No problem, that's probably the most useful one.

Edit: especially on a forum as wanky as ours, when cliché features in nearly every post.

Going to see Mock The Week be recorded on Tuesday, should be good. I hope David Mitchell's one of the guests.

Haven't been to any live stand-up in ages. Mark Thomas is on in Exeter in October, I think. Want to go to that.

Jason Byrne, Daniel Kitson, Adam Hills, Andy Parsons.

First three were fucking excellent, whilst Parsons was merely very good.

Gary le Strange @ The Windmill

The gigs I have previously seen have been some of the funniest performances I have ever witnessed, and his comedy albums are fantastic.

Sadly, our show on Saturday, for which we travelled to deepest, darkest Brixton, was utterly ruined by two eastern European drunkards dancing like apes in front of the stage and constantly heckling Gary, aka Waen Sheppard. The managment of the venue - which I shall think twice about visiting again - were completely ineffectual, and the pair only stopped messing around after I pleaded with them to behave for 5 minutes as Gary performed his final song. I was doubly annoyed since he was playing new material, and I didn't get a chance to listen. What shits.

I'd heard this show was shit. The buzz in Edinburgh was that it's a deliberatie attempt to kill off the character.

Interesting. He only played one song from the 'Beef Scarecrow' Edinburgh show, and I was not able to make any judgement on the quality because of the idiots - except the fact in was deliberately overblown pyschedelic nonesense. I would really like to see the whole thing, just because he's been so good in the past. I wonder if he has any new characters lined up...

I'm going to put this in a new post for clarity:

We have tickets to The Secret Policeman's Ball, 14th October 2006

Line-up includes:

Eddie Izzard, Russell Brand, Jennifer Saunders, Jimmy Fallon, The Mighty Boosh, Jon Culshaw, Meera Syal, Omid Djalili, Jessica Stevenson, Ronni Ancona, Seth Green, Richard E Grant, Andrew Maxwell, Gorillaz, The Magic Numbers, Patrick Stewart, Joanna Lumley, Jimmy Carr, Tara Fitzgerald, Jo Brand, Brian Cox...and Chevy Chase!

Super.

have you seen how much the tickets are?

How much are they??

Between £30 and £100.

We paid £30 each for seats in the circle. Reasonable, I thought!

Seems unnecessarily pricey.

But...Chevy Chase!

Lucky, lucky you!


It is for charity.

Exactly.

Speaking of which, I'm going to this.

And also this.

Typically, chortle.co.uk didn't seem to mention either of these and I am now too late for both of them

I'm going to find him backstage and ask him if he'll be my celebrity dad.

Oh, these both sound great!

They do, don't they?

And there's also this.

Not so keen on Jo Brand anymore, unless she finally has some new material, but the Hackney Empire is a great venue, there's Arthur Smith & Ricky Grover, and it's a good cause.

Oooh, tempted by the second one Luvver, if only to see Gary le Strange not being heckled by immigrants.

Went to see Jimmy Carr last night.

He was rude & insulting yet entertaining, although most of the audience were assholes. He did pick on Rob once he saw his beard. Said it looked like an upside down muppet.

I personally like the fact that he didn't Americanize it like all the other Brit comedians that I've seen. However, I think this was because he really doesn't know the American equivalents. It didn't really matter much anyway because half the audience was Brit anyway as these shows tend to be.

If any of you LA folks are interested in seeing him, he'll be at the Coronet Theatre, Sept. 28-30.

I'm not much of a fan, really, but I can vouch for that venue. Great location AND stupidly intimate; saw El Izzardo there last year and I was practically in his lap.

I'm still pissed off that Demetri Martin's ONLY LA show is October 7th, which is the date of our massive downtown music fest that I simply can't miss. (Beck, Queens of the Stone Age, Basement Jaxx, Redd Kross and tons more, plus I get a VIP pass....sorry, Demetri. Call me FIRST next time, dude!)

