Virals & Comix

It’s possible that JUICE is still on a high from winning at The Pride Of Stafford Awards. We recorded a ridiculous Victory video for JUICE Tube, in which we stood outside Specsavers (our competition in the Best Professional Service category) with out trophy and mocked them. Now, some people might say that’s not big and it’s not clever, but we would point out to those people that we’ve got a big, shiney trophy so clearly we are big and clever.

Speaking of JUICE Tube, this week we released a highlight reel featuring some of the very best bits from JUICE Videos. We’re trying hard to draw people’s attention to JUICE Tube and let everyone know that we’ve got this cool Channel that’s constantly creating original, funny videos. The highlight video has worked brilliantly, so far reaching over 130 views! Okay, so it’s not going viral, but we’re very pleased that so many people have viewed it. Those views have also translated into Subscribers as well. Since the highlight video started doing the rounds, the number of people Subscribing to JUICE Tube has tripled! Again, we’re not talking about hundreds or thousands, but we’re very pleased with getting a bigger audience, so thanks to everyone who’s joined us on YouTube, and if you haven’t done so yet then fuck you. No, no, we of course mean to say, please go to JUICE Tube and Subscribe now.

We’re exactly one week away from JUICE Comedy taking over The MET Studio, in the Gatehouse Theatre, and we’re very excited! The MET is a great space for comedy, we’ve had brilliant shows with total sell-outs earlier in the year. Next week’s line-up includes JUICE Founder Rob Halden, the mega-talented Tom Allsopp and the utterly brilliant Tony Jameson. We have it on good authority that Rob Halden will be bringing a special guest with him, in the form of Neil Reading!

Ticket sales for next Friday’s show are snowballing, with only around 40 seats left in the house. Visit the Box Office to buy your tickets now!

This week also saw some big progress with our latest project, the JUICE comic strip! We’re collaborating with Stafford artist Jade Thompson on a series of 5 panel comic strips. We’re calling it JUICE Comix, it’ll soon be available online, but J-Blog can bring you an exclusive sneak peak right now! Tell us what you think in the ‘Comments’ section below!

JUICE Chat with Tony Jameson

Every week JUICE Chat brings you an interview with a top comedian from the circuit. This week we sat down with Tony Jameson.

The quick, cheeky Geordie is incredibly accomplished and quickly established himself as one of the fastest-rising comics in the North. As well as regularly performing for top comedy clubs like The Frog & Buckets, XS Malarkey and Highlight, Tony has gigged at legendary venue The Stand. He has also handpicked to support Frankie Boyle and Kevin Bridges. Tony is obsessed with Football Manager and has an incredible haircut.

JUICE: How would you describe your comedy?

Tony: I’d describe my act as anecdotal I suppose, as everything in my set has genuinely happened to me. Some of it I haven’t even had to change any of the wording or even the outcome. I don’t come off well in some of my routines.

JUICE: How did you start out in stand-up?

Tony: I started out like everyone else really by doing the open mic circuit. My partner and I were looking for something to do, and we saw a bar in town had open mic comedy on. We went to it for 6 weeks in a row, and I said I fancied giving it a go. I put my name down and wrote my first set about 2hrs before the start of the show. Thankfully it went quite well as that gave me the confidence and ambition to do it again and again. I’ve got no idea how I would’ve reacted if my first gig was terrible.

JUICE: What’s been your most memorable gig to date?

Tony: I’ve been very fortunate to have done some brilliant gigs, even in the relatively short amount of time I’ve done stand up. The first time I did a weekend at the Glasgow Stand, I was on with Michael McIntyre! That was bizarre. I’ve also been fortunate enough to have supported WWE wrestler Mick Foley when he was over doing his UK tour. I’ve done support spots on warm up shows for Kevin Bridges, Frankie Boyle and Stewart Francis. Plus there’s also just great circuit gigs. I’m very pleased that The Stand have given me so much work, especially with the new venue in Newcastle opening last October.

