Selected from January 1992
5th Jan - Merton Screaming Blue Murder with Jeff Green and Domonic
Holland
9th Jan - The Square, Harlow with Dave Thonpson and Mark Kelly
20th Jan - Bearcat, Twickenham
with Steve Murray and Ian McPherson
Selected from Dec 1991
3rd
Dec - Red Lion, Teddington with Paul Rogan, Logan Murray and Martin Davies.
7th Dec - Boston's, Fulham Road
with Charmian Hughes and Simon Fox. (My notes for this gig read, "A waste of time!"
8th Dec - Aztec with
Rob Hithcmough, Parrott and Richard Morton
14th Dec - Putney Panda, White Lion, with Dave Thompson, sheila Hyde
and James Macabre.
Selected from Nov 1991
8th Nov - Backyard
Cabaret with Lee Hurst (MC), Mac Sullivan, Domonic Holland.
10th Nov - Town & Country Club 2 with Mark Thomas
(MC), Geoff Boyz, Eric Heretic and Bob Downe.
Selected from Oct 1991
4th
Oct - Acton Banana with Steve Bowditch, Wilty (Nick) and Rob Newman.
7th Oct - Stockton On Tees (Harvey's Club
Cafe) with Anvil Springsteen and Mark Hurst.
11th Oct - The Aztec, West Norwood with Chris & George, Alan Francis
and Brenda Gilhooley.
12th Oct - Punchline at The Railway Tavern, West Hampstead with The Rubber Bishops (feat.
), Gerry Sadowitz and Alan Davies.
30th Oct - Screaming Blue Murder with Sean Meo and Alan Davies
Selected
from Sept 1991
Spent most of September on holiday after Edinburgh, with one weekend exception.
13th Sept - Banana Cabaret, Balham with Alistair McGowan, Dreenagh Darrell and Mark Hurst (Also 14th)
Aug
1991
Edinburgh Show called Serious Free Zone with 2 Girls Wot Sing, Paul Rogan, Sean Meo and Anthony
King. During breaks in the schedule I was able to take in Frank Skinners Edinburgh Award winning show and a show by The Great
Late Bill Hicks.
July 1991
A series of Edinburgh previews at various
London venues
Selected from June 1991
Jun 12th - Screaming Blue
Murder with Eddie Izzard (MC), Pat Condell, Ivor Dembina and Ronni Golden.
Jun 20th - Comedy Cafe with Geoff Boyz,
Otiz Canneloni and Ivor Dembina.
Jun 23rd - Screaming Blue Murder with Mark Lamarr (MC), Pat Condell, Micky Hutton
and Richard Morton (doing double act) and Domonic Holland.
Jun 28th - The Aztec, West Norwood with Andre Vincent
(MC), Gerry Sadowitz and Skint Video.
Selected
from May 1991
3rd May - Screaming Blue Murder venue with Martin Coyote (MC), a new double
act called Pearl And Dean, Fred Mccaulay and Dave Cohen.
5th May - The Aztec, West Norwood with Chris & George
(Double act MC), 2 Girls Wot Sing (Featuring Helen Austin) and Steve Bowditch.
9th May - Anthony described on GLR
as "King of the one-liner".
17th May - The Town & Country Club 2 with Ian Cognito (MC), The Crisis
Twins, Simon Fox and Jo Brand.
18th May - The Comedy Pit, Streatham with acts called PJ, Zed, Jombo
and Harry Hall (Now Hill).
22nd May - Screaming Blue Murder with Eddie Izzard (MC), Paul Tonkinson
and Dave Cohen.
31st May - Bracknell (South Hill Park Arts Centre, Cellar Bar) Our Edinburgh show for 1991 featuring
Paul Rogan, 2 Girls Wot Sing and Sean Meo.
Selected from April 1991...
April
1991 was avery quiet month for me and I only did a few gigs. I think it coincided with house buying. However, on April 14th
I shared a bill with someone who, I believe has the very same name as me. I'm not certain as I never really got to know
him and his stage name was simple "The Ice Man". His act consisted of trying to melt a block of ice in the allocated
20 minute spot. I saw hime three or four times and he never managed it. This timemy diary describes it as this:'30 minutes
of self indulgent boring crap from the Ice Man who left the audience colder than his frozen block of water'. It was a
tough gig to close after that. I remember.. Others on the bill included, Domonic Holland and Simon Fox who are both still
batting.
Another gig in the month was at Screaming Blue Murder and was headlined by the brilliant Ian McPherson.
Ian, Noel James and myself very much represented the surreal/dry/one-liner side to the comedy circuit at that time. This was
before the likes of Harry Hall (Hill), Tim Vine and Jimmy Carr hit the scene properly and at that time Milton Jones was still
doing a more casual style of observational comedy.
Selected from March 1991...
On
March 2nd I shared a bill with names you might recognise. It was at Eddie Izzard's
Raging Bull club at The Boulevard Theatre in the West End. I sometimes wondered why Eddie booked me into this club so early
into my comedy life but he did say to me once that he thought I was the most original comedian on the circuit at that time.
Hey, this was the early 90's kids! There were very few surreal one-liner merchants who spiked up their hair. The full
bill was Phil Jupitus (MC), Noel James (One of the most underrated comedians on the
circuit still!), Alan Davies and Jeff Green.
The Cartoon Clapham club no longer exists but ran for a few years in the nineties with a guy called
Brian Bethel at the helm. I was doing a half-spot with my good circuit friend, at the time, Sean Meo on both Friday 15th and
Saturday 16th. Lee Hurst was MC on the Friday and Owen
O'Neill was closing and Mr. Nasty opening. It was the same on Saturday only with Ivor Dembina in place of Lee as
MC.
One of the first gigs I did was Downstairs At The King's Head which is a long running comedy
heaven in Crouch End. Huw Thomas was the MC for most shows and on March 17th the bill read: Mr. Social Control (Poet), myself,
Cathy Dunning (who I believe is responsible for the idea that is The Weakest Link), Phil McGrade and headlining was Kevin
Day. Despite my best efforts, I was sandwiched between two acts that flattened the atmosphere and although the gig went
well for me, I had to warm them up and then watched my work destroyed by the following act. My notes from the gig indicate
that Mr. Social Control had very little audience control and that Cathy Dunning was probably the weakest link. The show did
get back on track though.
It was to the Comedy Cafe in Rivington Street on March 29th. Dave McCabe
was MC and the other acts were Richard Morton, Sean Meo and Lee Evans. It was a lovely
space once upon a time and I suppose you could say that I cut my comedy teeth at this venue along with The Frog and Bucket
in Manchester in the mid-nineties.
