Stevie Gray at The Alma, July, Sunday 22nd August

With special guest, the latecomer Steve!

Nice one fella. Nice one.

Resistance is Futile: How to Survive a Wedding Invite

My latest datingtrail.co.uk post...

There will come a time, in the first flourishes of a relationship, when that most historically awkward of questions arises.

You look forward to seeing each other whenever you meet. You’re learning new and fascinating things about your beau that seem to make them glow and grow in your estimations. The sex is great and expansively exploratory and you’ve even left tooth-brushes at the others home.

This is the point at which fate - and the decisions of friends - collide in what can only be described as a potentially explosive combination.

Your love interest asks, “Will you come to my friends wedding with me?”

Click here for the rest of the article...

Anarcomedy at The Alma, Farnham

A cracking evening with a superb lineup last Sunday at The Alma, Farnham.

Relative newby Ray Addison opened the night with a polished and professional 10 mins.

Living in Dubai, Ray has only performed about 16 gigs, with 3 in the UK but he seems a lot more experienced than that.

A shame that he cut his set short being unsure how well it was going down - as he said, a result of dying in Brighton a few days before - but tight nonetheless with some solid bits on life in the UAE.








Don Biswas followed Ray with a tight set of one liners and tales of Dyspraxic confusion.

An established set with a few new gags, the crowd moved from initial reticence to warm appreciation very quickly and Don used the lounge room feel of the venue to good effect.

The wonderfully energetic Stevie Gray rounded out the first half, really engaging with the small audience and roping in a late comer to indulge in a little one-legged hook-handed call and response dancing.

A tightly anarchic set saw the crowd joining in throughout the entire 15 min set.

Stevie is ebullient, energetic and cheekily charming with an excitement and easy laugh that brings to mind Joel Dommett, and he interacts so easily with punters he genuinely appears to enjoy his material.

The second half opened with the delightfully offensive Jo Jo Giorgiou.

Jo Jo's delivery is so in your face that even weaker gags (of which there are very few) highlight her incredulity at her fellow American's idiocy to such a degree that you simply get taken along for the ride.

It's a 'no-one here gets out alive' approach to comedy that very few manage to pull off. Jo Jo manages admirably, particularly given that such an approach can often leave a small crowd - such as the one at The Alma - feeling exhausted. It's a testament to her experience that she managed the rhythm of the room just right. And on the way home we got to drive in the Games Lane!!! Cheers Jo Jo.

Closing off the night, and back by popular demand, was Elizabeth Hotson aka Julie 'Psycho' Jones.

Julie went down so well last month that a number of punters had booked on the basis that she would be back this month. And she didn't disappoint.

She engaged brilliantly with folks who had seen her last month, weaving these new relationships effortlessly into her set, particularly with the reappearance of Mr Baggy and she looks to have secured a few more fans in the process.






The Alma itself is a really nice little pub. Crowds are rarely larger than about twenty which makes it feel a little like performing in a mates living room, but the feedback Ive had from acts has been really positive and comedians genuinely seem to like playing there. 


We'll be back in Farnham on the 26th of August so if you have a tight 15 min set and fancy venturing out to the wilds of Surrey, drop me a line at johndaviscomedy@gmail.com. Pays 25 Squids plus travel.


Or if you just fancy a Sunday afternoon and night out give James a call on 01252 344148. Tix GBP5 pre booked or GBP10 on the door.  

Gigs, meetings and Family stuff!

What an extraordinary few weeks it’s been!

Meetings, gigs, more meetings, some more gigs and a baby!

I’m an Uncle!

First up, the most important news – news that will terrify many of you and may just alert the authorities – I’ve become an Uncle! My sickeningly perfect sister gave birth to the Pale Warrior himself, the ebullient 7lb 4oz Finlay. So, congratulations to Lisa and Sam. I’ve already bought him a season ticket to Crystal Palace, which may or may not constitute child abuse.

Comedy Sketch Show

And now to work. You may remember a few weeks ago me posting about an audition I had for the role of a gay James Bond. I had a meeting with director Andrew Faure over a few beers not too long ago with the result that, once filming of Queen & Country is over, we’re going to start work on a few straight to web comedy sketch videos with a view to eventually compiling a pilot; finally, someone as equally delusional who shares my (lack of) artistic vision. Any donations please place in the brown envelopes provided.

Original Dating Boat Party

Friday 20^th saw myself and Marc hosting another huge Original Dating boat party. 200 singles took to the high seas with locks and keys in hand, all accompanied by the rampant roustabouts The Gremlins. Feedback has been overwhelming - in a good way - so thanks to all who came and a big ‘Nice One Captain!’ to Andrew Summersgill, the erstwhile admiral of the Original Dating Armada. Spot the deliberate mistake.

