are back....but not all of them!? I am missing a few from last night

C

No, and I doubt any more of them will be put back.

These forums aren't here for people to take pot shots at one another.

If anyone takes exception or offence to anything that is posted they should report it to a Moderator either by sending us a PM or by using the Report button which can be found in the bottom left of each post.

We have removed most of the offending posts from this topic because we feel their presence will only engender further bad feeling and because they also weren’t relevant to the subject being discussed.

If anyone has any comments or questions please feel free to PM me with them but further posts on this subject - in this thread or elsewhere - will be removed.

Saw Eddie Izzard here the other day. Ok, about a month ago..but I haven´t had internet...so..

It was of course great although I was a little surprised he used some of this older stuff from unrepeatable...or was it definite article (?) as a closure. Sure it´s still funny, but I had hoped he had come up with more new stuff..then again he talks for almost 100 minutes or more..

His show was on my birthday actually..17 september. I don´t think I could have had a better celebration. Love the Izzard!

Went to a crap comedy club last night. It was like sitting in someones lounge.
I was asked the following questions....
Where is your gusset?
Have you canoodled any ladies recently?
Do you wank in public?

The bloke behind me kept shouting 'c*nt' for some reason. A loved up couple chatted and snogged in the corner. Two scousers constantly interrupted. A man from Rotherham read the paper. It was a pretty poor evening. Rounded off by a scary gypsy man describing rare animals and laughing like Tommy Cooper.

I went to see Danny Wallace do a book reading thing last week, was quite cool. And have now got fourth row tickets to see Dylan Moran in Bristol next June. Score!

Hi Zoe, don't want to start a fight or anything, but... why is "self-conscious surrealism... a little irritating"? I only ask because I find so much joy in very deliberately thinking "surreally". That is, looking at the world very sillyly and imaginatively. It does not mean the imagery is contrived, you will get all sots of odd associations and imagery just by letting yourself do it, although monkeys are never far away.

And I'm preaching all this, because I think that Noble using his wife in the audience (go Aus) is not really that dissimilar from him having a few themes in his head he wants to touch on from what he's seen during the day*. If there's something he's particularly enjoyed which he wants to share with everyone else and he feels the use of a plant helps that, then why not? I completely understand the desire for spontaneaty and non-contrivednessness, but even the best chef's use ingredients that mightn't be fresh that morning.

In conclusion, my sermon today is about how easy it is to demand too much from entertainers, when other sources are lacking.

*I've heard him say quite often this is how he prepares, that pretty much is straight from the ocean to your plate.

That last individual - would that be Griff Griffiths? The King Of Spain?

That's contradictory in itself. How spontaneous is he really being if he uses a plant in the audience?

surely because surrealism is supposed to show an absence of conscious thought, and therefore self conscious surrealism is contrived, hackneyed and cheap?

and here we hit my problem with noel fielding, before he was in that boosh thing. i saw him do stand up ( on telly, not live ) years back, and the stream of conscious thread of thought, bizarre story schtik was done brilliantly, and was really funny. and then a little later i saw him do another routine which seemed laboured and contrived compared to the first one. it seemed too obvious he was trying to repeat the same tricks, but the originality had gone, and that had killed the act.

Thanks

I'm tired and thinking about constructing a reply was exhausting me.

That can indeed happen with Noel. I've seen him 4 times and he had a very similar routine each time. He puts new bits in, but it's all drawn from a smallish stock of material.

"its a nice pony, but can it do any more tricks?"

Is that the bit where he stuck gaffer tape to his face talking about an inch high private eye?

I went to see stewart lee on thursday night and got front row seats but I was suprised by the turn out I thought it was gonna be packed but about 35-40 people turned up! so most of the jokes were of the turn up of the audience and about the jerry springer show and the controversy of it etc. It was an alright night , but his warm up act wasnt so good he felt like a teacher telling me the recent news with a comical twist!

That's some good spotting! Is this bloke well known? Verry strange. Like an old school comedian with surrealism and a hint of Chas & Dave.

I don't know how famous Griff is, but he's certainly a memorable act, no? And he's a really really lovely bloke too - really cool to hang out with. I like his act, btw. I'll admit, though, it doesn't fit most rooms - and Anda Da Bridge in Shoreditch is one of those rooms. It can be really good when you have a decent sized crowd in there and they're up for it. If you have the "too-cool-for-school" lot, then it's a waste, and it doesn't matter who's on the bill.

You'll see I didn't actually say it was spontaneous. But I back my metaphor - it's still fresh thought. He's observed things during the day - that very day - and used them in his show that night.



Absence of conscious thought? I know that was what Dali and friends were on about, but I think you'll find these days people use 'surreal' the same way they use the term 'random'. As in, whenever anyone does anything creative which was unexpected and not normally related to the theme they were discussing. If you want absence of conscious thought you should check out some Dada events/happenings, or are they absence of sub-conscious thought? It's been too long. Ok, I know I'm being pedantic to pick on termanology like that, but I just want to get a bit closer to what we're actually talking about. I don't agree with what you said.

They simply use they imagination to try and be funny. I guess it comes down to whether you would prefer them to be completely tied to their on-night imagination or whether you are happy for them to use something which has been successful before in the interests of entertaining. Most artists have a balance. Obviously both these performers sometimes think the later will result in a better night, but I can understand if you would prefer the former. I think I would too, but then again, if they were in town for one night only... or if I was taking someone to try and convert them to the joys of live comedy, or even comedy in general...

Guess this would/or could be the best place to post this:


There´s a "sale" on stand-up on play right now. And as I´ve browsed through the rather much bigger selection than I thought they would have, it hit me that I don´t really know much about most of these standups..so I need help. Since I don´t know what comedy you´re into I´ll just mention what I like and then maybe someone here can give me a pointer to what I should check out...hopefully.
I´m a huge fan of Eddie Izzard, Bill Hicks, and now all of a sudden David Cross (the guy from arrested development...of course there are no dvds of his shows...only cds..err..)
I was wondering if Lee Evans, Ricky Gervais or Bill Bailey ..or ehm..any of these shows are worth buying...if anything can stand up to Eddie Izzard´s dress 2 kill..then you MUST tell me. But yea...it´s hard with comedy...I´d just be happy to hear what you would concider must-buy-shows. I see some of the dvds have clips from the shows..but way too few...hmf.

http://play.com/play247.asp?page=promo&r=R...rating&pa=promo