JUICE: Where’s your favourite venue to perform?

Tony: My favourite venue has to be The Stand, Glasgow. The Newcastle venue is quickly becoming an incredible venue as well. Komedia in Brighton is beautiful, as is the HiFi in Leeds and XS Mlarkey in Manchester. Jojo Sutherland also has a venue in South Queensferry which is just a delight.

JUICE: Who’s your favourite circuit comedian at the moment?

Tony: My favourite acts on the circuit? There’s loads. I always feel like I’ll forget someone when I list them, but here goes. Tom Stade, The Boy With Tape On His Face, Jason Cook, Dan Nightingale, Jim Smallman, Daniel Sloss, Gary Delaney, Stu and Garry, Adam Bloom, Paul Tonkinson, Phil Nichol, Stephen Carlin, Reg D Hunter, Mick Ferry, Alun Cochrane, Seymour Mace. There’s too many to choose!

JUICE: Who’s the best in the world, Louis CK or Daniel Kitson?

Tony: For me, Daniel Kitson is the best in the world. Louis CK is incredible also though. Or perhaps it’s just CM Punk.

(IT’S CLOBBERING TIME!)

JUICE: Do you have any comedy influences or heroes?

Tony: Ross Noble is a massive influence on me. I think he was my favourite act I’d watched a lot of before I started stand up, so when I first got on stage I think there was a natural comparison as I was trying to do the sort of stuff Ross does. I think I’ve veered more into my own voice now. Rhod Glibert is phenomenal as well. I think everyone has influences that define certain elements of their act, but you obviously need to find your own way of telling your jokes.

JUICE: You’re going to the Edinburgh Festival in August, what’s your show about this year?

Tony: I’m doing a two hander show at Edinburgh this year with a funny lady called, Katie Mulgrew. The show is called Tony Jameson and Katie Mulgrew Tell Tales. To be honest, we couldn’t think of a funny name for the show, but we figured we both tell stories, so that title show would. We’ve previewed it a few times now and its looking like a lovely hour show (even if I am slightly biased).

JUICE: You’re appearing alongside JUICE Favourite Katie Mulgrew, what’s her worst habbit?

Tony: What’s Mulgs’ worst habit? Oh dear. This could get me into trouble. I don’t think either of us really have that many bad habits that annoy each other (yet). We both like a few drinks after the show, so I presume that would probably quantify both of our bad habits. Just don’t let her anywhere near a karaoke machine. I’m sure we’ll be dead professional in Edinburgh though.

JUICE: When & where can people see you during the Festival?

Tony: Our show is at The Stand, at 1.10pm from the 2nd to the 26th August (not the 13th). The 2nd is a preview date so the show time is slightly different and a little bit cheaper. You can buy tickets either through the Edfringe site, via The Stand, or just pay on the door. We’re pretty chuffed that people have already bought tickets given the fact we’re largely unknown to the vast majority of the public.

JUICE: Where can people find out more about you?

Tony: I put all my gig details up on my website and I tend to Tweet quite a lot, so feel free to follow me on there @tonyjameson.

You can see Tony live on Friday 6th July when JUICE Comedy takes over The MET Studio in The Gatehouse Theatre. Get your tickets from the Box Office.

Awards & Videos

Let’s all join together in a rendition of ‘We Are The Champions’! C’mon, everyone! If you’re late to the party or missed last week’s J-Blog, this week JUICE Comedy won at The Pride Of Stafford Awards! Thanks to the online campaign started by the lovely Pete Wearn we had loads and loads of votes from all our wonderful JUICE Fans, and ended up being one of three local business nominated for the ‘Best Professional Service’ category at this awards. You might be thinking that’s a bit of an odd category for a comedy club, but The Pride Of Stafford Awards don’t have any categories for entertainment or arts. So, seeing a loop-hole in their system, Pete Wearn struck! He rallied loads of JUICE Fans together and herded them towards the online forms, and then we followed his lead and did the same.

