I'm going on Friday.

Fingers crossed for Sir Digby to make an appearance.

Saw M&W last night. They were on top form. Especially liked the Big Talk sketch. Oh joy oh joy. They are a talented pair

I saw Little Britain last night. The banter between Matt and David was funnier than the scripted show, with them discussing David's sexuality. The second half and encore were the highlights.

I think the sketches were too quick.

They say laughter is the best therapy, and I certainly enjoyed last night's benefit for the Mental Health Foundation.

Adam Bloom was ok in his agressive, fast talking way.

Porky the Poet (aka Phill Jupitus) was actually quite good.

Simon Amstell was fitfully amusing.

Rob Newman did a humourous skit on his elderly landlords but then I had to go to the loo.

Adams Hills was brilliantly lovely.

Stewart Lee was very good, if more clever than funny at times.

Mike Wilmot was disgustingly funny.

The compere, Daniel Kitson, was genius.

If anyone fancies a jaunt to Nottingham, here’s our comedy for next season:

Sean Hughes, Thursday 1st February 2007 8pm

This is a fairly late edition to the programme and to be honest I don’t know anything about the show, but I like Sean Hughes a lot and he’s supposed to be a very good stand-up. He’s in ‘The Commitments’ you know…

Russell Howard: Wandering, Saturday 3rd February 2007 8pm

Russell is very funny, and not just by comparison to the dire Andy Parsons when he’s on ‘Mock the Week’. He’s also rather cute at only 25, and reminds me a lot of Luke, which makes me like him even more.

Josie Long: Kindness and Exuberance, Friday 9th February 2007 8pm

Josie is even younger than Russell, I think she’s only 24, which is very annoying as she’s just won ‘Best Newcomer’ at the Edinburgh Festival – the clever girl. This is a lovely show and I did enjoy it, even if my cynicism occasionally overpowered my chuckle muscle. Everyone else adored it, and with good reason. I just think my expectations were a little high as I’ve seen Josie do shorter sets before and they were a bit better, or maybe there’s only so much kindness, exuberance and whimsy I can take… Shack would love this show.

www.lakesidearts.org.uk

Oh realllllllllllllllllllly. Well we'll see shall we? I'm free that weekend due to no football match so I might pop along.

Will there be gin?

Gin, and probably a comp, if you're nice to me.

As Sun from Lost would probably answer if pressed on who is her true love, that'll be just gin then.

Pencil me in for couch space. I like planning piss-ups months in advance.

Might be seeing Arj Barker or Aussie comedian Dave Hughes. Excitement there.

Laughing Boy @ AKA Bar

We got free tickets from Ellie's friend for this excellent night.

First up was young comedian du jour, Russell Howard, some time star of 'Mock The Week' and an object of Zoe's fancy. He was excellent. He has the energy of a small boy with very sharp delivery, his material covering everything from Teen Wolf to personal hygiene.

Forgive me for not remembering the second two acts' names. First of those was a very nervous Canadian chap, who had some decent observational material but who kept commenting on how tough a crowd it was. Enough people were laughing, but comments like that slightly sour the mood. Next was an excellent female comedian who played a banjo to accompany some very funny songs and whose stuff was very sharp and unexpectedly self-deprecating.

Last of all was Mark Watson, another 'Mock the Week'-er. His manic, shambling style ended the night on a high and even garnered an encore.

Zoe would have loved it, he gave us a little flash of torso and everything.

Canadian guy was called Tim something. The Filipino/German/ukelele girl was Ria Lina.

I keep meaning to ask you, J-face, what did you and Smells think of Sarah Silverman at the Secret Policemen's Ball? I thought she seemed to go down terribly on the TV version but perhaps that was the editing or sound quality. I didn't find her anywhere near as funny as I thought I would - there was a sourness to her act I didn't expect.

I thought she was ok. The dead grandmother thing was amusing in its sickness, primarily because of the dramatic build-up she gave it. I've nothing really to compare that performance to as I've not seen much of her before, but like Adam's said before she does strike me as though her version of comedy is just saying the most un-PC thing she can think of.

I wasn't convinced during the live show. She seemed to be going for shocks over jokes - something I have thought about her before. The audience weren't sure either. It was very dark in comparison to everyone else, and rather uncomfortable. However, watching the repeat performance on TV I was struck by what an execeptional performance she gave. It was necessarily funnier, but I sort of admired her delivery.

