What a joke...

A few nights ago, last Thursday to be exact, I decided to embark on a night of comedy with friends Helen and Linda. I was keen to see Danny Bhoy, a hilarious Scottish comedian, and had noticed earlier in the week that he was playing a few small London shows as a warm up for the Edinburgh Fringe.

The night started well when Linda and Lauren (who didn't attend the comedy - a wise move on her part) chose a bar to meet at where they were selling £8 bottles of rosé....so of course we bought a round each of them.

That kicked us off on a good start, and after Helen arrived we made our way to the pub where the comedy was. We arrived upstairs to the venue to be greeted by about 20 other audience members who were comprised of a group of women (plus one man) on a hens night, and a bunch of drunk sex therapists on a work show. This wouldn’t have been too bad if there were about 200 other people to dilute the crowd with, but as the venue seated only about 30 of us, we realised that was it.

So we took our seats, which were plush armchairs surrounding a coffee table right at the front, and got ready to enjoy some comedy.

As time ticked over and no one showed, the crowd started to get a little rowdy. Finally the emcee (I never know if that is meant to be emcee or MC?) showed up and informed us that the first act was running late. So we waited a bit more..., crowd got rowdier..., a bit more..., crowd starting to get angry..., a little more..., crowd demanding free drinks,..and a little more....and finally...the first act showed.

I won’t go into much detail about the acts, as they were okay but nothing too hilarious. Because, to be honest, the night wasn’t about the comedians,.... it was about the ANGRY MOB that took over the show!

After several attempts of the comedians to calm the rowdy ones down, they could no longer control the verbal abuse that was being slung their way. At first it was Hens Group and Sex Therapist Group that joined forces to see how many comedians they could make cry. But soon after an incident involving a drunk sex therapist trying to dance on the table in front of a comedian, it became Sex Therapists Vs The Rest of the Crowd.

Meanwhile, the three very well behaved and sober Aussie girls sitting in their armchairs at the front were doing their best to remain composed. After all, we still had Danny Bhoy look forward to, and he would definitely be able to return to order the natural balance between comedian and crowd. So we began to hold our breath as they announced the final act....

“And finally tonight, we have the one and only (yep thats him), the funny (definitely agree), the enigmatic (go Danny!) ......drum roll....(getting excited) .......
...............Paul *Something-or-other*!!!!!"

....(Yip yip yipp...hang on....what the..?)

Yup, no Danny Bhoy!

So needless to say, the crowd got even more out of control. And as the fine young Aussie women could no longer hold it in, they joined in the battle between The Rest of the Crowd and The Sex Therapists. Even though the comedian wasn’t the one they wanted to see, they became so enraged and appalled at the behaviour of the ST’s towards him, that they began yelling such things out as “Oh will you charming people please be quiet” And “You really are a bunch of scallywags”.

We sure told them.

Anyway, due to the fact that none of the comedians even finished their sets, and the last non-Danny-Bhoy-guy didn’t even tell a joke due to his set being ambushed, the comedians apologised to the only nice people in the crowd afterwards (us) and gave us all free tickets to Saturday nights show. We were all pretty happy about that.

But there was no way we were going to go back to that hell pit!

And we didn’t end up going either....although when we were offered more free tickets the next day to attend the hell pit this Thursday to actually see Danny Bhoy (apparently they got the nights mixed up online), we decided that it couldn’t be any worse than what we had experienced and have decided to head back there!

So stay tuned for the sequel! Hopefully there will even be some photo’s of Danny Bhoy on there. Unfortunately I don't have any to share of the drunk sex therapist trying to dance on the table...