The Awards took place in the very posh County Buildings in the town centre. Businesses that were nominated included The Swan, The Post House, Marks & Spencer, Starbucks, Sainsbury’s and host of other big names. Also in attendence were important folk like the Leader Of The Borough Council, the head of The Chamber Of Commerce and so forth. We did not really expect to win, as we felt like a novelty vote in a business-orientated event.

Team JUICE on the night consisted of Founders Neil Reading & Rob Halden as well as the Official Cameragirl Kate Gallow who filmed some ludicrous behaviour (which will be up on JUICE Tube next week). Team JUICE started titting about for the camera before the event started, determined to get something useful out of being at the awards we were convinced we’d lose. To our great surprise we won, and were presented with an immense glass trophy (which, due to a printing error, says that JUICE is the ‘Best Independent Shop’).

It was quite amazing how quickly Neil & Rob went from being normal people at a meeting to being ego-maniacal monsters, bloated on their own success. Upon passing one of the runners-up with their award, Rob Halden yelled “In your face!” From this point on Neil & Rob descended into increasingly embarrassing levels of celebration, at one point declaring that Specsavers should ‘lick their balls’.

After the Awards were given out, drinks and canapes were served, and everyone got to chat and mingle (and taunt the losers with their shiny, glass trophy). Most people there had never heard of JUICE Comedy, and kept asking where we were. This allowed Neil & Rob to use their completely ridiculous statement “We’re a satallite business” which means they don’t have an office or a venue. This statement is full of so much self-aggrandising, businessy-bullshit that people never question it.

From there, much booze was consumed and Team JUICE popped down to the excellent Curry Kuteer for a slap-up ruby and some very rude jokes. A thunderously excellent evening.

Previous to the Awards, JUICE spent a lot of this week editing various new videos for JUICE Tube. If you’re not aware of it, JUICE Tube is our very own YouTube Channel where we create and post all sorts of original comedy videos each and every week. This week’s offerings included videos from Rob Halden, Tom Allsopp and Paul Savage. If you haven’t Subscribed to JUICE Tube yet then you really should!

Some more exciting news, JUICE is hoping to move into comic strips! It’s early days for the project right now, but we met with a local cartoon artist to get the ball rolling and come up with a draft. Hopfully we’d be able to create a series of newspaper-style comic strips to feature in our ever-growing list of original online content. We’ll let you know more on this as things develop. Let us know what you think about a possible JUICE Comic by posting in the Comments section below.

That’s all for this week, don’t forget that tomorrow is our weekly Caption Contest, where you can compete against friends and comedians to come up with the funniest photo-caption. Before we go, another big thanks to every one of you who voted for us in The Pride Of Stafford Awards!

JUICE Chat with Tom Allsopp

Every week JUICE Chat interviews some of the best talents from the comedy world. This week we sat down with Tom Allsopp.

Tom began his comedy career at the New Act / New Material show that JUICE runs in Stafford. His first stand-up performance went against the grain of comedy-first-times and was startling good. Since then Tom has grown in both skill and experience, crafting a unique set that has entertained audiences all over the country.

JUICE: How would you describe your comedy?

Tom: I’m a storyteller by nature and that is how my act has always had its roots really. I also write funny poetry that is a bit rude, or rude poetry that’s a bit funny depending on who you ask.

JUICE: How did you start out in stand-up?

Tom: I was always told by friends and the like that I was funny and I’d always enjoyed comedy as a member of the audience. I got fairly drunk on a new year’s eve and dared myself to do a single open spot to see what it was like. That just happened to be with the wonderful wizards of JUICE and I have never looked back.

JUICE: What’s been your most memorable gig to date?

Tom: I suppose that you never forget the feeling of the first time you go out on stage, especially with an art form as personal and viceral as standup. Other than that, I think being heckled by a gentleman with a prosthetic arm at Stafford Rangers FC is going to stay with me for a very long time!

JUICE: Where’s your favourite venue to perform?

