A blog about grass-roots live comedy.
This week I kicked off 2026 with a ten-spot at an Instant Laughs gig in South Mitcham Community Centre. The promoter, Marvin McCarthy runs a bunch of gigs local to me in around south-west London, so it’s always nice to get a spot that I don’t have to travel too far for. This monthly gig … Read more
And I’m still doing standup. Kind of. It’s been a bit of a year for me, and standup has taken a back seat for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I took all of August off work and took my kids on month-long road-trip across America – from Yellowstone to Chicago, with a lot of stop-offs … Read more
I’ve not been doing much this month since the Ding Dong Gong show a couple of weeks ago. Work’s been full on this month and with the Euros on as well it’s not been an ideal time for doing standup, so I’ve been trying to revert to my original plan for the year, which was … Read more
If you’re the kind of person who thinks doing standup comedy is scary, and the idea of trying to make a roomful of strangers laugh makes your guts gurgle with anxiety, you’re going to absolutely shit your pants when I explain the Ding Dong Gong Show. A standard gong show is like an open mic … Read more
Last night I did a spot at Pink Peach Comedy, a new act new material night hosted by Keenan Atkins. I hadn’t heard of the night before I got a spot, and I don’t know Keenan, so I didn’t have much of a clue about what kind of gig it would be, but I ended … Read more
Every Tuesday night Sam Rhodes Comedy Explosion runs a bar show at the Lodge Tavern in Ealing – it’s set up in the corner of a public bar, but usually most of the people are there for the show so it feels like a dedicated comedy room even though it’s not really. The venue puts … Read more
A couple of months ago somebody posted on the Comedy Collective asking if anybody would be interested in an open mic in Horsham, East Sussex. I didn’t know the guy, but I signed up for it because I live on the very southern border of London and it’s just as easy to get to Surrey … Read more
By way of a quick recap; I started doing standup in 2017 because I was struggling a bit with life (3 kids and a career you hate will do that to you) and doing standup felt like a way of taking back some degree of control, something I could just do by myself, for myself. … Read more
Edit: I wrote this a long time ago when I was very new to doing open mics and didn’t know anything about anything. The short, simple version of how to get started in stand-up is to write as much new material as you can and get as much stage-time as you can, and keep doing it … Read more
It’s been a while since I posted so I should probably give you an update on how it’s been running a comedy open mic. When I got the opportunity I was pretty excited because having an open mic on my doorstep is very convenient, especially since I host it myself so I get at least … Read more