Edinburgh Shmedinburgh

Comedian Gary Tro is looking to host an event at the Balham Bowls Club in the coming weeks for all those who have shunned the bright lights of Edinburgh this year. Think of a bit of a networking knees up for comedians and punters with a cracking gig attached. More info coming soon but if you’re interested I rekcon give Gazza a shout.

Anarcomey at The Alma, Farnham

Soooo, what else… Um… Oh yes! How could I forget last night? An absolute balls and labia out amazing comedy night at The Alma, Farnham. Small crowd but what a lineup, even if I do say so myself.


Don 'Dyspraxic Ninja' Biswas

Ray ‘Taxi!’ Addison

Stevie ‘Ooh Arrrrr’ Gray

                                                                                       Jo Jo ‘Fuck You!’ Giourgiou 

                                                   

Julie 'Psycho' Jones

All MC’d  by John ‘It’s my gig and I’ll plug myself if I want to’ Davis

I’ll leave a full write up in last night for my next post, but in the mean time, stay funny. And if you can’t stay funny, cry.

Farnham Needs You!!!!! Comedians that is.

Still looking for comics this Sunday in Farnham!

Farnham Needs You!

Kicks off at about 6:30 for 7pm.

GBP25 plus travel expenses if you have a fifteen minute set you'd like to expose the wonderful people of Surrey to.

Lovely pub and small but great local crowd so give me a shout at jdavismedia@fastmail.fm or call me on 07760 322 023

www.thealmafarnham.com

Original Dating Club Tropicana Boat Party

Okay, it sounds cheesy but those who've been to our events before know they're absolutely awesome.

So limited tickets still available for what promises to be our best river based bash yet.


Lock and key ice beaker with some amazing prizes.

One of the best cover bands in London, The Gremlins, providing musical backing.

The wonderful lights of London, including Olympic luminescence, guiding us from Westminster to the Millenium Dome and back.


All hosted by yours truly and the irrepressible Marc. Marc is so irrepressible he doesn't need a surname.

So to recap:

• Up to 250 people attending
• Amazing live party band
• Equal male/female ratio
• 3.5 hour party cruise on the Thames
• Loads of prizes to be won
• Lock & key icebreaker
• Pub priced drinks at two bars
• Optional speed dating sessions
• Open sundeck

Tickets are going fast so book now by clicking here!

Okay, not so much a comedy article this one but hell, it keeps me in peanuts. And no, I don't choose the images!

My latest ditty for Datingtrail.co.uk:

How to survive a breakup

by John Davis

Writer, Comedian and Star of Come Date With Me
Friday, 13th July 2012

Recently dumped? It’s hard of course. I’ve been dumped many, many, many times. Most of the failures I have experienced have, admittedly, been my fault so perhaps many of us, despite our inability to actually say the words, communicate quite effectively our desire to end a relationship while convincing ourselves we have successfully avoided being an arsehole and feeling guilt by being dumped.

But this article isn’t meant as self-therapy in the confessional style of say Sarah ‘Start every article with a question’ Jessica Parker’s character in Sex in The City. It’s meant as a five-step guide on what to do once your relationship has ended...

Erin Melville Enters the Dirty 30's

*UPDATE* The good Lady Melville has sent me a new web link, www.ladymelville.com but she's promised her focus and commitment remains the same;) *UPDATE*

Another antipodean taking on the great Edinburgh challenge is 'Lady' Erin Melville who, with Rosie Rebel, is bringing her peculiar take to aging to the stage of The Counting House.

And if you're wondering who she is despite looking familiar, check out Dawn Schary.

As for Rosie, she paints with her nipples. Remember? And she's had, like, over 80, 000 YouTube hits yeah? Like that's totes amaze balls!




A free event, Dirty Thirties: Growing Down, Looking Up runs from the 2nd-26th August and apparently promises "Madness, mayhem and malfunction". Well not apparently. That's what they actually promise on their promo stuff.

Melville and Rebel's show promises to a cracker, not least because Lady M has one of the shittest websites I've ever seen, which I'm assuming is because she's focusing more on the show!

*UPDATE* The good Lady Melville has sent me a new web link. www.ladymelville.com but she's promised her focus and commitment remains the same;) *UPDATE*

Rosie's website is okay though. She may or may not be as focused.

Seriously, check it out if you've crossed the wall.

**** ‘Erin Melville is a delight…. Don’t miss’ – Herald Sun 2012

And Rosie:

******** ‘The Gilda Radner of our generation!’– Pat Byrne

Original Dating Boat Party!

Original Dating are back with another boat party!

Come take in the sights of our wonderful river, from Parliament to Millenium Dome and back and then an after party someone close on Embankment.

The Jubilee party was a huge success so this time around Original have set on a Friday night tour of the Olympic lights all to a Club Tropicana theme.