If you live in London I recommend going to see Let's Talk to Barry on Tuesday at 7:30. It's character comedy by Alex Lowe, it's funny and poignant and he's a very nice man.

It's at the Et Cetera Theatre (Oxford Arms) in Camden, which is a tiny and wonderful venue run by Michelle and Zena who are also lovely expecially after a glass of pinot grigio.

Saw Russell Brand live last night.

Nothing like his TV work. If you've never seen him live, don't form an opinion yet. He is endlessly irritating on BBBM, but live he is magnificent. About the first half hour was entirely improvised, and rather well too.
Very intelligent, at times surreal, but always interesting as a lot of it consists of funny stories from his past.

Just bought me, Shack, Adam and Ellie tickets for Tedstock at the Bloomsbury on the 5th Feb.

Simon Amstell (Never Mind The Buzzcocks)
Dan Brown (The Davinci Code)
Stephen Carlin (Customs and Excise department)
Kevin Eldon (Hyperdrive)
Richard Herring (Richardherring.com)
Robin Ince (Stuart Foot in The Office)
Phil Jupitas (Porky The Poet)
Stewart Lee (Radio 4's Quote Unquote)
Lee and Herring (Paramount TV's Festival of Fun)
Josie Long (if.comedies winner)
Simon Munnery (The Security Guard)
Alan Parker Urban Warrior (BBC2's Paramount City)

Yes, that's right Lee AND Herring and Bridget Christie as Dan Brown doing stand-up was my favourite thing at this year's Edinburgh festival.



Exciting.

I assume you'll be arranging it for us to hang out with them afterwards as well?

I was worried this would happen, I can't promise anything. I imagine Richard will be very busy trying to cop off with vulnerable, insecure, easily impressed audience members.

It's ok. As demonstrated by my encounter with Natalie, Robin Ince and co. I'm not very good at the small-talk-with-celebs anyway. I can't think I'd have all that much to say to them.

If Martin's going or accompanying Robin on the accordian I might give him a shout. If only to make Alyssa jealous.

A couple of work colleagues went for a drink in The Black Horse in Burner St last night. I declined the offer of going as I was a bit knackered. Just my luck then that Stephen Merchant and Ricky Gervais were doing stand-up there last night....for a fiver...and it wasn't sold out. Bugger

Bummer...

Hate it when that happens.

Ricky Gervais lives somewhere round there

wonder if he does it regularly?

And I've told him before, I'm not gay.

I'm quite excited by this. I mean, it's the greatest line-up I've ever seen.

Adam AND Ellie!!!! I won't sleep for weeks before due to excitement.

Wah-wah-wha-whaaaaaaaaa.

Thanks. That's like being knighted.

I saw Josie Long last night. I'd seen her before at my college and she'd gone down an absolute storm but in the venue last night, The Reindeer, a theatre in an old warehouse in Brick Lane, the gig was really tough.

You just realised how much her "kindness and exhuberance" thing relies on people getting in it behind her. At Goldsmiths she could get up and go "I'm a bit shit!" and the people in the audience could go "some of us got our university places through clearing, we're a bit shit too!". In this place |Josie goes "I'm a bit shit" and they go "well we're actually very successful and as a marker of this we've come to see a comedy show in an abandoned warehouse on Brick Lane. We're going to talk and laugh at our own jokes all the way through it though because we don't have souls." I've never wanted to get into a Malcom Reynolds style bar fight with a group of people in their 30's and 40's at a swanky London theatre/resteraunt before but I did last night.

My friend says that Josie should have anticipated this and changed the set but what would have worked for those people(and as we were sat amongst them I could tell) is Jimmy Carr.

It made me realise that a lot of my life I've aspired to the idea of doing a cool, well paid, profession, but I've never had it more clearly ilustrated to me that people in those positions can be such cunts and people you wouldn't want to be if you were a quadraplegic hobo.

I was quite glad the show made me realise all of this because when I go to work in Canary Wharf on Wednesday I'm going to start stabbing people who seem to be those sort of people with a screwdriver. Looking at the hand made programme I don't think this is what Josie Long is really trying to encourage but she's going to have to accept it as a consequence of her actions. Especially when she becomes my wife.

She did...

Poor Josie, she's much too lovely to have to put up with cunts. Good luck on your screwdriver mission, emps. While she might not express gratitude straight away, I'm sure she'll come to understand and cherish your crusade.

Shit! Mary Lynn Rajskub did a standup gig last week and I didn't know. See what happens when I go out of town?

