New Born Comedy

Went to our first comedy gig of the new year last night with a trip to the Leicester Square Theatre for the New Born Comedy Night, a monthly event happening usually on the last Monday of the month.

It was a funny evening with a mostly-female line-up (only one man on the bill), including a short set from Sarah Millican. And if I’m honest it was the only reason me and The Wife went! Her DVD is the biggest selling DVD by a female comic ever and she is one of the few comedians/comediennes who The Wife will giggle hysterically at (Miranda Hart being another).

The venue was the cosy 50-seater Lounge at the theatre and so was quite an intimate event, which is far, far, far, far, faaaaaarrrrrrrrrrr superior to the arena gigs that comedians now all seem to be doing.

All the comics were doing short sets trying out new material (hence the “New Born Comedy” name), using the opportunity to test jokes, fine-tune lines and gauging the audiences reactions to see if the jokes were worthy of inclusion into a set list at a later date, need re-wording, or need to be dropped totally.

Sarah Millican had her own system, a tick on her notes if the joke worked, a cross if it didn’t and FT* if the audience didn’t like it but she disagreed.

The evening was hosted by Cariad Lloyd, firstly as her American alter-ego and then in the second half as a superhero called Helena Sarah Bonham Carter (or HSBC for short!), a wildly funny characterisation of Mrs Tim Burton.

All in all it was a cracking evening and despite female comics sometimes being described as “not as funny as the men” (I have a friend who is guilty of doing this!) they proved that this definitely isn’t the case. If you’re in town on a Monday night go check out the New Born Comedy night at the Leicester Square Theatres. It may not be slick, it might be a bit weird in places, but it sure is funny!

*Fuck Them!

http://leicestersquaretheatre.ticketsolve.com/shows/126517191/events