Confused? Don't worry about it. 250 tix available 50/50 guys and girls. Lock and Key ice breaker and pub prices on drinks plus plenty of prizes to win.

All Mc'd by yours truly and accompanied by the wonderful Gremlins playing contemporary covers - No 'American Pie' in other words.

 If you've been to one of these before you'll know how much fun they are. And if you haven't, well you should.

Fancy dress optional. Sense of irony accepted.

Tickets going fast so book now!

Jeff Lantern @ The Cornshed Festival

Following on from my brief synopsis of the Cornshed Festival, one act that really caught my eye was the conspirationally brilliant Jeff Lantern. Jeff titillated a less than engaged crowd with a brief glimpse into the world of 'True Fist'.

 I say the crowd were less than engaged primarily because on the Friday he followed local hero Patrick Monahan. Once Pat had done his thing the majority of the crowd upped and left, or talked over fresh beers. But for those who paid attention, they were treated to a geeky beany and puffer jacketed conspiracy theorist. Think a plump cross between Urban Warrior and Citizen Smith overdosing on Robert Anton Wilson and David Ike with bottle bottom glasses. I love his surreal conspiracy theory, visual gag driven set replete with an eye to the absurd and and heavy sense of irony.

Aside from a few die hards however, it seemed as if much of the remaining crowd were undecided whether this was simply some nutter giving comedy a go or whether it was an act after all. His professionalism carried him through night one and Saturday saw a generally smaller but more engaged crowd. Shame about misplacing the Spar poster.

Jeff's been around a while and he's my favourite Arstiscientist and founder of the Squirclism movement.

We all know the world is soon to end but Jeff is going to save it, again, on Dec 12th in a 'gala spectacular' at the 400 seater Conway Hall, Holborn, London. Tix available here.

And of course he's doing bloody Edinburgh. His show features Lee Ridley aka Lost Voice Guy, who having suffered from Cerebral Palsy, communicates through his iPad, and is hosted by, yup, you guessed it, Patrick Monahan!

Dodgy Dating: My latest datingtrail.co.uk article

Dodgy dating: John explores some of the more niche ways to find a mate

by John Davis
Writer, Comedian and Star of Come Date With Me
Thursday, 5th July 2012
Dating isn’t of course new. Ever since Ug the Dinosaur Slayer discovered the joys of courting Uga, courtship and the means to enter into its fraught ways have been a dominant factor in the life of our species.

While the mechanisms by which we seek out a companion may differ significantly, from arranged marriages, dinner and drinks, hobby sharing, and mass May Day cavorting to online dating and speeddating, the aim is the same. To find someone.

In this technological era, where time is as precious a commodity as shares in Apple, the lengths we go to in order to procure a mate are often strange and peculiar. However, some are just down right odd. So for your delectation I hereby present 5 of the odder ways in which you can hook up...

Cornshed Festival

I turn my back on Balham for one weekend and what happens? The bloody Balham Comedy Festival!

By all accounts it went swimmingly for The Bedford with the likes of HARRY HILL, ARDAL O'HANLON, AL MURRAY (The Pub Landlord), MILTON JONES, STEPHEN K.AMOS, ED BYRNE, JOHN MOLONEY, RICHARD HERRING, MARCUS BRIGSTOCKE, TANIA EDWARDS, STEPHEN FROST IMPRO ALLSTARS, PAUL CHOWDHRY, DIANE SPENCER… all treading the comedy boards.

But that's not the point of this post.

I spent the weekend in North Yorkshire, in a rain sodden field attached to the bizarrely named Sexhow Farm for the relatively unknown but hugely successful Cornshed Festival in, wait for it... Hutton Rudby.

 

Now in its 26th year, the festival aims to raise money for the Great Northern Air Ambulance Service. 

Weather aside the whole thing was amazing. One of the slickest and best organised festivals I've seen in a long time. 2 music stages and a comedy tent for around 700 people on each of the two nights.

I don't get up North much but you'd be blind if you weren't aware that Yorkshire in particular tends to hit above its weight in comedy legends. What I hadn't counted on was just how much support there was for home grown heroes.

Patrick Monahan

Patrick Monahan was back donating his time and while many claim playing to a home crowd is far easier than your average gig, his control of the tent was a masterclass in catering to a broad age range. This made it particularly difficult for the other acts, particularly when people are leaving straight after their hero has finished a slot but hats off to them for powering on through. I'll have updates on the other acts in my next post, two of whom in particular who caught my eye.

What really struck me about Patrick was the little techniques he adopted to control what was a rowdily fun crowd. His seemingly prodigious memory of who had been at last years festival stood him in particularly good stead and his constant reference to people he had picked on throughout the set showed an ability to control every part of the large, brightly lit tent. He's a great talent for up and coming comics, particularly MC's, to watch and learn little tricks to manage a crowd.

