Interview with Joz Norris

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Comedy Blogedy: How long have you been gigging in stand-up?

Joz Norris: My first gig was about three years ago at the Queen Charlotte pub in Norwich, for Laugh Out Loud, the student comedy club at UEA. Over the next two years, I worked closely with LOL and ended up co-running it myself for a year or so. It was all very amateur, and we only gigged once a month to an audience of predominantly our friends and fellow students, although I did occasionally branch out into other comedy nights in Norwich. I always loved doing it though, so I eventually made the decision to move to London and try to start working on the London circuit, which is altogether a more serious and full-on thing in comparison. I’ve been gigging in London and trying to make a career of it for about eight months now.

Comedy, Interviews, Reviews

Review: Knock2Bag, Bar FM, London

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The club was packed. Even upon entering Bar FM, it had that Saturday night buzz and it was only a Wednesday night! A significant amount of people were even happy to stand for the show. Lloyd Griffith MC’d the night, providing just the right level of audience banter to “get you in the mood” before each act came on. The great thing about Lloyd, especially as an MC, is the pace at which he builds up his material. The jokes are slick but the choir boy a capella surprise adds that extra level to his set, especially juxtaposing a Pavarotti-esque rendition with different “tape” impressions and so accurate that if someone had literally started to pull a piece of cellotape by the microphone you wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference. The first comedian of the night was Nish Kumar, who humoured the audience with jokes centring around multiculturalism and being a British-Asian. Nothing wildly adventurous but he was articulate, his jokes were succinct and performed with that “easy watching” feel to his set.

Comedy, Reviews

Interview with Joe Wilkinson

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Sara Shulman: How did you get into comedy?

Joe Wilkinson: My local pub was putting on an open mic night and I thought I might give it a go and I booked myself in and then felt sick with nerves everyday until I did it

Sara Shulman: Did you always want to go into comedy?

Joe Wilkinson: I have always loved comedy but I could never imagine myself doing it, it still feels very surreal

Sara Shulman: What was your first gig like?

Joe Wilkinson: I don’t remember a thing about it as I was so nervous. After someone told me that the first thing I said was “I’m not sure but I may have shat myself” What a great start to a comedy career

Comedy, Comedy Interviews

Review: Totally Tom, The Soho Theatre, London

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As soon as the ‘Bring It On’ theme tune filled the room, Tom Palmer and Tom Stourton burst on stage with their high energy cheerleading and over the top dance routine that sparked off the first sketch – a Club Med satire. Already you could see that their style was clever and sharp paying close attention to detail that made the sketches very funny indeed, a feature of their comedy that continued throughout the whole show.

Comedy, Reviews

Review: Bright Club ‘Stars’, The Bloomsbury Theatre, London

Image of Stars: Bright ClubBright Club is one of the most original and creative shows at the moment in both the comedy and academic world! The concept was pioneered by UCL and has grown all over the UK and is even spreading across the world! University professors and researchers, namely UCL (although there was one non-UCLer on the bill tonight) performed stand-up comedy about their field of interest along with other top comedians, including Lucy Porter. Each Bright Club show is themed, tonight it was themed on ‘Stars’, which meant that, amongst a variety of academic disciplines, there were lots of physicists, geographers…and even an archaeologist on the bill.

Comedy, Reviews

Interview with Nelson de Gouveia

“The comedians that influence me are ones that aren’t comedians…everyday people, awesome folk I have conversations with. Watching top comedians works too, I would not have learnt many tricks of the trade to handle comedy as a profession, but my comedy relies on a chance encounter with a cashier at Costcutter or a newly-made friend,…

Comedy, Comedy Interviews