Comedy: Ho ho ho
Christmas parties large and small should offer good humour, but do you need to bring your own?
It has long been a tradition, when organising an office Christmas party, to choose a location that doesn’t rely too much on colleagues having to make more intimate conversation than they’re used to. You may know in the abstract that Jenny from sales is seeing someone new, but probably, neither of you are comfortable with the idea of comparing her new love’s sweetness to your old love’s hang nails, or to Alex in admin’s idea that it could be the same person she saw at speed dating last Tuesday. What I’m saying is, sometimes it’s good to have a context that takes the pressure off getting to know each other faster than you’re altogether happy with. And this is where the group comedy night comes in.
Whether it’s the polish and raucous all-inclusive (three-course Christmas dinner, thank you very much) of Krater Christmas Parties at Komedia, or a more austerity-conscious ad hoc affair of all piling over to one of the many local act nights with quality headliners you’ll find scattered around town this month, comedy is a very good arena to take your work crew to.
Most comedy nights purposely have mixed bills – and by that, I mean a line-up that includes several acts that will appeal to a variety of humours. Read that as the ever so helpful; ‘something for everyone’. Hopefully that’ll entertain fans of both Sarah Millican and Milton Jones.
A few ground rules here though. If you’ve just enjoyed one comic immensely and the next one doesn’t tickle you quite as much, please refrain from talking through the second comic’s set loudly. It sounds obvious, but this isn’t like seeing comics on the TV and firstly it’s very rude and distracting when you do this. The comics can hear you too! Secondly, in a live forum the atmosphere can make all the difference and someone talking at the back – even if it’s just a hushed argument about the babysitter – is incredibly distracting to everyone else trying to enjoy the night. If you’ve got to talk, leave the room and talk. ‘Nuff said.
And the other ground rule is to enjoy yourself. It harks back to the atmosphere thing. If you laugh loudly when it’s funny, that’ll give a great vibe to the comedians and they’ll bring the funny on even stronger. If you drink too much, decide that actually you’d like to have a bash at this comedy lark, and actually should have a shot … go out the back door, find an internet connection and sign up to a stand up comedy class. This is not your time.
Next year might be.