In the meantime you can still donate to the Festival by dropping them an email or give direct to GNAAS.

See you next time.

Jackson Voorhaar Returns!

My good mate Jackson's back! And I don't mean my good mate in that "please welcome to the stage a very good friend of mine..." We used to gig together back in the old Melbourne days and ended up sharing a house in wonderful Streatham.

After returning to the Antipodes the lanky layabout has a new show he's bringing all the way from Melbourne for your Edinburgh based delectation. AND IT'S FREE!

I'll be trying to get him down to do a few London gigs so stay tuned.

He's really worth seeing so if you get the chance, pop along and give the ol' hermaphrodite a hug.

And check out his spoof QI twitter feed @BBCQI

Rise of the Idiots - Edinburgh Previews

Bloody hell! Rise of the Idiots at The Exhibit, Balham, have really pulled this one out of the bag!

Every Sunday until July 29th will see some of the UK's top acts performing their Edinburgh preview shows... for a FIVER!!!

First up on Sunday 15th July it's 'Stephens Night' with Stephen K Amos and Stephen Carlin.

Work In Progress

Pandas Vs Penguins

FOR A FIVER! Oh ffs. It's only a FIVER!

Tix available from www.wegottickets.com but they are going fast.

And it costs five quid yeah.

009 Jayson Bend in "Queen & Country"

Well it's been a rather interesting week. I had my first ever film audition. I've never acted in my life and was asked to audition for the role of a spoof James Bond, Queen & Country. I suspect this was more out of cruel curiosity than any identification of a hitherto undiscovered acting talent I had but I dutifully popped along to a back lot studio in White City.

I can tell you now that the whole thing was a lot of fun, not least because the project was written by the wonderful Andrew Faure and directed by Andrew and Matt Carter. I've known Andrew for a few years now and love the look of his projects.

I won't give the story away but it's essentially a gay James Bond - Jayson Bend, with a 'y', in this incarnation - saving the world from a hair dresser oligarch with evil plans afoot to run every salon in the world.

Not being gay I thought I could really add something to the role but needless to say I didn't get it. Maybe I could try for the role of Bend's Swiss sidekick Alec de Coque, or the evil scientist Dr Tu Yung.

Any how, filming will be over the next couple of months but in the meantime get your furtive follicles fondled by the intro sequence:

By the way, films cost money to make so donate here: www.indiegogo.com/queen-and-country and get, like, stuff.

All Aboard For Balham Transcentral

I Love some of the gigs I do. Aside from comedy I'm doing three regular quiz nights a week but it's the one I've been doing the longest which is probably my favourite. The Balham Bowls Club in er... Balham reminds me of one of those funky little back street pubs in Melbourne. An eclectic decor, even more eclectic clientele, a monthly retro market and comedy on the first Thursday of each month. They even featured in Easyjet's inflight magazine a couple of months ago.  This is no mean feat given they only feature one venue from destination cities each edition. So the BBC represented London, and proudly once they finally found out about it.

Bowled Over Comedy @balhambowls

 Comedy comes courtesy of Comedy Dave from Bowled Over Comedy. What originally began as a traditional stand up night with a bunch of open slots with one or two more established acts has evolved into a staple on the improvisational circuit. So much so that the last one they hosted featured Tim Brooke-Taylor regaling the audience with life stories while impro regulars The Wilmington Players acted out his tales.

This tends to set the BBC apart from strong local nights such as the justifiably famous Bedford and the always improving Rise of The Idiots - Dara O'Briain was a recent performer - at the Exhibit. A crowded market may appear to be the perfect thing for punters but can rapidly saturate an area so all three venues are to be congratulated on providing continually original nights.

Add caption

The Devonshire on Balham High Road is also worthy of a mention with their weekly Sunday evening open nights that feature everything from acoustic sets, comedy, burlesque, story telling and improv to, well, basically whatever you fancy bringing to the stage. It's anarchic and well worth a visit, particularly if you fancy trying something new in front of a supportive crowd.

All In all there doesn't seem to be a dull night in Balham so if you're not familiar with what used to be an extension of stab city that spread as far south as Streatham you could do worse than check it out.

All venues are approachable but do book up in advance quite quickly. This is particularly true of the Bedford which is probably best for more established acts, but if you do manage to get a couple of minutes on the Shakespearian like downstairs stage it's certainly memorable.

For Bowled Over at the BBC contact Dave at bowledovercomedy@gmail.com And for The Exhibit, Anthony at exhibit@exhibitbars.com

If I've missed any notable comedic Balhamites out, apologies and drop me a line. I'll make sure to give you a mention in my next update.