Laughter-House comedy club reviews
October 2009 review by John Shaw
For those of you who haven’t had the pleasure of a night out at Jan Jack’s Laughter House in the Red Lion Hotel, you really must treat yourselves. Three or four different stand-ups, an ideal venue, with food and drink available, a compere who knows his audience, and an audience that itself never fails to surprise and entertain.
And which of us would have thought at 8.00 clock that two hours later the room would be rocking to the chant of “Beard her, beard her” as Lee Nelson, the headline chav, confronted a well-heeled couple from Dummer. How did we get to that point?
It started enjoyably enough with Duncan Oakley, whose skill on the guitar and ability to take-off greats like Eric Clapton, enabled him to send up the overly sentimental view of life pedalled in pop music and to strum along to accompany his own bleak view of life.
Broderick Chow, a Chinese Canadian, followed him. His manner was very different, laconic, laid-back, laughing at himself for sometimes thinking he’s Japanese – a mistake he encounters in his everyday life.
Both acts had been entertaining, but neither had involved the audience. Jan Jack changed the mood of the evening, making a confident and amusing unscheduled appearance. By this point we were aware of a group in the audience calling themselves Kombat, an acronym for Kempshott Old Men Behaving Absolutely Terribly. There was also a small party from Dummer including a lady whose bearded husband was increasingly struggling to moderate her contributions.
Enter Simon Brodkin, a character comedian, who had just been performing in Edinburgh as four different people including Lee Nelson, chav “lejend”. I’d seen him on the Al Murray show and enjoyed him; to see him interact with an audience in a small venue was jaw-dropping. His chav character was brilliantly realised and he quickly wove the audience into his show. He saluted Kombat for the thousands of Germans they had killed and apologised for only killing one after some verbals with a tourist who had wanted directions to the city centre. He said he knew he was thick but arranged a “brains off” with the two cleverest members of the audience. And then he caught the husband leaning forward to talk to his wife.
Chanting “Beard her” was the least we could do for Lee, a character who had been so cleverly and believably created. Even Danny Dawes, the compere, was helpless with laughter as he drew the evening to a close.
For those of you following Basingstoke’s Love Story, Andy and Kelly hated their holiday in Rochester but have moved the date of their wedding forward. Will they invite Lee Nelson to be best man? He’d be a 'lejend'.
September 2009 review by John Shaw
The Laughter-House, held in the Red Lion Hotel, has built a reputation as offering an outstanding night’s stand-up. The venue is ideal and the line-up is always first class – no wonder it’s always a sell-out.
One of its strengths is the rapport that has developed between audience and performers, and the opening event of the season was no different. Danny Dawes, the regular compere, enjoys meeting the regulars. Andy and Kelly, for example, were once again encouraged to entertain us with news of their developing relationship and their plans for a cheap holiday somewhere near Rochester.
Andi Osho began the evening, brilliantly. An accomplished actor and writer, she drew on her Nigerian and East London background in a beautifully crafted and confident set. Whether talking about bendy buses in Newham, chavs, memories from childhood – white kids got toys, we made funny noises – or Nigerian men, she drew the audience in to share her take on the world. For me, she’s up there with Gina Yashere. With so many strings to her bow, here’s hoping stand-up will not lose out to her theatre work.
Danny Dawes is funny when drawing the regulars in; he can be hilarious when responding to newcomers on a corporate night out. This time he seized upon a group from a mapping company and took off in a flight of fancy about installing a custom-made satnav in an ambulance, before introducing Jan Jack and Dave Rowan.
Jan Jack continues to develop her material, cleverly setting up gags with a killer punch-line and relying less on her own poetry.
Dave Rowan was the only “newcomer” to Basingstoke and could perhaps have done with more time to tune in to the audience so that they could follow his quick-fire delivery as he accompanied himself on his ukulele.
