A new monthly comedy night in association with Guildford Fringe Theatre Company and Kick Back Comedy will be showing at the Back Room of the Star Inn Pub each month on a Saturday night. The first show will be at 8pm on Saturday 1 February and features headline act Nick Revell who has been a regular at both Jongleurs and The Comedy Store.
Guildford Fringe formed back in 2012 and has produced an amalgamation of events so far; including cabaret, theatre and comedy nights as well as the Guildford Fringe Festival. To this point they have only hosted a couple of stand-up comedy nights, but with a Saturday slot now booked in once a month for the rest of the year, that will be a thing of the past. Currently, there isn’t a huge comedy scene in Guildford with the occasional act popping up at the Yvonne Arnaud or G Live, but after listening to audience reaction, they have plugged a hole in Guildford where there is certain demand.
Kick Back Comedy on the other hand specialises in booking the best comedians on the comedy circuit in London and around the UK. All comedians are high class professionals that have worked at the major comedy clubs, as well as on television and have at least 10 years’ experience in the business. There is a whole variety of acts on show with a varied bill that will see Nick Revell, Johnny Kats, Chastity Butterworth (Gemma Whelan) and Debra-Jane Appleby all perform on the opening night this Saturday.
Nick has worked extensively on the expanding alternative comedy circuit, performing at Edinburgh Fringe as well as all the top clubs in the country, whilst also appearing on radio and TV on shows like Friday Night Live. The opening act is the dynamic Johnny Kats who has performed predominantly in Australia at events such as the Melbourne International Comedy Festival as well as making audiences laugh all over the world. Gemma Whelan who will be performing as ‘Chastity Butterworth’ is a comedian and actress who won the 2010 Funny Women Variety award for stand-up comedy as well as appearing in the film Gulliver’s Travels and the HBO series Game of Thrones as ‘Yara Greyjoy’ in series two. And finally, Debra-Jane Appleby who has one both the Leicester Mercury Comedian of the Year and Funny Women Comedy Award in the past will be MC-ing the night.
Abbegail Bagley, who is the Director of Kick Back Comedy had this to say, “I am looking forward to running a back to basics comedy club in Guildford as I think there is a real need for it. I like the structure of having varied bills in an intimate yet professional venue. Comedy audiences want to feel like they are involved and I think The Star Inn’s Back Room will give them that magic atmosphere that comedians love to perform to.”
The show on Saturday starts at 8.00pm (doors 7:30 pm) and will finish at 10.00pm and include two intervals with plenty of time to top up on drinks. So if you haven’t already booked your tickets, then click the link HERE or email the box office at [email protected].
James Martin