We need a venue.

Two entries today! I realised I had promised to talk about the Monday meeting to discuss the future venue for weekly comedy in Newcastle. Al wrote about this too, have a look at his take on it.

Present were John Scott, Sarah Millican, Stef, Christian Steele, Callum Cramb, Al Dawes and me. It was generally agreed that we need a weekly spot where the new comics can try stuff out and have a regular gig, and the pros will come along and help out the line up when they can. Basically, the same as the Egypt Cottage, but in a place people actually go to.

There were lots of venue suggestions, but problems with most. At the moment the most likely options are;

Agora - see below, we're going to hijack the open mic on Monday, which is currently musical, and if there's an audience for it the management say they'd start a comedy one on another night.

A place Al found when he and Sarah went in the next day to chase up some leads-

"I noticed a sign on the pub that used to be FM's, I forget what it is called now.  It said function room for hire.  I went in and talked to the manager, and he was desperate to get us in.  DESPERATE."

And possibly upstairs at the Dog and Parrot (opposite centre for life). I forgot to mention this one at the meeting but it's where New Word Order Hold their poetry nights/slams - so they're used to that type of thing - it has a stage, PA and a bar upstairs - and it's absolutely nothing like the goth/rock shit hole that is the dog and parrot proper - it's really a different place, it even has it's own door.

So that's where. How about what?
We think there will be a weekly caretaking core of me, Callum and Al, and other, busier comics will come along when they can. I reakon the 3 of us need to generate at least an hour a week, then count on 20 minutes from a headline and a half hour of open mic and general warm up. The trouble is if we do an hour by doing each doing our best 20 minutes we're going to run out of steam pretty fast.

So what to do...

There's got to be new material every week. In fact, that's my main reason for having a weekly gig, to try new stuff. I thought an optional theme might start us off, instead of looking at a blank page we know this week I need a bit on Sci-fi, animals, politics, science etc.

We could have some set bits that recur every week - like vic reeves' novelty island or judge nutmeg - once we've got the concept its a lot quicker to do another one than write another 10 minutes of stand up. How about Al Dawe's magical mystery tours -Al has the audience close their eyes and describes how he is transporting them to a magical destination, when they open their eyes - a few crap props (possibly a different hat) give the impression of being in Spain, Russia or ancient Greece. I don't know. Maybe a film club -we do very fast spoof versions of the latest films-imagine Al growling on a stool while we chuck paper planes at him.

Another idea was getting the audience involved, and I think a suggestion box / question of the week is a great idea. The audience write and we read them out. Some should be funny anyway -intentionally or not -and we can just take the piss out of others. This could be a great bit for the compere (probably Callum) between spots.

I even suggested improv. -though this has bad connotations for a lot of people. Some of the games on 'I'm sorry i haven't a clue' might work. -I was going to give an example but i've been sitting thinking for 10 minutes and I've got nothing so they might not work. I'd love to try something like 'The Masterson Inheiritance' -this was a radio show with the comedy store players making up a 30 minute mellodrama from scratch - not that we could just 'have a go' , but if anyone else would like to try that kind of thing let me know.

What ever we do, it's got to be different - the nature of this night is a lot of new material - sometimes there will be more shit than gold, so we need something that people talk about afterwards, even when it goes wrong.

"people were doing regular stand up and we were bringing pot plants into the gig and trying to make a whole mini play in 10 minutes, people thought we were nuts."
Noel Fielding, The Mighty Boosh.


MY NEXT GIG:
-SAT CUMBERLAND ARMS -HOME COOKING.
THE GONG SHOW - DICKENS INN MIDDLESBOROUGH SUN 5TH FEB.

Mon 6th Feb - Open Mic Night, Agora, Newcastle upon Tyne
(and then every monday I can persuade them to put me on)
-I COPIED THIS FROM AL'S BLOG -BUT ACCORDING TO CALLUM ITS FORTNIGHTLY -THAT'S WHY IT WASN'T ON WHEN WE WERE THERE.

THE SUNDERLAND ROYALTY IS STILL GOING STRONG, EVERY WED.