Monday 8 November 2010

Comedy on the Common

Me and the old man went along to the Comedy on the Common show for the first time on Saturday. As we walked up to the Pavilion on a rather misty and cold evening, I watched fireworks being let off on and around the Common (obviously some people did not remember, remember the 5th Nov and so had to do it the following day (and again on Sunday sheeesh enough already)).
With some trepidation, we walked up to the club and went in past a bunch of "youfs".
The Pavilion is a Rugby club hut and it looks like one. Nothing fancy, no niceties and very few beers on tap or in bottle but the room is a nice size, and I can see that an intimate atmosphere could easily be attained.
For some reason, despite the copious amount of moaning I hear about the lack of things to do around here, the place was quite empty. The show was delayed as the organisers waited for more people to turn up. As we had already paid, we stayed.
In the end the show began around 8.30pm and the MC came on stage. I did not get his name which was a shame as he was very good and came all the way from Bristol for the gig. He didn't know much about London but it didn't seem to matter as he was able to connect with some of the audience and kept coming back to them at each handover...including the youfs who turned out to be a nice enough bunch. It turns out being a pipe cutter is a prime source of ad-lib comic material but being a stay-at-home mum isn't ... the MC wasn't able to create any humour about the SAHM who was brave enough to speak up.
In all it was a good night. The people in the club were friendly and good natured.  I didn't really enjoy the act one Steve Allen as he was mostly going about being single (something I haven't been for some time HURRAH!) but his gimmick was his radio voice which was funny. The second act was Tony Dunn who was a cardigan wearing Scotsman joking about genital mutilation of Postman pat dolls and his dad's thriftiness. The third act, Tony Law, took some time to arrive (it was a long wait and many trips to the loo) but the wait was worth it as he was brilliant and had me laughing so hard I couldn't breathe - I would have loved to have seen the faces of people passing hearing the strange noises he made.
So yes, it's not a glamorous venue but when the quality of the entertainment is good, you forget and just enjoy the evening. I hope to go to more in the future and hope more Plumsteadians will join in the fun too.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Shame it wasn't busy. I have been to a few before but couldn't make this one as we were en famille at the fireworks instead. Perhaps would have been busier if not that night. I hope to make the next one tho.

Anonymous said...

Same here: also been before and been a really good night. Shame it wasn't better promoted- I used to be on their email list, and had nothing about it! Living opposite the 'hut' would have thought we'd have heard more about its return... why no poster in the coop/on the common board? Agree, bad choice of first night for its return but, if we've not heard about it living on the Common then its hardly surprising it was quiet. Next time... hopefully there will be a next time!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for your comments. On talking to the comedians apparently it was a very quiet weekend all round as there were major firework displays on friday and saturday which didn't help. We wiLl be doing comedy again December 11th.
Both myself and my partner distributed over 500 leaflets ruond the houses on the common and as many side roads as possible .Emails do seem to have become a problem as our mailing list has got vey large and a lot of security systems seem to block emails which have been sent in large quantities.Quite a few people have complained that they have not recieved them . If someone can make any suggestions as to how to stop this happening that would be great.We find the best medium is text because they get through without a problem.
I didn't know the coop had a notice board but good idea, thank you. To contact us please look up
www.comedyonthecommon.com for future events and you can send us your comments. Thanks Nick

Plummy Mummy said...

Nick,
How about a huge banner on the club itself as I'm sure a lot of people pass there regularly.
Also, though I'm not sure how many people read it, it might be worth listing it on the Greenwich events site.