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Andrew Kay enjoys the heat of Indian Summer

I took my first lone holiday when I was 20-years-old and have enjoyed the experience ever since. I rather like being able to please myself, do what I like when I want to. It has also meant that I have years of experience of eating alone. I have eaten alone in some very nice places and nearly always had a good time. I take no nonsense, I will not be hidden away in some dark corner by the kitchen or the lavvies; no I bluntly state that I don’t like that table and demand another. Some places baulk at the idea of giving a good table to a solo diner but when that diner is me they are making a terrible mistake.

A few weeks ago I had an hour and an appetite to kill. I was in the centre of town and wandering aimlessly. Well actually I was taking aim, aiming to avoid falling over the proliferation of A boards that litter our streets. If the council spent time dealing with these hazards and left our dogs alone then I might have more time for them.

“I love the combination of crisped rice with chick peas, potatoes, herbs, tamarind and yogurt”

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What you get with Richard Herring is cerebral, blokey humour. He’ll take you down the road of prolonged one-tag-gags: guy with a Give Me Head Til I’m Dead t-shirt, which started out funny but then dragged until we were gasping for air as well as the guy giving head.

Reductio ad absurdium I think they call it – ad nauseum in this case. But while the stories within stories and the all-too-clever word-play stutter, the audience-play glides. The quick wit and acuity is plain as day and this is where he hits home, chiding the Fist of Fun (his cult nineties TV show with Stewart Lee) freaks and their ‘routine’ call outs with “Buy the f**king DVD.“ It’s the inadvertent dig at Ordinary Boy Preston which scores big though – picking him out as the relatively good looking geek in a table full of no-hopers.

Komedia, 20 March 2008
Jan Goodey

Victoria Nangle on what it is to attend a comedy night you don’t find funny

What makes a successful comedy night? Obviously you need comics or persons of the comic variety. And an audience, they’re always helpful in creating a comedy night rather than an exchange of witticisms as you might’ve found in Virginia Woolf’s drawing room of an evening. And then if you can match the two – so that the audience is the kind of crowd to really like the genres of comedy put forward by the funny people of the night, you’re pretty much on to a winner. But what happens if everyone else likes it but I don’t?

“There’s no such thing as ‘bad comedy,’ but there are some styles I enjoy more than others”

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Gay Oscars celebrates the best of the LGBT scene and businesses

Golden Handbag awards were handed out at one of the year’s biggest fundraising events at a spectacular awards ceremony at the Hilton Brighton Metropole Hotel.

With over 20 awards, the evening showcased a glittering array of talented cabaret acts – all of whom gave their services for free. The evening was hosted by Lola Lasagne and performances were given by The Unconventionals, Dave Lynn, Ceri Dupree, Drag with No Name, Maisie Trollette, the City of Brighton Gay Men’s Chorus and the Brighton and Hove (actually) Gay Men’s Chorus. The alternative panto gave their fabulous rendition of Chicago’s ‘Cell Block Tango’ performed by Jamie Watson, Pooh La May, Maisie, Lady James, Pat Cruise and Dave Lynn.

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