Operation Mincemeat, open mic dating event, Bill Murray street party - Mark Muldoon's Comedy Diary
Published: Tuesday 16th May 2023
Musical comedy Operation Mincemeat has taken its time reaching London's West End, having originally played in the 80-seater New Diorama theatre, before three runs at Southwark Playhouse, then a further one at Hammersmith's Riverside Studios. It's built up a keen fanbase along the way, for its retelling of the true story whereby MI5 attempted to trick Hitler into thinking Britain wasn't going to invade via Sicily, by placing fake decoy plans in a briefcase and handcuffing them to a recently deceased homeless man and letting him wash ashore in Spain.
You can understand the show's success. It nails the ideal West End musical balance of being a really entertaining, really fun show, whilst also touching on - but not getting weighed down by - quite a few interesting meatier subjects like entitlement, gender and heartbreak. it's impressively intricate, both lyrically and in the physical performance. The show's success should be celebrated: in a West End filled with American film adaptions and whatever other pop culture intellectual properties will generate the most money, it's a very British, organic triumph. It deserves its long-awaited victory march.
Following a trend for more, shall we say, experimental dating events in recent years - dating bingo, anyone? Video game dating?, Drunk Jenga Dating? - London company DateinaDash reckon they've hit upon a new format: a singles open mic comedy night. The format is simple enough: anybody can get up and tell one of their dating disaster stories. Before, during and after, you're encouraged to talk to anybody you want to, to see if there's mutual interest.
The atmosphere, as you'd maybe hope, is supportive. Obviously, everybody is trying stand-up comedy for the first time, so it's best not to show up expecting to discover the next Katherine Ryan. When someone's story is going down well, the real-life horror of their experience bonds the audience together nicely - presumably one of the things a dating night should be aiming for. Intriguingly, this is also true of the performances that go less well, in a sort of 'we got through that attempt at stand-up comedy together' kind of way.
It definitely works as a format, then, so long as they manage to round up enough extroverts willing to contribute to the night's success. DateinaDash founder - mysteriously known only as 'Rob' - even has a microphone and interjects with quips during people's stories, an idea that sounds terrible on paper, but in reality genuinely adds to the good-natured fun of the evening. Rob suggests this is the first time this idea has been tried - in that case, it's a successful experiment and a clever little idea.
Finally, a tribute to The Bill Murray (the North London comedy venue, not the Hollywood actor that's attracted a bit of attention recently for his behaviour towards women), who celebrated the extra bank holiday weekend by shutting down their road and throwing one of their street parties.
Whilst you wouldn't quite call it slick - the amount of chatting happening around the fringes of the crowd makes you wonder if everybody can hear the show - there is a pleasing sense of ambition to this event from the beloved venue. Ivo Graham, Rosie Jones, Tatty Macleod and Huge Davies provide the comedy highlights. Money is being raised for the Trussell Trust. The party continues until after dark, the atmosphere more music festival than comedy gig - perfect on a surprisingly sunny bank holiday Sunday. As a lovely showcase for the work of a lovely venue, it's a real treat.
Read previous editions of this column
Mark Muldoon is also available on Instagram and Twitter, if that sort of thing appeals.
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