Sara Pascoe, Russell Kane, London's tourist trap comedy nights - Mark Muldoon's Comedy Diary

Written by: Mark Muldoon
Published: Friday 25th November 2022

Don't know about you, but it's been quite a Joe Lycett-heavy month. Not just his brilliant one-for-the-history-books David Beckham-targeting stunt, but he's also just put out his latest tour show for a tenner on his website. It's well worth the asking price.

Sara Pascoe, meanwhile, has just set off on a hefty tour. Like many comedians in 2022, it feels like a long time since we last properly heard from her.

Existing fans will be right at home with the show (her first since 2018) - she's as fantastic, warm company as ever. Generally the twin themes are: "I used to want to be famous, but it's not all that enjoyable. I also wasn't sure if I wanted to have a child, but that's been a fantastic decision actually". Both are conclusions that stand-up comedy fans have maybe heard before, but Pascoe, as ever, proves her skill at finding fresh perspectives on subjects. Either that, or a particularly winning expression will catch you off guard - her description of new parenthood as "like being madly in love with a broken car alarm" is a typically well turned-out phrase. The show even has a surprisingly good line in celebrity gossip, should you be interested in how her past interactions with Hugh Grant and James Corden have panned out.

Russell Kane is most of the way through his post-covid comeback tour now, though there's still a decent handful of shows left. It's been long enough since his last tour that he's still got some Brexit material in his set. The joys here maybe come more from Kane's audience interactions - as well as his high-energy commitment to acting out his comedic ideas - rather than his material, which is occasionally great but often isn't as good as he's previously been capable of. But when chatting to the front rows - expending substantial effort on ensuring their car journeys home are as awkward as possible - the gig really catches fire.

Away from big tours, it can be nice sometimes to check in with the companies putting on weekend comedy nights aimed more at stag/hen groups, holidaymakers and Christmas parties - that kind of thing. 99 Club are one such organisation: they seem to take over any weird space they can lay their hands on in the tourism neighbourhoods of central London - Leicester Square, Covent Garden - seemingly putting on as many money-making shows as demand allows. Comedians appear to be encouraged to dash between the venues, getting to play to multiple crowds in one night. There seems to be an intriguing reliance on a very small pool of acts too. When we browsed the front page of their website a few weeks ago they had 12 shows coming up, and a surprisingly high number of up-and-coming acts were booked across several of them, though no one else had as many as Sara Barron, who'd managed to get herself booked for all 12.

You get the idea that not many people come to these nights a second time, then. What their booking policy lacks in breadth though, they generally make up for in quality. Barron is always fantastic, though on the night we visited they hadn't succeeded in booking any women. Darren Harriott, Simon Brodkin and Michael Odewale all impress, whilst host Stephen Grant is a standout - he's as sharp an MC as you'd hope from somebody who's been doing it for at least a couple of decades.

The venue is bizarre - cheap seating is densely packed into what feels like the staff café of an office block near Trafalgar Square. Perhaps owing to the time of year we visit, Christmas parties, tourists and stag weekends don't seem noticeably present. It's just a room filled with people who want to see comedy and are happy to pay a premium because it's a Saturday night in the centre of town. The night inarguably works due to the quality of the line-up, the main question is whether £24 (with booking fee included) is value for money. It's inarguably true that there are better venues offering much better prices if you avoid this neighbourhood, and particularly if you avoid the weekend.

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