The London Comedy Club is 'terrible'

We first published this in June but, despite all of the negative notes below, at the time of writing the club appears to still be operating...

London has some great comedy clubs, but The Comedy Club - aka 'The London Comedy Club' - currently operating at the Kingsway Hall Hotel in Covent Garden is fast becoming known as one to avoid.

Ticket prices are as high as £25, yet some nights don't even feature one notable comedian. It's been said the club is giving British comedy a bad name - particularly as, typically, a lot of its audience are tourists, and the show they see there becomes their only experience of the stand-up that the UK can offer.

So what exactly is wrong, aside from the high price? And what can we do to change things? To help give you some context here's a timeline of the most notable articles about the club from the last 12 months.

Time Out looks at 'false advertising'

Last year, Ben Williams from Time Out wrote a great article that looked at claims The Comedy Club made on its flyers. It turns out they're not as transparent as they seem: Time Out

This is backed up by comedy writer Bruce Dessau, who has explained that he doesn't endorse the club, despite the fact the flyer says he does. Blog

It's got as far as the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) stepping in, but last time our Editor was flyered by the club's team in Leicester Square, the design hadn't been changed. News Story

Patrick Melton's blog goes viral

At the start of the month, Patrick Melton, a Los Angeles-based stand-up who has been performing during a stay in London recently, blogged about his experience of performing at The London Comedy Club.

His tale of a night of total disaster, intercut with the research he's done on the club and its organiser, Inkey Jones, has quickly spread around Twitter and Facebook, with a number of notable circuit veterans also re-posting the blog with comments.

Read "Inkey Jones Is A Lying Piece Of Garbage"

London Is Funny reviews the show

London Is Funny, the foremost website focusing on the city's live comedy scene, headed down to The London Comedy Club this weekend to provide a learned review of the show. The respected and knowledgeable website's opinion: "It was bloody awful."

We can't convey here how woeful London Is Funny found The London Comedy Club to be, so make sure to Read the Review

There is far more negative feedback to be found from regular comedy-goers on Facebook, Tumblr and Twitter. Trip Advisor has a particularly damning set of reviews from members of the public who followed the club's flyers and bought a ticket.

Update, 16th June 2013. Someone has filmed the flyer team making rather bold claims... and then headed down to the gig to confront Inkey Jones on stage. Have a watch:

Having read the above, and maybe watched the video, some people have asked what they can do about the club. The simplest thing would be to share the above articles on your own social media profiles so more people become aware of some of the opinions that exist about the club.

It should be noted that, to run, The London Comedy Club relies on support from its host venue, whose own reputation is being damaged by the "shambles" (TripAdvisor), and that support seems to be wavering. In June the four-star Kingsway Hall Hotel venue tweeted: "We are unable to comment at the moment whilst we investigate further."

The hotel can be found on Twitter @Kingsway_Hall, on Facebook and at their own website, kingswayhall.co.uk

Important Note: The club referred to in this article goes by a number of names, and should in no way be confused with the genuine enterprise, 'The Comedy Club Ltd'. The outfit discussed in this article, currently operating interchangeably as 'The London Comedy Club' and 'The Comedy Club', takes place at the Kingsway Hall Hotel in Covent Garden. Run by one 'Inkey Jones', it currently sells tickets via the websites londoncomedyclubtickets.com and comedyclubbookings.co.uk