Rich Wilson closed the evening with a great headliner’s set. It’s difficult to believe that he’s only been doing stand-up for five years. He has a very relaxed, warm and self-deprecating line of humour. This made his rant about trying to buy trainers from shop assistants with little sense of “service” all the funnier.
John Shaw
June 2009 review by The Basingstoke Gazette
A mutual level of heckling between comic and crowd characterised the gags at Jan Jack's latest Laughter-House, at the Red Lion Hotel, Basingstoke.
Dating, edgy jokes and a smattering of one-liners made for another entertaining evening at the Basingstoke comedy night, which kicked off with regular compere Danny Dawes.
A clear sign of how important the audience is at these nights was Dawes' announcement to great applause that a pair of Laughter-House regulars - whose relationship has evidently been the butt of jokes over the past months - are engaged.
The evening's main victims, however, were another bride-to-be - who was a compere's dream after revealing her imminent marriage to a significantly younger man in a lighthouse, offering up more potential jokes than Dawes had time to tell - and a group of plumbers who were sitting in the compere's eyeline. Brave men!
First up on the bill was Nathan Caton, Chortle Student Comic of the Year 2005 and star of Paramount's Nathan Caton Show.
Though a tender 24-year old, he reminisced about the days when adolescents made 'your mum' jibes - "your mum's so short you can see her feet in her passport photo" - instead of pulling knives on each other; and declared that these days, with Obama as president, ginger people are the new victims of racism who can only dream of getting their own president one day.
After a great set, including insights into inter-racial dating and the faux pas of swearing in front of your grandmother, Jan Jack took the mic for what seemed quite a short, but entertaining set. She was sufficiently below-the-belt to live up to expectations. Bringing the comedy back to the area, she observed that even the birds in Oakley use satnav to find their bird boxes.
The Irish Grainne McGuire had a chummy style and ironic wit, and created wonderful image of Emily Bronte writing letters in praise of people she hated when she was drunk.
A portly Dave Ward, Comedy Store and Jongleurs regular; had the headline spot with a number of one-liners and good crowd interaction, although - he admitted - only to lead in to his own jokes.
These included relationship jokes, a rant against public displays of affection and more besides, in an amusing final set.
A fine way to spend a Thursday night, and the next one is up on July 9.
Lucie Richards, The Basingstoke Gazette 18th June 2009. Reproduced with kind permission.
April 2009 review by The Basingstoke Gazette
Risque jokes, guffaws and fantastic audience rapport made for an hilarious night at Basingstoke’s own Laughter-House.
Headlining the April show last Thursday was television and radio regular Bob Mills, who was on cracking form. He was in good company with three very different acts and charming compere Danny Dawes.
It was my first experience of Jan Jack’s comedy club – it runs every two months at the Red Lion Hotel – and I was giggling from the start as a very natural Dawes joked his way out of initial microphone problems, picking on the new sound boys, before starting on the audience.
My first impression was how important the crowd is. Laughter-House regulars give as good as they get and create a relaxed atmosphere – a blessing for newcomers at risk of a ribbing.
First up was Darlington’s Phil Dinsdale, and he did not take long to lower the tone below the line of a greyhound skirt – for those who were there – making the kind of observations that are not printable in a family newspaper. Though at times a little crude for my tastes, he kept the audience sniggering.
There was a refreshing local touch to Jan Jack’s set, with risqué jokes about her parents in Old Basing and good interaction with the crowd.
Next up was the fantastic Somali comic Prince Abdi. I sensed an initial hesitation from the audience, not knowing what to expect from the Brixton-based comedian, who has performed in Jongleurs and The Comedy Store.
But he soon had us in stitches, with observations on how Basingstoke is “different” from Brixton, musings on cultural differences and how, after watching Bollywood films, he started hanging out with his Indian friends more, expecting them to burst into song at any moment. Genius.
