LLC CANCELLED. and further punishment.

Bad news everyone. The Long live comedy night on the 27th June, tomorrow, has been cancelled. Not our fault, but the venue management has pulled it for some reason. Hopefully this is a mere blip and we will see you again on the 11th of July.

I had loads of ideas for this one too, honest. After writing about the puns, thought we should introduce a whip, or possibly a lion tamer's chair, to supress anti-pun protests. Whenever a pun-ish puchline is met with a groan, the comic could reach for the chair, 'Back, back you mutinous dogs!' I think this would work, because it seems the groan is often a sign of grudging respect / enjoyment, and it only takes a little pressure to make the audience admit that, yes, pun or no, that was actually quite good. This response to the groan is one of the few times when turning on the audience can have (almost) guaranteed good results. I've see comics fight back againt the groan with anything from 'Well, I don't care, I'm keeping it in the set' to 'Ah, fuck off, that's a mint joke.' The truth is, a groan is (sort of) positive, if they really hated the joke they wouldn't even bother groaning. Hence one can cajoal and bluff the audience and change a groan into a growing laugh or even a round of applause. It just takes a little chutzpah.

The best example of this I saw was at the LLC when James Christopher got a groan, and replied with a sarcastic 'Oh, so you don't like puns in the 'dog and parrot' then.' which totally won the crowd over. What's most interesting is that it doesn't even make sense. He said it as if pointing out the Irony / hypocracy of regulars of a venue with a pun in the title disliking puns. But, as we all reallised 10 seconds later when we stopped laughing, the 'dog and parrot' isn't a pun. Yeah, it potentially has two meanings, the name of a pub and two animals, but it's not a pun. If James had been playing a hair salon and had said, 'Oh, so you don't like puns in 'curl up and dye' then.' - he'd have had a point.

Sometimes it's the way you tell 'em.

NEXT GIG;

TUESDAY 11TH OF JULY. SHOW STARTS 9.00 -
'LONG LIVE COMEDY'
THE DOG AND PARROT (UPSTAIRS)
-OPPOSITE THE CENTRE FOR LIFE, 2 MINS FROM CENTRAL STATION.
ONLY £2