Tom: Joxer Brady’s will always be home because it is where I started, it has also got that cool, new material, everyone forging their act out of nothing feeling to it that I’ve not found elsewhere. I’m really looking forward to playing The MET Studio and seeing how it feels in that big, cabaret environment.

JUICE: Who’s your favourite circuit comedian at the moment?

Tom: Crikey, this one’s tough. My first thought is Johnny Sorrow because he is unique and a force of nature and a genuinely lovely man all at the same time. I also had the privilege of sharing the stage with Stephen Carlin and I was in total awe of him as a perfomer and as a writer.

JUICE: Who’s the best in the world, Louis CK or Daniel Kitson?

Tom: I think I’d have to say Daniel Kitson. I love Louis CK but there is something mesmeric about Kitson that draws you in and steals your heart.

JUICE: Do you have any influences or comedy heroes?

Tom: My heroes are Spike Milligan because he took silly and elevated it to a near religion. I also love Stewart Lee (‘If you prefer a milder comedian…’ is a must watch if you ask me) because he is fearless and thoughtful and makes you think as much as he makes you laugh. My influences start with my family really. I grew up in a family of storytellers, especially my dad and my grandad, and my mom is a great mimic. When she tells a story about her day, she acts out all of the people in it! After them, I would say people like Dave Allen and Murray Lachlan Young would be direct influences on me and what I do.

JUICE: What’s the worst part of the comedy world at the moment?

Tom: I think the worst part of the industry is lazy thinking. There are too many performers who are aiming for controversy. I think the masters aim for something thoughtful and then find out it’s a controversy.

JUICE: What’s the best part of the comedy world at the moment?

Tom: I think the best thing about the circuit is that there is such diversity. People should go and see live comedy and see that it’s not like TV. It’s not just the people who bullied you at school bellowing down a camera at you in ripped jeans.

JUICE: What are your goals in the world of comedy? What would you like to achieve?

Tom: I saw Seinfeld say that all he wanted was to be “one of those guys”, to be able to say ‘I am a comedian’ and mean it is a really important thing. I’d like to make lots of people laugh, some people think, and keep my tortoise in fresh vegetables while I’m at it.

JUICE: Where can people find out more about you?

Tom: You can follow me on twitter @tommytalltales

 

You can see Tom Allsopp performing live on Friday 6th July at The MET Studio in The Gatehouse Theatre. Visit the Box Office for tickets.

Awards & Content

Exciting news came to us this week, as the Stafford Town Partnership announced that JUICE Comedy has been shortlisted in the Pride Of Stafford Awards. This is fantastic news for us, to be ranked alongside some well-established Stafford businesses at these prestigious award is a huge deal. Whether or not we win is another matter entirely, but a big thanks to all our loyal JUICE Fans for voting for us in these awards, and a SUPER-HUGE thanks to Pete Wearn who started up the campaign to get us nominated. Team JUICE will be strapping on our black-ties to attend the swanky Awards Ceremony next Thursday . . . and KICKING IT IN THE DICK!!! We’ll also be taking along our local filmmaker and photographer Kate Gallow to shoot some exclusive behind-the-scenes footage for JUICE Tube, so look out for that.

We had a huge response to the first edition of JUICE Chat this week. We interviewed and profiled the very talented Jayne Edwards about her comedy career. JUICE Chat immediately became the most viewed article on our WordPress site in just a matter of hours, and drove loads of “traffic” our way. Each and every week we’ll publish a JUICE Chat with a different comedian, hopefully ones that are close to the affections of our JUICE Fans.

JUICE Chat is part of our new weekly schedule of content across our social media sites . . . and writing that sentence just made us throw up a little bit in our mouths. Buzz-words and sales-pitch aside, the idea behind this is that every day of the week we aim to provide our audience with a different activity. Something funny and cool to entertain you during the week. We started this a few weeks ago with JUICE News and then followed that up with JUICE Tips. Between videos, blogs, interviews, top tips and competitions, we want to give you guys a reason to tune in to JUICE Comedy every day and check out what we’re doing.

