JUICE Comedy
Stafford's premier comedy club
Monthly Archives: May 2013
Sunday Share
This week’s Sunday Share features the greatest French comedian in the UK, Mr. Marcel Lucont!
JUICE Chat with Fern Brady
“they weren’t allowed to eat the curry until I was finished doing jokes about feminism and the media and politics”
What attracted you to performing stand-up?
“I gained stage time performing as a lapdancer from 2006-08. Once a Geordie stag in a lime green mankini has heckled you repeatedly with “THE LEFT ONE’S BIGGER THAN THAN THE RIGHT ONE” the notion of performing comedy while wearing all of your clothes is relatively benign. I also felt ordering drunk men to their knees and beating them with a whip while shouting “Neigh like a horse! Neigh, horsey, neigh!” really built my confidence and ability to interact with an audience.
I then honed my writing through doing a eulogy at my granda’s funeral in 2008. It went so well some people actually forgot their grief and laughed through the tears. At the wake people were asking for copies of it. That’s when I knew I had something.”
How would you describe your comedy?
“Heart-warming stories gently mocking the working-class caricatures from my childhood in Glasgow’s tenements. “Brady brings the salt-of-the-earth characters of her childhood to life in her Scots lilt – Bessie the eccentric spinster from next door, Earnest Jim the chimney sweep and her rosy-cheeked alcoholic father Paddy are all mined for chuckles by this enchanting female comedienne. You always believed in racist stereotypes about the Scots – who knew they could be this funny?!?!”
Your comedy has been described as “nihilistic”. Do you feel nihilistic? Or have reviewers just confused existential nihilism with “being Scottish”?
“They often do – and why wouldn’t they? As anyone who’s not a total mongo knows: we are nothing if not defined by our nationality, something Benedict Anderson elaborates on in ‘Imagined Communities’ (1983). The Scots are dour, depressive and resentful – just as people from the African nations love to dance, eat watermelon and rape our white women.
I sometimes fantasise about being English. I think about how smooth my accent would be and how I could walk through this country unstigmatised. How when I order chips in a comedy club, staff would nod obediently, not laugh and say “That sounds like ‘chaps’! ‘Chaps’! Say it again!” before telling me they have an aunt from Stirling as if we’re then going to have some sort of affinity with one another.
I’m glad you asked anyway as sometimes people don’t and I start to worry I’m no longer Scottish. I feel my identity slipping away. I think: “does he know I’m Scottish cause he hasn’t mentioned it yet”. But you mentioned it and the balance of the world is restored.”
Where’s your favourite place to perform?
“In a comedy club. I once had to gig in front of a curry buffet and they weren’t allowed to eat the curry until I was finished doing jokes about feminism and the media and politics. They just wanted their curry. Still traumatised.”
You started gigging in 2010 and in just three years you won place as Finalist in prestigious nationwide competitions, Hackney Empire New Act Of The Year and So You Think You’re Funny. Surely it’s all downhill from here?
“The other night someone asked me to come to their Komedy Inkubator to work on my jokes. “They don’t even realise my status in the comedy world” I thought to myself. I went into the toilets and cried.”
Who are your favourite comedians on the circuit right now?
“I hate comedians. My boyfriend’s very funny. When we break up, as all relationships inevitably do, I’ll look back on this interview and regret I ever mentioned him.”
Who are your favourite comedians to travel with?
“A Manchester act called Danny Sutcliffe. Imagine you put a Lakeland terrier in a man-costume then got it drunk. That.”
Where can people learn more about you?
“Come to my Edinburgh Fringe show The Lunchtime Show at Just the Tonic’s Tron, 1-25 August 12.30 – 14.00. You could follow me on Twitter but you won’t hear my Scottish accent then.”
You can see Fern performing in Stafford on Friday 31st May when JUICE takes over The MET Studio!
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Sunday Share
This week’s Sunday Share features the magnificent Tony Law! When saying Tony’s name, it is scientifically impossible to not say it in his voice!
Thursday 16th May 2013
Some big events and changes are brewing for JUICE Comedy, dear reader, so sit back as we give you the inside scoop.
First and perhaps foremost, after nearly nine years it looks like our time is up at the pub Joxer Brady’s. Joxers is where it all began for JUICE, many moons ago, and even though we’ve expanded to other venues over the years, the little Irish pub has always remained our spiritual home. It’s also continually played host to our monthly New Act / New Material night. Sadly, the pub is shortly due for a complete change in management, which will bring to a close an important chapter in Stafford’s comedy scene. It’s only through the support of previous managers James Woodhams and Eve Colclough that we got our humble start in the comedy world, and it’s only thanks to outgoing Landlords Sam Swift & Chyrell Standish that the New Act / New Material shows flourished.
It won’t be the end of our monthly grass-roots comedy show, we’ll relocate elsewhere within the town centre and carry on. Meanwhile, June 3rd & July 1st will be our very last shows at Joxer Brady’s (and between you, us and the lamppost, we’ve got at least one very special guest lined up!) so it’d be lovely to see as many of your faces at those shows as possible.
