The Leicester Square Theatre’s inaugural Old Comedian Of the Year is the latest example of niche comedy competitions. Though “Old” was not as niche as it first appeared. Despite compere Arthur Smith’s inevitable gag about the prize including a gold zimmer frame, comedians only had to be 35 years old and with five years performing experience to enter. The standard was understandably high then, though with some acts clearly better known than others. I’m just glad I wasn’t one of the judges who had to pick a winner.
Tim Shishodia has been crowned the winner of the first Old Comedian of the Year Final at the Leicester Square Theatre tonight. The oddball comedian was the winner out of the 12 finalists who were all over 35. He wins a £1000. George Ryegold came second and wins £500. Sam Savage as Linda Larkin came third and wins £250. Compere Arthur Smith joked that the winner also received a golden zimmer frame.
The 12 finalists were:
Lenny Henry is due to receive a knighthood in the Queen's Birthday Honours List to be announced next week. According to newspaper reports Henry will receive the award for his for services to charity and comedy. This year the total raised by Red Nose Day hit £1bn.
According to the story, Henry turned down an OBE under the last Conservative government in 1994, but accepted a CBE in 1999 when Labour was in power.
John Cleese has become embroiled in a Twitter tit-for-tat with Piers Morgan. The veteran comedian and the journalist/talk show host recently dined in the same New York restaurant on separate tables and afterwards Morgan wrote a column about the incident in the Mail on Sunday.
A new organisation has been launched today, aiming to protect stand-up comedians' rights. The UK Comedy Guild claims to be the first organisation in the history of the industry specifically dedicated to protecting the rights of people working in UK Comedy.
Jason Byrne is doing a gig for the Invisible Dot at the Union Chapel in London on Saturday night alongside Adam Buxton. It is not too clear who is headlining, but I hope for Adam’s sake it is Jason. Buxton is brilliant, but the copper-haired Irish livewire is pretty much impossible to follow.
Who says comedy is a young person’s game? On Sunday night the Leicester Square Theatre is staging the first Old Comedian of the Year Final. Though ‘old’ there means over 35, which is nothing compared to two shows currently running almost next door to each other in the Strand in London.
Daniel Kitson is to play a one-off gig with musician Gavin Osborn at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre on July 5.
This will not be his latest show Polyphony, which he will be performing in Edinburgh in August, but will be a version of “Stories for the Starlit Sky”, the trilogy they performed in three separate shows at the same venue in 2009 and then at Latitude. Though Kitson is not quite sure yet of the nitty gritty as this is a last-minute arrangement filling a hole in the theatre's schedule.
Dave’s Leicester Comedy Festival has confirmed that 2015's festival in February was the most successful since the festival was launched back in 1994. Over 100,000 people attended over 612 events across the 19-day festival. Over 50% of the audience visited the festival from outside Leicestershire, reinforcing its status as the biggest comedy festival in England.
On Wednesday I emailed Peter Buckley Hill with some questions about the booking of the Cowgatehead venue at the Edinburgh Fringe this summer. On Thursday I received a reply and I asked if I could publish his answers. He has agreed to this as long as the response was unedited. Here below is our exchange in full. My words are in italics, everything else is from PBH.
Pages
Zircon - This is a contributing Drupal Theme
Design by
WeebPal.