Matt Berry performing 'songs from the shows' at the Nottingham Rescue Rooms on the 8th of February.

I'll probably pop along.

Just the Tonic is back!

Every Sunday night in a brand spanking new venue. Just check out the line-up, there's some corkers coming up.

It's always a good night out, always.

So our money helped in some very small way?

You saved it, well done.

Nottingham owes you a debt of gratitude.

Tedstock

Raising money for the production of a four CD set of Ted Chippington - someone who inspired a huge wave of 'alternative' comedians during the late 1980s - Tedstock brought together acts both old and new at the Bloomsbury Theatre, London.

The highlight was, of course, Lee and Herring back together for the first time in nearly 10 years. The old magic was still there, especially when they mocked 'Fucking Oxbridge Sell-Outs' Mitchell and Webb for whoring themselves for the new Apple Mac commercials. "It should have been us, Stu" indeed.

Other good acts included Josie Long and two of Simon Munnery's older characters, but the poetry from 'Porky the Poet' aka Phil Jupitas was as dated as his taste in music.

All in all, great fun with added Shackleton/Jeyes appeal.

It was indeed quite a lot of fun, although you did forget to pick out curly fop Simon Amstell, who was also much better than I expected.

I didn't think much of grumpy old Ted, but I suspect he'd been at the sauce along with the lead singer of the Nightingales. Possibly the drunkest singer I've seen since I last watched a punk band. And I can't even remember when that was.

Lee and Herring were the pick for me, made me consistently giggle and I've been laughing at the "My wife went on holiday..." jokes since Monday night.

I want more Lee and Herring on the telly.

"I've not been on the telly for 8 years Stu!!!!"

So Ted did appear? Did he sing Rockin' With Rita?

Ted did appear. He did about 5-7 minutes at the end and then sang a song with the Nightingales. I can't remember what song it was, but Richard Herring was on backing vocals.

I'd forgotten how funny Simon Munnery was. He was excellent.

Yes he did, but the sound engineering was awful (sorry Joe).

For most of the audience who didn't know the song, it was just a couple of drunken blokes shouting over very loud guitars.

Which is a shame as it should have sounded like this

Damn I can't watch it at work. Is it the video? I seem to remember it being at a shoddy theme park, featuring the lovely Fuzzbox.

That's the one.

All in all it was an excellent weekend so far as culture goes. Got to see two of the most talked about events in London this week and on Saturday was delighted by Matthew Crosby (Mr Josie Long) and Russell Howard... both off and on stage.

I know, I know, I just can't leave those poor stand-ups alone. It's just too tempting when you're allowed in the Green Room.

Other than being very sweet, Russell's show was also very good and he went on for a good 40 minutes more than he planned, which certainly represents value for money.

It's the first time I've seen Matthew Crosby, except when I saw him heckling Josie Long in character as Abraham Lincoln, and if anything I enjoyed his support more. He's coming back up on Friday as Josie's playing here and I think I may have persuaded him to revisit Abraham Lincoln for us, I've reserved him a seat in restricted view just in case, but he has to run it past the missus first.

Otherwise he's just going to be hanging around in the Green Room all night and, let's face it, that's my job.

Heh, I'd forgotten about that. That was strange.

Tedstock: Yet another comedy event at which Adam and Ellie were there....and so were Hannah and I. It was good i thought. Lee and Herring were brill. We need them back on telly. Stuart Lee is the finest stand up working today. He's brilliant.

Simon Amstell was also pretty good and I can certainly see the appeal and influence of Ted Chippington.

Did anyone see "What would Judas do"? It was on last month at Shepherds Bush.

Chris

I'm no longer surprised! We should just assume you will be there in future.

Stewart Lee is indeed excellent, but for two years now we have heard all the same material no fewer than four times!

I didn't know what to think about Chippington. He was probably quite drunk and seemed to take a dislike to the 'London' audience not laughing. I didn't find him at all funny.

Apparently I'm seeing a guy called Russell Howard in March.

That's some good notice. What an efficient dating service you use.

Saw the opening night of Ed Byrne's London Residency at the Riverside Studios yesterday evening, it was pretty good though a bit mainstream for me. Good for if you're in a big group who all have different tastes in comedy cause he's just edgy enough for the comedy nerds like me to still enjoy it and broadly sweeping enough for comedy luddites to get a rise as well

Comedy snobbery, doncha love it.

If they don't have a feather-cut and tight jeans, forget it.