Me an Alyssa are coming to the big smoke on Thursday for this:

Rob Newman's on the bill too, hooray!

Oh you lucky bastards.

Bring back some Robin/Rob essence for the rest of us, will you?

Eddie is going to be there again next month for some more intimate comedy. I've lost the dates though.

I'd love to see Wil Anderson's 'Wil Communication.'

Note to Aussies

Ahh, Wil Anderson. Does he ever play over here in the UK?

Odd and very funny. Improvised accordian jazz with accompanying dance to Danielle Steele's Love Poems, Space Invaders and Totall Recall jokes, a tumour with the face of Tom Jones, Gnarls Barkley, Boggle, and a 'Sex Off' reading of sex scenes from excrutiatingly bad 'erotic' novels, judged by opera.

What did Rob Newman do?

He sang a song with a ukelele. It was actually sort of serious...which was odd.

Zoe just texted me to say she and Alyssa are having lunch with Natalie. But guess who Natalie's having dinner with? Joss Whedon. I'm just going sit and weep with jealousy onto the stacks of Firefly and Serenity books.

Who is Natalie?

Natalie Haynes.

Christopher Titus. Im seeing him next month.

I saw Jossie Long on Monday. She was the headline act of Rude Girls, a recently launched all female stand up tour. It was only after watching a succession of "I'm fat and like sex" jokes that you realise how very original she is. Brilliant.

Chris Addison, Russell Howard, Steve Hall and Marek Larwood should be here in about an hour.

The Secret Policeman's Ball @ The Royal Albert Hall

This was an excellent night.

The first half was particularly strong. Two songs by The Zutons (who I think are a bit 'meh') were followed by Dylan Moran in a typically great, if short, stand-up performance. Interspersed with the comedy were a series of animations about Amnesty International's biggest issues, with a satirical slant.

Andrew Maxwell came next, and was really good, owning the audience like a seasoned professional. Russell Brand was excellent and hilarious, essentially just reading from the Sun newspaper - comedy enough.

The Mighty Boosh closed the first half with a compressed version of their live show. Noel was on mischievous form, and Julian could barely keep a straight face. Their bit ended on a mass rabbit bum-rape.

Props to 'Barry' from Eastenders, in a superb and unexpected piece with Jimmy Fallon, impersonating a number of stars including David Blaine.

- Oh, so you know David Blaine? Can I come in then?

- No, he's a cunt.



I could go on, but I have work to do!

Is he the young blonde chappy who's often on Mock the Week? He seems to be everywhere all of a sudden.

Do you mean Russell Howard?

I dunno. Do I?

I don't watch Mock the Week, but Andrew Maxwell is Irish, if that helps.

The Policeman's Ball was indeed jolly fun, but Chevy Chase was wasted. In that he hardly did anything, not that he was off his mash.

That is Russel Howard, what Zoe fancies. Maxwell, as Ellie says is the Irish Chappy. He won that "Big Brother meets Beat the Gong" competition last year.

My sandwich wooing plan didn't work at all. I even tried making a joke about tippex, but he looked at me like a mental.

Still, he's back in a few months and now the groundwork (of fear and confusion) is laid.

A perfect trap.

Oh, I just heard that David Armand from The Hollow Men did his "Torn" routine. I LOVE that! He also does something similar with "Wichita Lineman". Anytime I see these I laugh so much that I actually have trouble breathing. He's quite brilliant

He did, and Natalie Imbruglia joined in at the end!

I've just booked tickets to see Mitchell and Webb on tuesday night! Woo! No one can quantify the happiness I'm feeling right now

I saw them last night, it is a fantastic show. I had such a great time, and had terrific seats as well.

Faaaaaaaaaaaab! I can't wait. But I have crap seats since it was a last minute decision, and I'm in the circle seats, somewhere...above the clouds, but it'll have to do.

I really wanted to go to Mitchell & Webb but I can't because I went to see Ross Noble & I don't have any money left


T'was well worth it, though.