Monday 4 July 2016

Hullabaloo at Angel 2.0


Angel comedy has semi-legendary status with performers. A 24/7 promotion working purely on the donations model has seen it grow to become one of the biggest nights in London. So big in fact that the owners decided they could do with a second venue and crowd-funded themselves enough money to take on and overhaul a nearby pub once known as The Mucky Pup. It was in this venue that Arianne Sherine and I decided to launch the Sunday evening musical comedy night – Hullabaloo.
 
The venue isn’t finished but it’s already better than many other places I’ve been to. The front bar is armed with an array of interesting beers and the shelves are full of comedy related books for the punters to browse. There’s even a small beer garden, which we decamped to after the show for a discursive pint. Most importantly, the staff are 100% committed to the venture and understand how these things work. This, in my experience, is worth 10x more than having a state of the art PA or fancy lighting.
 
The bill was full of top class talent: Faye Tracey opened with trombone and ukulele based fun whilst Arianne MC’d with her usual charm – handing out prizes on account of it being her birthday. Due to a drop-out, my stage time had expanded to a full twenty minutes so I went through another version of my Edinburgh show. Given it’s the birthday girl’s favourite, Selfie Stick got an airing for the first time in months and the set as a whole went down well. Audience is everything and these guys, many of whom there to celebrate with Arianne, were more than up for it.
 
In the second half Matt Hutson, Rosie Holt and ‘Philfy’ Phil all put in great performances. It was interesting to see how they worked within the musical genre – Matt’s chat with an older gentleman at the front took us down a very surreal pathway littered with asides and a marriage proposal, Rosie brought her family into it and Phil used the crowd to determine if the song that followed from the previous should be cleaner or more filthy. Currently I’m in story-teller mode with my longer sets which makes the conversation very one sided. This’ll be the next big challenge now I can dispense my actual “material” fairly effortlessly. Chat builds rapport  - so long as the chat is good!
 
So was it a good night? Absolutely. Will Hullabaloo return in September? Fingers crossed. 

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