“I like women comedians better – I think they have to work harder,” said my plus-one. And so it proved at the Greenwich Comedy Festival, at least on Saturday night. Held in the grounds of the Old Royal Naval College the event is in its second year, although “much, much bigger,” according to the organisers.
Last year only saw one tent and one bar. This year there was a Spiegel Tent, a 1,200-seat Big Top, a cabaret lounge and a handful of places to buy upscale burgers and chips or posh pies (everything £5, more or less). Beer was £3.80.
Notably, the event really did have a festival vibe. It felt friendly and fun, like a mini Edinburgh Festival. And it was busy – the tents were packed and the queues for the Spiegel Tent snaked through the trees. Time was festival-flexible too – Shappi Khorsandi, the British-Iranian comic started almost an hour late, but no one seemed to mind.
Inside, Shappi swore she’d only planned a 20-minute set, not the hour we’d paid for (£15 – festival prices). She was always like that, she said, one reason why her husband and she were getting a divorce; he was a neat freak. That set the tone, because despite the previous week’s rolling-news coverage of Koran-burning threats, she largely stayed away from many of the topics – Iran, Islam, the burqa etc – that made her name.
She could have gone there if she wanted to, you felt, but the one mention of the Koran-burners sent such an obvious chill through the audience that who knows how she would have got out of it. Anyway, she said, she’d been too absorbed getting a divorce, and having a child, to pay attention to politics for at least a year. All, that is, except one funny foray into the world of Andrew Neil, Kirsty from Location, Location, Location, and the infamous ‘BBC barge’ party on the Thames on election night in May. All libellous, I’m sure, so not for repetition here, but suffice to say Kirsty came off worst. It was good to see, and she had the audience in her palm for the full hour.
Inside the Big Top
Afterwards, we flooded out of the Spiegel Tent and into the Big Top to catch Jenny Éclair’s set. She is well known from TV, although I hadn’t seen her live. It makes such a difference – she works hard, has brilliant, original material, and brought the house down with her stories of life as a menopausal mother of adult-teenagers.
By chance, sitting next to me was the woman from Greenwich Council who’d come to check the festival’s health and safety. She was all praise for the organisers, and rightly so – they’d done a good job.
Next came Stewart Lee, whose set failed to match Jenny Éclair’s, or indeed Rufus Hound Daniel Kitson, the night’s compere. Never mind, half of us got him, the rest were too chilled to worry.
All up a great night, and by all reports a good festival (it was a week long). The only fear is word gets out and next year it’s bigger, more expensive and loses the magic. But Saturday evening, it managed it to a T.
It’s a bit of a worry that you didn’t even notice that it wasn’t Rufus Hound as compere. He was ill so Daniel Kitson took on the job and was very funny but definitely was in no way Rufus Hound.
Saw Bill Bailey on Sunday night at the festival and he was fantastic
Sorry Dan, that’s correct. He signed off as Rufus Hound at the end of the night, hence my mistake. I’ll ask Rob to change it. Thanks for pointing it out. Ed
Am sorry but we must have gone to different gigs!!!Jenny Eclair got about 2 laughs in her whole routine and was dreadful!Monday mornings on the london underground are funnier than listening to her.Stewart Lee was even more dissapointing realising half way through his jokes that noone in the tent was finding his ramblings funny but not being naturally funny enough to be able to turn it around…unlike Daniel Kitson who was the only person to make the whole tent laugh the whole night.Just because you appear on tv does’nt mean you have to be lazy with your performance and material!!!!
Well I had a great Saturday night but I went to the cabaret tent. The show there was amazing!!A gorgeous jazz singer called Emma Divine who was absolutely fantastic – she was funny too, then there was a burlesque show ( I didn’t look ) and then when it had finished, Emma Divine and pianist topped the bill – she was great . Brilliant – you should have come there!!
Was at the Burlesque Show too, Mark, and agree it was superb. Slightly disrupted by some drunken chavette at the next table, who very wrongly thought she was whispering and also entertaining, but otherwise excellent. Emma Divine and the last act (forget the name but never the face) were brilliant.
Was also at Thursday’s comedy show, which although starting on a duff note, quickly recovered with a much better Tim Keys (with a cameo appearance…) and then the hilarious Stu Francis and Ed Byrne.
What most impressed me was that, during the breaks, the hundreds who went out in search of food and drink were all served and back in their seats before the show restarted.
Also loved the touch that was the main bar being wrapped around the fountain.
What can I say, living in Greenwich rocks!