It was – quite literally – belly laughs all round as the somewhat portly Bob Mills closed the night, starting off with ironic fat jokes and cleverly throwing in references to Oakley and Andover to localise his set. With pint in hand, the experienced comedian who has appeared on programmes such as Have I got News For You and Never Mind the Buzzcocks and BBC Radio 5’s Fighting Talk, was spot on.
A great night out, in which the audience had a key part to play – and Basingstoke, it seems, is full of good sports.
Lucie Richards, The Basingstoke Gazette 9th April 2009. Reproduced with kind permission.
January 2009 review by John Shaw
A measure of the success of Jan Jack’s Laughter House is the fact that shows are sold out and regulars are having to turn up earlier and earlier to find a “good” seat. For the uninitiated a “good seat” is determined by how involved you wish to be in the fun. The rule used to be, “front row bad, back row good”if you were of a nervous disposition.But a confident Australian in the front row queried, successfully, the meaning of “Chippy” . “So, if that’s a shop, what do you guys call a person who works in a chippy?”. And when you sit at the back, comfortably surrounded by your work-mates, don’t expect them to cover for you when you start lying through your teeth about being an engineer when you actually work in drains. You’re not the funniest person in the room.
As you can see, for two or three hours everyone, onstage and off, contributes to the evening’s entertainment. No matter where you sit. Whatever kind of day you’ve had, Danny Dawes as compere unfailingly transforms the mood of the room as he starts the evening off.
On to a stage crackling with energy strolled Martin Beaumont. This is not a performer I had seen before but I found his genial, relaxed manner very appealing. It concealed, of course, clever craftsmanship. I especially enjoyed his extended riff built around contact lenses and poor memory, and his lyrics written for theme tunes.
Michael Mooney has a dark, brooding stage presence and works off an edgy relationship with his audience. He and Jan Jack presented short sets, Jan continuing to emerge from the persona of Nessie Flange as she develops her own voice.
As for Milton Jones – with so many strings to his bow, his stand-up is always fresh and brilliant. If I were Nessie Flange, I would certainly be throwing my knickers on stage. She had Adam Bloom in November and Milton Jones in January. Is the woman insatiable?
November 2008: review by John Shaw
Improvisation was taken to a new level with Jan Jack’s Comedy Club at the “Red Lion” in the last show before Christmas. A normal line-up kicks off with an experienced stand-up, followed by a relative newcomer and ends with the headline act. So what do you do when the opening act doesn’t turn up? Simple. Just improvise.
Fortunately the club’s regular compere , Danny Dawes, has a real gift at working with an audience. He raised the energy level in the room, brought everyone together and had the space and time to extend his banter with the audience.
The relative newcomer, Luke McQueen, opened the show and performed with a slick confidence. The audience were in high spirits by the time the first interval occurred.
Jan Jack has in the past relied on her persona as Nessie Flange, Basingstoke’s most notorious senior citizen, in her act. This time, after the interval, there was more Jan and less Nessie and a lot of new material. The result was impressive – more relaxed, more expansive. I look forward to watching her next year to see if this is the direction she intends to follow.
And so to Adam Bloom, who combines prepared material based on his own life and thoughts on the world with improvisation about the audience. If stand-up comedy hadn’t existed, Adam Bloom would have had to invent it to find his place in the world. There is a spontaneity and an almost manic intensity about his humour as he explores the oddity and absurdity of his behaviour, and ours.
And having taken us on this breathless, prepared journey, he closed by improvising around the responses of the audience as if to take us into the very act of creating humour. It seems as if he can’t help being one of the funniest people you could wish to meet.
Headlining the next evening is Milton Jones, a friend of his, and the complete opposite in style of performance. Bloom has written amusingly of how they once did a double act, where they each took turns telling jokes and each joke had to begin with the subject the last one ended with. “He’s got a million short jokes which makes my jokes seem really long.”
How lucky we are in Basingstoke to be able to watch such different masters at work. If you missed Adam Bloom, look out for him. And if you haven’t booked to see Milton Jones, what are you waiting for?
