Goodbye To The Glee
So the last two weekends have been spent saying au revoir to several very special people in my life; the staff at both the Birmingham and Cardiff Glee Clubs.
In the last 16 years since Birmingham opened I have been gigging there on a regular basis. Not as regular as I would have liked, but then I know I am not alone in that sentiment!
From the very first weekend I did with Ivor Dembina as MC and Ian Stone as headliner I can honestly say I’ve never felt more welcome at any comedy club anywhere! Onstage and off.
On the Saturday night of that weekend Ian and I sat with a group of girls who were out and making merry. It was the end of January, and we were all getting pretty sloshed. One of the girls leaned over to Ian and slurred the legendary words “do yao know who yao look loik? Yao look loik Tom Cruise, yao do”. I’d just taken a mouthful of Budweiser and sadly sprayed it all over the table, before collapsing with laughter.
Over the years staff have come and gone, and each of them were special and kind in their own ways. People like Matt who ran the bar in the early days and presided over a very drunken after-hours session that Tim Vine, Dylan Moran and myself had. That night was special cos it saw Tim introducing me to the delights of the notorious Mr Egg. As I recall, that night they were running low on eggs.
In the early days I got to play there a lot, one year I recall making 12 different trips up there, all over them fabulous. There were the all girl bills, one of which was the delightful Jo Enright, Mandy Knight, Helen Austin and me. Mandy and Helen had had some kind of falling out previously and so sisterhood was not present in the dressing room that night. We all had cracking gigs though.
The club is wonderful for all kinds of reasons. It’s run properly for a start. Yes, they’re a business and yes they need to sell food and beer and make money, but the focus has always been on the comedy. All of the technical needs are met, thanks to the ever-fantastic Tim who makes sure everyone In the audience can see and hear what’s going on onstage.
Over the years the dressing rooms have improved enormously. I think initially it was a case of the comics chilling in the staff cloakroom, but then one year Jack Dee was coming road test new material and suddenly we all benefitted from a shiny new dressing room converted especially for his residency.
The two people who make sure that all of our needs are met are Alastair and Griffy, who really are the Hinge and Bracket of comedy. They’re always there to greet you as you arrive, always smiley no matter what might be going on in their personal lives, always genuinely happy to see you.
Over all these years it really has become like visiting family for me. A dysfunctional family of course, but family all the same.
Cardiff hasn’t been going as long, but it’s also endeared itself to me. Eight years ago Lee who ran the bar at Birmingham (Matt having left) was sent west to oversee operations, and his warmth quickly made the club yet another date in the diary that I’ve looked forward to with huge anticipation. I’ve never once been disappointed.
There’s something about the way the clubs are run, that rubs off on the audiences too. These are the same people that go to comedy every where else (well everywhere else there’s not a Glee Club that is), but here they behave themselves. There’s no nastiness, any heckling usually adds to the show, and hanging out with them afterwards is a dream.
Of course I cannot write about these clubs without mentioning the man who made them possible, the lovely Mark Tughan. When Birmingham first opened he was an eager young man finding his way in the world. As the years have gone by, he’s grown up, gotten married and even had a child. He’s also opened another two clubs in Oxford and Nottingham, the latter of which sadly I’ve not had the pleasure of playing.
I have so many wonderful Glee Club memories, enough to fill several blogs, or even a book. Weeks of Christmas shows that actually made me look forward to Christmas, New Year’s Eve gigs that were better nights out than any I’d had pre-comedy, the laughs offstage and on.
As much as I am excited about my newest adventures, I am more than a bit sad to be saying goodbye to my friends at The Glee Club.
Bye guys, and thank you xx
In the last 16 years since Birmingham opened I have been gigging there on a regular basis. Not as regular as I would have liked, but then I know I am not alone in that sentiment!
From the very first weekend I did with Ivor Dembina as MC and Ian Stone as headliner I can honestly say I’ve never felt more welcome at any comedy club anywhere! Onstage and off.
On the Saturday night of that weekend Ian and I sat with a group of girls who were out and making merry. It was the end of January, and we were all getting pretty sloshed. One of the girls leaned over to Ian and slurred the legendary words “do yao know who yao look loik? Yao look loik Tom Cruise, yao do”. I’d just taken a mouthful of Budweiser and sadly sprayed it all over the table, before collapsing with laughter.
Over the years staff have come and gone, and each of them were special and kind in their own ways. People like Matt who ran the bar in the early days and presided over a very drunken after-hours session that Tim Vine, Dylan Moran and myself had. That night was special cos it saw Tim introducing me to the delights of the notorious Mr Egg. As I recall, that night they were running low on eggs.
In the early days I got to play there a lot, one year I recall making 12 different trips up there, all over them fabulous. There were the all girl bills, one of which was the delightful Jo Enright, Mandy Knight, Helen Austin and me. Mandy and Helen had had some kind of falling out previously and so sisterhood was not present in the dressing room that night. We all had cracking gigs though.
The club is wonderful for all kinds of reasons. It’s run properly for a start. Yes, they’re a business and yes they need to sell food and beer and make money, but the focus has always been on the comedy. All of the technical needs are met, thanks to the ever-fantastic Tim who makes sure everyone In the audience can see and hear what’s going on onstage.
Over the years the dressing rooms have improved enormously. I think initially it was a case of the comics chilling in the staff cloakroom, but then one year Jack Dee was coming road test new material and suddenly we all benefitted from a shiny new dressing room converted especially for his residency.
The two people who make sure that all of our needs are met are Alastair and Griffy, who really are the Hinge and Bracket of comedy. They’re always there to greet you as you arrive, always smiley no matter what might be going on in their personal lives, always genuinely happy to see you.
Over all these years it really has become like visiting family for me. A dysfunctional family of course, but family all the same.
Cardiff hasn’t been going as long, but it’s also endeared itself to me. Eight years ago Lee who ran the bar at Birmingham (Matt having left) was sent west to oversee operations, and his warmth quickly made the club yet another date in the diary that I’ve looked forward to with huge anticipation. I’ve never once been disappointed.
There’s something about the way the clubs are run, that rubs off on the audiences too. These are the same people that go to comedy every where else (well everywhere else there’s not a Glee Club that is), but here they behave themselves. There’s no nastiness, any heckling usually adds to the show, and hanging out with them afterwards is a dream.
Of course I cannot write about these clubs without mentioning the man who made them possible, the lovely Mark Tughan. When Birmingham first opened he was an eager young man finding his way in the world. As the years have gone by, he’s grown up, gotten married and even had a child. He’s also opened another two clubs in Oxford and Nottingham, the latter of which sadly I’ve not had the pleasure of playing.
I have so many wonderful Glee Club memories, enough to fill several blogs, or even a book. Weeks of Christmas shows that actually made me look forward to Christmas, New Year’s Eve gigs that were better nights out than any I’d had pre-comedy, the laughs offstage and on.
As much as I am excited about my newest adventures, I am more than a bit sad to be saying goodbye to my friends at The Glee Club.
Bye guys, and thank you xx
Labels: Gigs
posted by JoJo Smith at Monday, October 25, 2010
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