Bob Slayer launches Grotto @ The HoHo Theatre 2015
Comedian and promoter Bob Slayer is becoming well known for establishing interesting and exciting pop-up comedy venues. For example, his BlundaBus was one of the highlights of this year's Edinburgh Festival.
His pop-up for December is a festive one: Grotto @ The HoHo Theatre is back in the "ancient and empty City institution" that is 27c Throgmorton Street in London (EC2N 2AQ). Once the flagship of J. Lyons & Co Tea Rooms (where Maggie Thatcher worked as a food scientist), it's a building that has been left empty for years... until now. Bob - aka Santageddon - has turned it into a comedy club.
Stewart Lee, Josie Long, Harry Hill, Richard Herring, Jon Richardson, Henning Wehn, Tony Law, Nick Helm and Rachel Parris are amongst a long list of great comedians who will be appearing at the venue between now and the 21st December.
For a schedule with more information, and to buy tickets, visit tickettailor.com. One date to look out for is the 13th December, when Matthew Highton, Bob Slayer and a team of Paranormal Experts will attempt to summon the ghosts of the ancient venue to life to meet the comedy punters.
It's worth pointing out it wouldn't be a Bob Slayer venue if there wasn't a late licence available, so if you do visit it'd be worth hanging around for the various after-show happenings too.
Grotto @ The HoHo Theatre was launched the other night. Bob emailed BCG after the event to say "I'm having the time of my life... this is the only way to spend Christmas... come get hilarious together x". Here's some pictures from the launch...
Then the party started...
And ended late...
No one could accuse the Grotto of lacking festive decoration...
And one of the walls has a homage to promoters The Invisible Dot:
Meanwhile deep in the bowels of the beast, a dining area that is no longer used sits quietly looking spooky. The ghost hunt will probably find something in this room!
A number of the Weirdos collective are performing at the venue. Horse & Hound reporter Jizz Nostrils (who looks a lot like Joz Norris) can be seen in the picture below hanging out with Weirdos Adam Larter and Matthew Highton. Jizz's review of the launch
For more on Grotto @ The HoHo Theatre see the listings on tickettailor.com
(Thank you to Julian and Bob for their blurry snaps, and to Dave Jones for his high photos)
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