The Caption Contest which we launched on Friday was really popular. Loads of people enter the competition and came up with a variety of silly captions for the picture of Paul Savage on stage. The winner will be receiving a free ticket to Cocktails & Comedy Part III in August.

We’ve commissioned local artist CODENAME_U81K, who handles all of our art & design, to create a whole host of brand new images and logos for all the different daily features. He is insanely talented and you should all go here and buy some of his exclusive t-shirt designs.

So make sure you check in with JUICE Comedy every day for different and unique feature, and come back for the J-Blog next Saturday to hear all about the Pride Of Stafford Awards Ceremony.

JUICE Chat with Jayne Edwards

Welcome to the premier edition of JUICE Chat. Each Wednesday we’ll highlight and profile a different top comedian and hopefully grab an interview with them.

The first time JUICE Comedy came across Jayne Edwards was a number of years ago at Paul Savage’s Speakeasy Club in Wolverhampton. On stage, Jayne immediately establishes herself as an interesting and unique performer, and to this day she possesses at least two of our favourite jokes ever. In June we were lucky enough to make Jayne a part of Cocktails & Comedy Part II, and based on the feedback we’ve received from the audience, she was the clear favourite of the night. As well as her live stand-up prowess, Jayne is consistently one of the funniest comedians on Twitter, and writes an Agony Aunt blog called Team Good-Friend, where she solves the intricate problems of her followers.

We sat down with Jayne earlier in the week for some JUICE Chat!

Q. How would you describe your comedy?

Jayne: I like to think of it as playful, but I mainly like to look like I don’t know what I’m doing then BLAM, you can see I am in complete control. I am a naturally awkward person, so I have a deep, knowledgeable understanding of looking like dick. (Although in real life, rather than get laughs, I just go home and be sad)

Q. How did you start out in stand-up?

Jayne: I did acting as a child but wasn’t keen on the ritual humiliation, and being painfully shy I wouldn’t get anywhere. I was always obsessed with comedy (I knew Blackadder by heart by age 11) so my dad said that a lot of people get to work in comedy through stand up. I started to learn more about it and by the time I was at uni I was desperate to give it a shot. Q. What’s been your most memorable gig to date?

I think the first time I properly died. It was at a gig in Stockport when I was 20, and I hadn’t been told/more likely hadn’t read, that it was a gong show. I had about 4 minutes of material and it was my 3rd gig. The guy came over and was like “you can stop after 7 minutes” so you can imagine how panicked I was knowing my stuff was only going to last 4 of that. I muffled a couple of words out, and go booed off rather than gonged. Basically got booed out of the pub. So at least now I have a soundtrack to my nightmares.

Q. Where’s your favourite venue to perform?

Jayne: I don’t know if I have a favourite venue (there are so many great ones, including JUICE of course.), but I think anywhere with a nice open audience, and a promoter who is a good person and really into comedy. It’s frustrating to get to a gig where a promoter is more focused on money, or comes over and says “don’t say this, don’t do that.” Just venues that make you feel welcome and respect you as a comic no matter what the outcome of a gig is.

Q. Who’s your favourite circuit comedian at the moment?

Jayne: I actually have quite a few. Phil Ellis, Seymore Mace, Michael J Dolan, Peter Brush, Peter Marshall, Liam Pickford, Chris Stokes. They’re all very funny, with original voices, which is THE combination.

Q. Who’s the best in the world, Louis CK or Daniel Kitson?

Jayne: Oof.. I have just really got into Louise CK (late I know), but there will always be a special place in my heart for Kitson. I will be seeing Kitson live in a couple of weeks so will regret not just writing “KITSON IS DA BEST 4 EVA!” in this space.

