April was a wild one but we’ll get into that shortly. We shall start with news on the Weekender. Then we’ll talk shows from this month, some more amateur photography and more amateur blogging…
WEEKENDER
The Weekender is now only a few months away and we’ve finally got it booked! Yay! Are you ready?! So to finish the line up we’ve got…
Maisie Adam, Larry Dean, Kyrah Gray, Harriet Kemsley, Harriet Dyer, Will Duggan and Steen Raskopoulos.
25 acts, 3 venues, 1 weekend. Where else can you get a taste of the Edinburgh Fringe at a fraction of the price? Book your weekend wristband on the button below!
Tres
First Thursday of the month and that means it’s back to the Picturedrome, the Duke of Wellington and the Rivermill in St Neots, the comedic triangle. The day started almost like every other gig day, prep all the kit, make sure you have the guest list, pack the car etc. You know when you go on holiday and you have that paranoid voice saying, “have I forgot something?” I have this most Thursdays, it doesn’t get any easier just in case you were wondering.
Around midday we got a message from Ryan, unfortunately he wasn’t well enough to do the gig in St Neots, but he didn’t want to let us down as he takes all his kit to run the night for us. We said we would try and get cover so he could rest up, so Mike made some calls but unfortunately our ‘go to’ people were unavailable but then the light bulb went off. Someone we know who runs their own gigs and has their own kit, Paul Revill, and he’s booked to MC The Duke in Stanwick for us that very night. So we reached out to Paul to see if he’d swap over to St Neots, to which he was happy to oblige. Then we had to book a replacement at the Duke, which ended up being Northamptons own Ben Briggs. Being ready for last minute changes just comes with the territory.
At the Duke we had Ian Stone, Ignacio Lopez, Kent Cameron and Ben. Ian Stone for those unfamiliar is a huge Arsenal fan, we had a few conversations around football that evening, with myself being a Manchester United fan and Kent Cameron, a Chelsea fan. United were playing Chelsea that evening and a friend was quick to point out 20 minutes into the gig that United were 2-0 down. By the time Ian had got to the venue and we were discussing Arsenals impressive season, I checked the score and it was 2-2! 10 minutes later, just before Ian was due on stage I had another glance at the score, it was 3-2 to United. I subtly turned to a couple of my friends that had come along that night, did a little below the waist fist pump, I didn’t want to gloat in front of Kent... Ian then hit the stage, absolutely smashed it and as the night came to a close we quickly packed away. After I thought I’d double check the game finished 3-2, it was the 87th minute when I last looked afterall… It ended 4-3 to Chelsea, a goal in the 100th minute and the 101st minute… what a sour end to my night. Anyway, enough on football. I’m very much looking forward to seeing Ian’s new show when he performs at our Weekend event on July 21st.
At the Drome we had Ignacio Lopez, Mad Ron, Louise Leigh and Rich Wilson. At the Rivermill in St Neots, Ian Stone, Ninia Benjamin, James Eliis and our saviour Paul Revill. Great start to the month!
On another side note, I was talking to Ignacio about where he had parked when he arrived at the Duke, we’d booked him to open there and then close the Picturedrome. To which he proceeded to tell me he doesn’t drive. The guy lives in Cardiff, he’d got the train from Cardiff to London, London to Northampton, bus from Northampton to Wellingborough. Ignacio was telling me about his gig in London at the weekend where there were further train strikes, but he managed to get the last seat on a megabus. Return trip at 1am… that’s some dedication to the game. First time seeing him live as well, not sure how that’s happened but there we are. Great act, really enjoyed it.
Pictured below: Ignacio Lopez. (Edit 1st May - We have since booked Ignacio to headline September at the Bradlaugh… just FYI)
A You’re Adorable…
At the Bradlaugh in April we had Robin Ince, Radu Isac, Spring Day and Michael Legge. It was a great turnout, considering we had our big Derngate show 2 days after. It was also a little reminder of the magic of live comedy as well and those unique experiences you get. As an example, just before Michael Legge was about to introduce our final act Robin Ince onto the stage, Robin started heckling from the back creating this very funny exchange between the two acts about certain music that Michael liked to listen to in the car. To top that off, after Robin finished his contractual obligations on stage he mentioned about a song that he and Michael use to perform in Edinburgh together, but said he didn’t think he had time as their train was due. A lady in the audience was quick to shout, sing the song! Before we knew it, Michael came back to the stage to perform their Edinburgh Fringe classic, “A You’re Adorable.” After the song, Robin left the stage to let Michael wrap up the night and a few minutes later Robin was heading for the door, quickly shouting to Michael on his way out that at least one of them was going to make the train! This night was good fun, I hope they both managed to catch the train in the end though!
I also want to take this opportunity to mention Robin Ince’s book “I’m a Joke, and so are you.” A fantastic read about comedians and psychology and all the weird and wonderful things that go in a comics brain. If you haven’t read it yet, I’d highly recommend it. This book made me re-watch some old Robin Williams routines, which are absolutely genius.
Pictured below: Robin Ince and Michael Legge.
The Big Ones…
It all started on Friday 12th at MK Theatre with The Comedy Cow. I didn’t go along to this one, so Mike & Stuart were representing the Crate. From the feedback I received and the photos I’ve seen it was a cracking night, which only made me more excited about going along on Saturday.
