Thursday 26 November 2009

The stage is set


Just went to the weirdest comedy night, Laughing Boy at what used to be The End near Holborn.

The venue itself was a little odd, being more regularly used as a strip club (note the hoop in the pic; there was a trapeze above the bar too). But it was the audience that was really peculiar. Half of them would only laugh at the vilest material, too idiotic to grasp anything vaguely subtle, while the other half were seemingly grossly offended when anything bodily was mentioned and sat, arms folded, in stony silence.

Really felt for the comedians, who were genuinely funny, and particularly Dara O'Briain who was testing out new material and must be tempted to jack it in after that depressingly unresponsive audience. We had a chat with him at the end, he's a really lovely man, and he said it was a shame to waste genuine, sweet stories on a crowd like that.

Maybe it's an age thing, and only people who've actually got some life experience can relate to jokes about episiotomies and the like without cringing? Or jokes about an aging sex life, a la Mike Wilmott tonight? It's funny people! The human body is a strange and wonderful thing and you've got to lighten up and laugh a little.

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