Q. Do you have any comedy influences? Or, if not influences, any comedy heroes?

Jayne: Growing up I was crazy about the League of Gentlemen (especially coming from a weird place like Rhyl, you can really relate to their characters) So I like that kind of dark, surreal-ness inside reality in comedy, without sounding like too much of a dick. But I think my most recent big comedy influence is Kristen Schaal. People always say that Woody Allen made it ok for neroutic guys to do comedy, well, Kristen Schaal is that to me. She makes it ok for “weird girls” to do comedy, and uses her presence, rather than dominance, to draw people. Comedy is personal, so she reminds me that coming at it from my own personal view point is a good thing. Mindy Kaling has shown me that it’s ok to be girly and funny, which was something I struggled with at first. Also, anything Andy Kaufman related gets me super excited!!!1!!1!

Q. Thanks for being part of the first ever JUICE Chat, where can people find out more about you?

Jayne: I am on Twitter and I also write an agony aunt column Team Good-Friend, which I try and update every week (ish).

Curses & Experiments

It’s been a busy week for us here at JUICE Comedy. Last week we joked about their being a “curse” on our live event Cocktails & Comedy, because for two shows in a row we’ve had a scheduled comedian drop-out at the last minute. Well, somewhere in the cosmos somebody decided to take that little “curse” joke seriously.

Earlier in the week we had to find a replacement for a comedian who was originally booked to perform. Saturday morning, hours before Cocktails & Comedy Part II at Number 15, the P.A. System we were scheduled to use became unavailable due to being double-booked. This meant we were suddenly left with no microphone, no speakers, no nothing. Some of our readers might be thinking that Number 15 is hardly the O2, surely the audience would be able to hear the comedians anyway? Well, perhaps. There’s a big difference between being able to hear a performer and having professional sound that covers the entire venue. Besides which, there’s a pyschological need for a microphone at comedy shows. A microphone and stand subconsciously informs the audience that the person standing up is a professional and is someone they should listen to. It creates a much-needed distinction between performer and audience. We would argue that even if the audience consisted of two-men-and-a-dog (which we’ve run in the past!) a mic stand and equipment is vital to any comedy show.

Some hastily placed phone-calls and the intervention of the excellent Eric Furze from Guitar & Son meant that we managed to arrange a replacement P.A. System in time. In fact we ended up going from zero speaker systems to having one-too-many, as the wonderful management of Number 15 also came up with a replacement sound system.

Number 15 had set-up a lovely Green Room upstairs at the venue, for the comedians to relax in before show-time. It was simple enough, but had some nice seats and was furnished with bottles of water, beer and some snacks. It’s very important for comics to have a space of their own away from the audience. Not all comedians use it, some like to be sat amongst the crowd to “read” the audience. But it’s important to be able to give them the option. On the way up the stairs, the manager of Number 15 advised us to be careful of a dodgy step that was in need of repair. Later in the evening as Rob Halden was showing comedian Chris Purchase up to the Green Room, he reiterated the manager’s warning and indicated the dodgy step with his foot . . . only to go plunging straight through the stairs. The wooden step completely collapsed just as Rob was uttering the words “be careful of this-!” Sadly it was felt that this made the stairs slightly too dangerous for the comedians to use, and so the lovely kitted-out Green Room was rendered null & void! A real shame, but much better than a parade of injured comedians limping up to the microphone.

Curses aside, Part II turned out to be another lovely gig at Number 15 with an appreciatve audience and some fantastic performances from the comedians. Lucky audience member Samantha Green won the Tweet Competition and took home the JUICE Goodie-Bag full of DVD’s, books and even a special JUICE T-shirt that’s not available to the public! Based on feedback from the audience, the favourite turn of the night seemed to be Jayne Edwards, and we’ll certain try to book her again in the future for more JUICE shows!

We’d like to take a moment to thank Mohawk Pete (nobody calls him that) who’s help was invaluable to getting this live event up and running. If you missed the chance to get a ticket for Part II then fret not, tickets for Cocktails & Comedy Part III on Saturday 4th of August are on sale now!

