I’ve blogged before about the Chuckle Club, a fantastic MoneySaving central London comedy venue. While the entry price is around a tenner, the key is it’s in a student bar, though it’s not a student club, which means you can order a round and get change from a fiver.
As I mentioned last time (see Never, ever heckle when you’re known), it’s based at the LSE in Holborn, and I was involved in bringing the club to the Uni when I was students’ union president, and even performed there during my mercifully short-lived stand-up comedy stint. As such I’m still on friendly terms with ‘Eugene Cheese’ who runs the club. So now you can understand why the following happened…
Come along, we’ve a REALLY big name…
Last November, out of the blue Eugene called to say “you have to come tonight, we’ve a massive massive act on but I cant tell you who.” It sounded intriguing and there’d been some good names on in the past, but the MSF and I were going to a friend’s birthday so couldn’t go.
On Saturday, I found out who it was, and my jaw dropped. Seems I wasn’t the only one surprised though, on the night, a group of five people had been outside debating whether to come in, and people told them there were rumours of a really big act on… possibly “Steve Coogan” or even “Robin Williams”.
Persuaded to come in, but more than sceptical, they sat down, ridiculing the concept either would play the club. Two minutes later, as Robin Williams sat down next to them, on the only empty seat in the place, they changed their tune, he was there doing an hour long warm up for a big charity set….
This Saturday, no Robin Williams, but Andy Parsons from Mock the Week did pop-in as a surprise guest, to test out his new set too… much cheaper than going to see his Arena tour.