It’s felt like a long build to Saturday 13th at The Royal & Derngate, something we’ve spoken about doing for a long time and it really was worth the wait. Even the small things like getting to be behind the scenes at a theatre you grew up seeing shows in. One thing that instantly caught our eyes were the corridors where the dressing rooms are. They were covered in wall art from previous shows, full of signatures from various performers like Sean Lock, Ben Elton, Stewart Lee, plus the non-comedy related ones like Diversity, Shane Filan and all the casts from various musicals and bands. So we can’t lie, it felt pretty good adding a picture of the Crate along with our names to the wall, alongside the four amazing acts we had booked in: Omid Djalili, Marcus Brigstocke, Josie Long and Boothby Graffoe.
When the doors opened and the audience started to come in, myself and Stu went and sat in a box just to soak it in a little bit and see who we could spot in the crowd. There were so many familiar faces from our regular nights which was amazing. The moment Boothby hit the stage and the lights went down, I ventured off to the side of stage to take some photos. After the first section from the brilliant Marcus Brigstocke, we all snuck behind the curtain and took the obligatory group photo.
During the interval I was outside talking with Boothby and he asked me what time we’d come off stage, so we could work out when to go back on. From there we ended up on a bit of a tangent and he started to tell me about Bruce Forsyth and how incredible he was at knowing how long to be in front of the camera, apparently producers would often put it to the test by asking him to do random times like 3 minutes and 27 seconds, and he’d nail it without a clock in sight, a true professional.
The moment we’d got to the final section and Omid was about to go on stage there was this moment of realisation, it was almost over. I was crouched in the box ready to take some final photos, Mike came passed me to take a seat in the neighbouring box and then after a few minutes we were all sat back watching Omid do his thing. To have that amount of people come along to the Derngate that night is something we certainly won’t forget in a hurry.
Omid came up to me after he finished his set and said to me, “what a lovely crowd!” Job done.
Interlude… (You can do them in a blog right? Well we can, we’re rebels!)
Here’s a clip from the ending of Kai Humphries show ‘How To Be Happy’ where he suggests he has the answer on exactly that. Enjoy!
Right back to it…
A Busy Week
Starting on the 23rd April we booked a show at The Sun Inn in Hardingstone, run by friend of the Crate Pete Teckman. A couple of our regulars, brother and sister duo Martin and Maggie informed us it was a great night. On Wednesday we were back at Saints Coffee. Friday and Sunday we had more collabs with Ian Hayes of Hats Funny at the Woolpack in Islip and then at the Waystation in Thrapston.
On the Friday though myself and Mike made a point of heading out to the 3 venues for the Weekender and dropping off the flyers and posters, whilst stopping for a cheeky pint on route. It was a good opportunity to spit ball some ideas and we’ve got a few exciting acts confirmed for next year already. Pains me to think much further than the summer of 2024 but there we are.
Saints Coffee
A bit more on our show at Saints Coffee, this was a real nice mixture of upcoming acts and professional comics trying out new stuff. What is really nice to see is progression, we gave Ryan Horsley, a Northampton lad his first ever gig. From doing 3 minutes last year to now doing 10 minutes. You can see there has been work done on the material and the performance, along with a really nice call back at the end of his set. I particularly liked his bit about him asking his Mum why he might be an attention seeker. Another act we had on last year who was also in the very early stages of their comedy journey is Mckenzie Pike, who has some really good material on ‘Girls World v Mans World.’ A couple of new acts for us to see was Sam Coades and Rick Goodman who did really well and the crowd responded positively to both. We will be keeping a close eye on these guys and hopefully we’ll be seeing them in some bigger venues in the near future. Always a pleasure seeing Mad Ron and Lovdev Barpaga who saw out the last section of the show as well. A fun, intimate comedy show!
Pictured below: Ryan Horsley
V&B
Final show of the month was at V and B. A really enjoyable night with a great crowd. It’s always nice when we get the opportunity to see acts we’ve not worked with before and that was the case with Blank Peng and Sean Gorman. I have a feeling we’re going to be seeing more of these two in the future, great stuff!
The show was then headlined by Olaf Falafel. A guy who headlined our first ever gig, back in 2016 at the Labour club! Unintentionally bringing it back full circle, after doing the Royal & Derngate and then finishing the same month in a nice intimate space. It’s crazy to think back on that show in 2016, how nervous we were, just hoping people would laugh and have a good time. Olaf is a fantastic performer though and such a nice guy, it was never in doubt.
Pictured below: Olaf Falafel.
At the time of typing it’s the day after this gig, I got up extra early this morning to edit 98 photos (I really didn’t need to take that many). But this one stood out to me as a Grinch pose.
April Complete
Now we move onto May with a big outdoor event to come at Delapre Abbey, plus a really fun tour show from Fesshole which has now sold out, sorry if you missed the boat on that one. Plus another mixed bill at the Bradlaugh where we have Kelsey De Almeida, someone who performed at one of our first few shows at the Bradlaugh and then moved to Australia to perform out there. Really looking forward to catching up with Kelsey and seeing how he’s developed as a comic. Plus a whole bunch of other stuff you could/should check out. You know what to do…
Thanks for reading this regurgitation of events.
Here are some photos I took from The Royal & Derngate show.
