February at the Crate contained some top tier comedy, some top tier dancing and some top tier announcements… Including one of your headline acts for the Sunday as part of our big Comedy Weekender in July.
Dobro
6th February saw Mike return to the Picturedrome, and myself heading over to The Duke in Stanwick.
Pulling double duty this month was Laura Lexx and Julian Deane. Completing the line up at the Drome due to 2 last minute changes, was Ben Briggs and Matt Stellingwerf. At Stanwick we had President Obonjo and Stevie Gray.
Over in Stanwick we were treated to a really fun night of comedy. Plus there was something that happened that I’ve never seen in the 8 years we’ve been doing this… Stevie Gray goes back on stage after the last interval, goes straight into a little bit of crowd work talking to a couple on the 2nd row. We end up with the couple explaining to Stevie that they do ‘Blues dancing’ together. Naturally Stevie was quick to respond with something like ‘you’ve got to show us this now’ and I wasn’t expecting the reply to be like ‘put some music on then’… now with the Duke being in the middle of nowhere, Stevie attempted to open Spotify on his phone with no reception, however the guy then hands over his phone with a track ready to go. The couple then walked onto the stage like this was pre-rehearsed, Stevie stepped aside and they gave the crowd some blues dance. It was absolutely wild, no one was expecting it to happen. I think most of us were just looking around at each other thinking what is going on! Certainly a first, fair play to them. Laura was quick to start her set with “How do I follow that?!'“ But Laura did follow it, and incredibly well.
Pictured below: President Obonjo and Laura Lexx
13th - Bradlaugh
Well we were treated to a cracking night for this one which included the incredible Jordan Gray, Ross McGrane, Matt Adlington, Harry Pettitt and Steve Day. It was a evening where we were competing with Jimmy Carr at the Royal & Derngate, where he was putting on 2 shows back to back. That being said we still managed to get a really nice audience to pack out the Bradlaugh, and as Jordan quite rightly put it, she is the only other comedian who will do more trans jokes than Jimmy!
For those of you that were there that night and may have questioned why Ross introduced Harry Pettitt onto the stage as Harry Kane. It turns out Ross was playing Fifa earlier that day and packed a Harry Kane on Ultimate Team. (Apologies if you have no idea what I’m talking about, but just to try and help you out. Do you remember Pokemon cards? Or Panini stickers? Where you would buy a pack and get a random selection of those cards or stickers, right so Ultimate team essentially has a virtual version of this. Buy a pack of cards, open them up and play with those players in the game…). After getting a Harry Kane, Ross simply couldn’t contain his excitement, it was clearly on his mind for the rest of the day… so there you have it, we all get lost in the moment sometimes when nostalgia kicks in and you get one of those rare cards.
But I digress... to be honest, I think that headline performance has gone straight into my top 5 favourites at the Bradlaugh ever! The Essex crew provided us with a top night of comedy from start to finish. Great to catch up with those guys and we look forward to seeing them again in the near future.
Pictured below: Jordan Gray
Laughter is the best medicine
Have you seen that the government are looking into trials to establish whether stand-up comedy can be used as an alternative to anti-depressants? People have been saying for years, laughter is the best medicine, it goes all the way back to the Bible… Proverbs 17:22 “A merry heart doeth good like medicine.”
Anybody would think someone has had some kind of revelation over a pint in a comedy club… Don’t pop pills, pop down to your local comedy club. Maybe that could be a our new slogan.
If you’ve not seen it, you can read a bit more via this link - LBC News Article
Banter on parade
On the topic of laughter being the best medicine, we have already been working on a well-being project with army veterans. Alongside Kevin Hanbury who initially reached out to us about this and the Veteran Community Network charity, we are hoping to support the veterans with an 8 week comedy workshop.
As a form of story-telling, comedy naturally encourages the improvement of communication skills: by stretching language and the imagination, listening to others and using humour to see experiences in a new light, very positive results can be seen in a short space of time. Through working in team-based interventions, this can improve self-esteem and develop a sense of belonging.
Comedy for well-being is not just about laughter, it’s about creativity, it’s about bringing people together, tackling subjects you wouldn’t ordinarily talk to your friends and family about. With this being said, we kicked off with a taster session on Monday 24th February.
We are slowly building on our crowd funding to ensure we keep this course free for the veterans. If you’d like to get involved, even just donating a few quid, it would really make a difference. Equally if you know anyone that would be interested in attending the course, do drop us an email! You can find the Just Giving page here - DONATE.
Wednesday 26th
With what started as a very soggy day, we returned to Saints Coffee for some more new acts and new material. It was such good fun, a really nice crowd that were up for a laugh and really supportive. Shoutout to Mukesh and his hareem, by the end of the night I think everyone wanted to join his family, we hope his sister enjoyed their first live comedy experience!
In order of appearance we had Leslie Gold, Alex Prescot, Alex Egan, James Abernethy, Harry Jenkins and Radu Isac. All hosted by friend of the Crate Ian Hayes.
Pictured below: Radu Isac and Alex Prescot
STUFF
Simon Brodkin has just released a new full stand up special on YouTube called Screwed Up.
I remember the first time we were told Simon was going to start performing stand up as himself and no longer as the character Lee Nelson. Followed by whether we would be happy to give him some stage time, it was a no brainer. This was back in 2018, Simon headlined the Charles Bradlaugh and it was absolutely brilliant. Safe to say that since then he’s been smashing it. This will be a great watch…. STUFF.
MORE STUFF….
For those that don’t know, there’s a US based company called 800 Pound Gorilla Media. They are a media company that produce, distribute and market stand-up comedy video specials and audio albums to comedy fans across the globe.
Recently they announced the release of Ian Smith’s last tour show ‘Crushing’. Which if you were there at the 2022 Comedy Crate Weekender Event, Ian Smith performed a preview of this particular show.
It’s available for purchase on the 800PGM website. Whilst your there, they have a bunch of shows to either buy or stream for FREE. Including the likes of Ivo Graham, David Cross, Jen Brister, Josh Pugh, Stuart Goldsmith, Matt Rife, Helen Bauer and more… MORE STUFF.
Chortle Comedy Awards 2025
The vote for the Chortle Comedy Awards 2025 is now open between now and Friday 7th March. You can click the link below to cast your vote. We are so happy to see Lindsey Santoro up for best headliner, a really good egg and a very funny comedian. And let’s not forget, there’s a section on the form for “Best Pro Comedy Night”… wouldn’t that be nice… *Laughing winky emojis
There is a moment after filling in the form and you click submit you think it’s done. You may have to scroll back up where it will ask for your name and email address, you don’t have to fill these in, click submit again and your golden.
The Weekender - 12th & 13th July
Just a reminder of who we’ve announced so far for our Weekender of comedy…
Mark Simmons
Helen Bauer
Tom Rosenthal
Frankie Monroe
Glenn Moore
Chloe Petts
Hal Cruttenden
Janine Harouni
Matt Richardson
Rachel Fairburn
Ian Smith
Cally Beaton
AND now it’s time for another name. One of your headline act choices for the Sunday is…
One Final Thing…
We’ve got gigs coming up in March. Quite a few in fact, so please for the love of comedy… come along to one, or two, tell your friend, your neighbour, your work colleagues. Your already on our website, so you’re in the right place! :D
Thank you!
