New Red Lion Theatre

Catie Wilkins

 This is a fairly new comedy venue (2 weeks old) that happens to be only 5 minutes walk from my house. This alone makes it my favourite comedy venue. However when I got inside I liked it even more. The bar used to be a rather grotty sports venue that I visited once in order to go for an emergency wee (and I bought a half to get rid of the guilt.) Now though it looks like a lovely friend's lovely living room and has a really nice vibe about it. I had made a joke on Twitter beforehand that if the night was no good I could always pop to the porno cinema next door for a wank, but thankfully this option was not needed (but will bear it in mind for future visits!) I went there with my lovely friend Richard who has seen AIOTM (aiotm) twice but has never seen Richard Herring do his regular bread & butter stand up.

The night was compered by the ever-lovely (I've used the word 'lovely' too much, haven't I?) Catie Wilkins.The club runs every fortnight and this was only the second time it was on. Some good acts coming up so keep an eye on their Facebook page !.

Me and Richard (@Chardhollis)

Catie chatted to the audience as comperes generally do (if they didn't they would be a bit rubbish) and eventually came to chat to Richard and myself and asked how we knew each other. Richard told her we used to work together and obviously we were asked what we did. He replied that we worked on a sex line, which is only partly true (I do a lot more other important stuff other than filth!) but decided to run with it. Naturally she wanted more information about what we say, but I told her she would have to pay me (I don't ask her to tell me jokes for free, do I !?)

Anyway, Imran Yusuf was on first. He was pretty good - did I see him on Stand Up Hero?  actually I didn't see him on there. It was Michael MacIntyre's Comedy Roadshow ! Thanks to Mary Bourke for letting me know, and if anyone else has any corrections for anything in any of my blogs please tell me - however, my asterisk still stands - but trying a lot of new material which spoiled the flow of his set. However we still laughed a lot and he was enjoyable.

The next act, Suzi Ruffell was absolutely fantastic! I had never seen her before, but I certainly will again. Her routine near the end about Lady Gaga's song where no matter how drunk she is, she sorts it all out with a little dance was hilarious, as was her secret lesbian salute! We had a nice interval and spent most of our time gushing over Suzi outside. (not like that!). We told her how great she was, and is definitely a name to look out for in the future.

A stage on a stage?

After the break, Catie asked us how the interval was and what was the best thing that happened during it. The audience was very quiet, so thought I would help out and blurted out "I went to the toilet". This unfortunately led to a barrage of complaints about them, so Catie took it upon herself to put the acts' payment on hold in order to fix them. (I recognise this was a joke, but I like to report this as if it is a fact.)  I wish I'd never brought it up.

Actually the toilets aren't bad (though there is only a tiny tiny gap between the tap and the sink so very hard to get your hands wet although I'm sure Richard H had no problem with his 7 year old girl hands (more of that later)

Next up, was a chap I rather shamefully can't remember his name. Let's call him Dylan Thing. (Please if you know his surname please let me know and I'll fix this!) Dylan Bray (Thanks Richard!) Anyway this was his first gig for a year and seemed a little nervous. However, he was very good and I quite enjoyed his conversation with the rather nihilisic woman who wasn't that bothered about climate change. He did a routine about eating prisoners to help (though I'm sure I've seen Billy Connolly do a very similar routine before!)

Herring & me. I don't know why my face is doing that.

Next up, and closing the night was Richard Herring. Anyone that knows me knows that I'm a big fan, and have seen him on quite a number of times. However, it was nice to have my mate Richard with me because it was interesting to see his reactions for the first time to jokes I've heard on quite a few occasions. He seemed to particularly enjoy the "sky potato" routine. In fact the best part of the night was his reaction to Rich's joke about his dark masturbatory fantasies about having the hands resembling a 7 year old girl! He made quite a shocked noise, so I turned round and his face was a picture! Nice to see Rich including some Hitler Moustache material in his regular comedy set, and the "racists might have a point" routine went down a storm.

So in closing, this is a great comedy venue, and I will definitely be back.

Anyway, I have two things I want to do with this blog:

1. Stop using so many exclamation marks.
2. Write about things other than comedy gigs.

However, that may or may not happen. It's not happened yet. I may write about an exciting event happening a week today and who could blame me?

Next Sunday, the 24th November at The Phoenix, there is a benefit gig for Shelter as Michael Legge recreates Edinburgh Fringe in one day. it's going to be awesome, so make sure you come! Follow AllDayEdinburgh on Twitter for more details! Many acts to be confirmed, but so far they have Tony Law, The Penny Dreadfuls, Jim Bob (from Carter USM !!!!) , Pappys, Robin Ince & Michael Legge, Sara Pascoe, Paul Sinha, The Trap, Storytellers, Nick Helm, Tara Flynn, An Hour of Telly Live, Mat Ricardo, Caroline Mabey and Dan Antopolski to look forward to with bigger names yet to be announced.

Get tickets to All Day Edinburgh here. But be fast as I imagine they will go very quickly.

(I may write about it.)

* by the way Stand Up Hero is a great show. Like the X Factor of comedy except most of the acts are actually good. Look out for Mary Bourke on an upcoming episode.