Monday night was a Bank Holiday special for our New Act / New Material Night at Joxer Brady’s. Popular act Harriet Dyer was in attendence to give us a special preview of the show she’s taking to the Edinburgh Festival in a few weeks time. Also on the bill was top professional comic Chris Brooker who came all the way from Manchester to try out some new material on the lovely people of Stafford. The venue was jam-packed with punters, and there wasn’t a free seat, or standing-space, in the house!

Amongst the talented performers we had comedians trying out some particularly brave and experimental styles of comedy. Professor Josephine Ettrick-Hogg, Wudwud and James Hately spring to mind as some of the most interesting stand-up we’ve had at JUICE over the years. This show represented everything that is good and great about real, grass-roots stand-up comedy. It bares very little resemblence to what people see at home on the telly. It is tangible and sometimes weird and sometimes brilliant, and there’s no denying that it is a performance art.

Founders Neil Reading and Rob Halden shared MC’ing duties on Monday, and their mix of styles and jokes made for a nicely balanced and enjoyable evening. The packed audience members stayed from 9 pm until well after midnight to revel in the laughter, and a great time was had by all.

Before we sign off, JUICE Fans should check out Stafford FM’s Comedy Club this Saturday morning at 10 a.m. as it will be hosted by both Founders of JUICE Comedy, Neil Reading and Rob Halden. It’s available online via Stafford FM’s website but it’s also the last week you can tune in on 87.7 FM on your old wireless. There’s also a webcam operating throughout the show which you can view via the website.

Curses & Announcements

The Curse of Cocktails & Comedy strikes again!!! Back in March we had a stellar line-up for the first outing of Cocktails & Comedy, headlined by the sublime Katie Mulgrew. Unfortunately, Katie fell sick and had to drop out on the morning of the show. It was impossible to find a replacement at the last minute, but we still had a fantastic time. Earlier this week JUICE Comedy received a phonecall from Ian Crawford informing us that he would be unable to perform Saturday night for Cocktails & Comedy Part II.

Curse is a strong word, as a brilliant replacement for Ian has been found in Chris Purchase. Chris is a top notch comic who has performed for JUICE numerous times at both Joxer Brady’s and our brief partnership with The Bird In Hand. Chris will be a great addition to the show, but it is a real shame that Ian Crawford has had to pull out. Ian’s act is unique, brave and interesting, something that we would really like to share with Stafford. Hopefully we can sign him up for the next one. Later on in this very blog we’ll announce the date of Part III.

Final preparations are being made for Cocktails & Comedy. A big thank-you goes out to Phil Vaughn of Too Fat Goblinz who is once again supplying us with a number of extra chairs for the event. This comedy show has proved so popular that the venue, Number 15, simply doesn’t have enough chairs itself to seat everybody. Another big thank-you has to go to CODENAME_U81K, the talented local artist who handles all of JUICE Comedy’s art & design.

This week JUICE experimented with two days of brand new social media content. Via Facebook and Twitter we unleashed JUICE News on Monday and then JUICE Tips on Tuesday. Social media is so very, very important to a small business like ourselves, and we’re constantly trying to create fun and interesting content to entertain all our lovely Followers. We want to give you all a reason to check in with our pages on Facebook and Twitter, and to entertain you throughout the day. Both JUICE News & JUICE Tips proved very popular in their first outings, and with a little tweaking they’ll form part of our weekly interactive content (along with this blog and our videos on JUICE Tube). Please send us any feedback you have from any of the things we create and post online, we really want to hear from you.

 Now the moment you’ve all been waiting for . . . Cocktails & Comedy Part II sold-out really quickly. Ever since then both JUICE and Number 15 have been inundated with requests for tickets that we simply don’t have. In fact, the Management of Number 15 have informed us that they could have sold-out the entire venue all over again! It is brilliant to have that level of enthusiasm from Staffordians! We can now exclusively reveal that the date of Cocktails & Comedy Part III will be Saturday 4th of August! Tickets will go on sale tomorrow night and will be available from both Number 15 and from local man-about-town Rob Halden.