New BBC Comedy and Bear Cat Comedy Club

On Friday night I trekked over to White City to join a friend who had obtained tickets to be part of the studio audience at the filming of a new BBC2 comedy sketch show (to be screened in January) featuring two female comedians: “Watson and Oliver”. Billed as the new French and Saunders these girls were funny – I confidently predict that their catch phrases, send ups of women with long nails and characters spanning Pride and Prejudice and indecisive teens will become national favourites.

Whilst they did their thing changing for different scenes and in between VT excerpts the warm up guy, who looked just like Dale Winters, did a cracking job keeping us amused. I particularly liked his story about the guy getting fired from Pepsi once he tested positive for Coke. OK, so I was a bit fidgety when they finished filming after three hours but it put a bounce in my step.

So on Saturday evening it was with great pleasure that I went local with a short trip to St Margaret’s (a lovely part of Twickenham) just 2 minutes on the train from Richmond. When we arrived at The Turk’s Head pub it was relatively quiet so we ordered our supper (the fish cakes were rather nice) and took our drinks out into the spacious garden. There’s a playground there and we chatted to some single dads whose six year old sons (climbing happily over the frames) had been taken to see the Harlequins vs London Irish match that had just finished. Soon the place was heaving as the rest of the rugby fans tipped up to sup a pint or ten. All terribly good natured though.

I had pre booked my tickets (£15 for non members, £12 for members) for the first night of the Bear Cat Comedy Club’s 27th season. It is housed in Winchester Hall which conveniently opens into the Turk’s Head garden. We were advised by a genuinely nice doorman to collect tickets at 8pm to ensure a seat (they sell 150 tickets and there are 115 seats) which we did. There were some interesting folk in the audience – who were extremely friendly and welcoming.

The bar remained busy until James the MC took to the stage at 845pm to introduce Richard Morton and his guitar. Hailing from Newcastle (a rich vein of jokes), alerting us to his BBC4 connections, looking like a cross between Sting and Billy Idol and using his guitar to extremely good effect (Rock star songs in their 90s and ditties for the Royal Family), he had great audience rapport – even the on-line generation. He got the evening off to a brilliant start. There was a short break to visit the bar and take in the air/cigarette fumes outside.

Then there was a short set by Lawrence Tuck – who was appropriately dressed for his introduction as a history/geography teacher. Delivery was slow and deliberate and, frankly, a little weird. Not to everyone’s taste but my mate’s favourite of the evening. Tony Coward from Suffolk was up next with a series of good one liners – including a number about Swindon.

Another short break during which the winner of the raffle was announced and the “Guess the year and win the beer” competition was run. Trevor Cook was next – a craggy Australian with a laid back style and generous use of the F word as he talked about different towns and trains amongst other things. Sadly, we had to leave to catch the train at 11 and so missed the final set by Adam Bloom.

All of the comedians were good quality – we laughed solidly during all the sets. And the crowd was fantastic. A brilliant evening – so get online and book your tickets http://www.bearcatcomedy.co.uk/ - they’ve got some great talent lined up for future events.