Tuesday night saw the first JUICE Comedy showcase of Edinburgh Preview Shows, which took place at Number 15. We’ve planned a season of 6 Edinburgh Previews across three months, as the whole country gears up for the biggest arts festival in the world! Stafford hasn’t had Edinburgh Previews is nigh-on ten years, so these events were always going to be a little bit tricky as JUICE tries to educate our audience a little bit. These showcases are very different from a regular comedy night. Instead of having a different comedian every ten/fifteen minutes, with plenty of intervals breaking up the show, these nights consist of two comics delivering roughly one-hour shows back-to-back. That can be a big change for an audience to get used to, but a rewarding and enjoyable experience once done.
We also want to profusely thank all our wonderful Twitter Followers who have this event so much love and support, Retweeting and Favouriting posts about it, spreading the word whether they could make it to the show or not. Considering how much (deserved) apathy there is on Facebook when people are invited to yet-another event, it was heart-warming to see so much involvement and action on Twitter!
Our first showcase featured top talent Tony Jameson who was prepping his show ‘Football Manager Ruined My Life’. Tony’s tale features his obsession with the sporting video game and how blinkered and involved he became in it. There was a good mix of football / video game fans in the audience, along with those of us who had limited experience of both. Yet Tony’s jokes and stories managed to not fly over people’s heads. JUICE received some lovely feedback from punters who enjoyed seeing a comedian visibly working on his show before their very eyes, letting the audience behind the curtain as he talked about re-ordering the jokes, and confessing when certain things didn’t work.
The other performer on the bill was Michael J Dolan, a comedian who won plaudits and critical acclaim at last year’s Edinburgh Festival with his previous show. This year’s outing for Dolan is titled ‘Nothing Will Ever Be Alright Again’, which certainly sets the mood for his misanthropic rage and self-hate. Dolan’s persona and delivery are marvelous, and it was joyous to see such bleak subject matter generating deep belly laughs and uncontrollable giggles in the audience.
As ever, we had a beautiful Stafford audience who came out on a rainy Tuesday night to get themselves a bit of arts & culture, and have themselves a big laugh as well. We hope the success of this first showcase will lead to bigger, brighter things on Tuesday June 11th when we’ve got previews from Phil Ellis and Katie Mulgrew (tickets available now)!
Speaking of “tickets available now” don’t forget to book your seats for Friday 31st May when JUICE returns to The Gatehouse Theatre! These show are always our favourite of the year and so much fun is had both on and off stage. The MET Studio at the Gatehouse is a brilliant space for stand-up comedy and the comedians we’ve had on have done nothing but rave about what a nice gig it is and what a lovely audience we get. This show will feature not just the excellent Danny Deegan and Fern Brady (amongst others), but we’ll also have Mr. Paul Savage back on-board as our Resident MC & Compere!
JUICE Chat with Tony Jameson
Tony Jameson is one of the most sought-after comics & MC’s on the circuit. His engaging style and fabulous hair have made him a mainstay at the major comedy clubs. He looks forlorn & enigmatic in that picture above, but in reality he’s a very silly chap.
JUICE: How did you get your start in comedy?
“I guess I started comedy the same way a lot of people do, by going to an open mic as a punter for 6 weeks in a row and thinking ‘my god, this is terrible, I’m sure I could do better’. I spoke to the organiser, and a few weeks later I was booked in. I wrote my set about 2 hours before the gig, and that was that.”
JUICE: What attracted you to performing stand-up?
“I’ve always wanted to do stand up, even from an early age, but I never knew how to get into it. I also think it was better I started when I did (I was 28) as I probably thought I had some life experience and something to say. I think I’ve disproved that with my show title.”
JUICE: Your Edinburgh show is called ‘Football Manager Ruined My Life’. How bad did it get?
“The show is basically a retrospective look back over the past 20 years as I realised I’d played every version. Essentially I’ve grown up with this video game, so during good times and bad, the one constant in my life has been Football Manager. There have been some stupid moments which get covered in the show.”
JUICE: What can we expect from the show?
“Expect some silly stories, references to players you may / may not remember, and most of all, its also accessible to people who haven’t played the game. I was very conscious when I started writing the show that I didn’t want to alienate people who didn’t know about the game.”
JUICE: Who are you looking forward to seeing at the Festival this year? Who should we be looking out for?
“My comedy wife, Katie Mulgrew is taking her debut show up to The Fringe this year, so I’ll be very keen to see that. Also, Romesh Ranganathan and Sean McLoughlin are doing their first hours, both of whom are fantastic acts.”
JUICE: Stand-Up Comedy – art or science?
“Totally art.”
You can see Tony’s brand new show “How Football Manager Ruined My Life” in Stafford TONIGHT at Number 15! E-mail us for tickets!
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Sunday Share
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