CityLife

2008: A great comedy vintage

RARE TALENT: Dylan Moran

RATHER than faffing about with a dithery hiatus worrying whether people have the money or the inclination to get their bums down to a comedy night so early in the year, 2008 didn’t pause to mess about.

Instead January saw one of the biggest gigs of the year within a week of New Year’s Day - a rare appearance from the incisive black American comedian Chris Rock.

Plenty of other big acts have popped by this year with gigs from French and Saunders who were threatening us with their last ever tour, Dylan Moran made an appearance, Dave Spikey was on tour and there were a fair few big arena gigs towards the end of the year from Steve Coogan, Lee Evans and The Mighty Boosh.

In May the legendary Buzz club, which was run for 15 years until 2004 by the equally legendary Agraman, opened its doors again at The Southern in Chorlton for a one off gig for the Manchester suburb’s annual festival.

So successful did it prove it returned for a regular monthly night in the autumn.

Former Manchester resident Alan Carr continued his plan to monopolise the love of households across the country with a further series of The Friday Night (or rather Sunday Night as it is now) Project and his own Celebrity Ding Dong.

He topped it off last month with a British Comedy Award for Best Comedy Entertainment Personality and subsequently had to apologise after thanking Karen Matthews in his comments to the press afterwards.

Still, at least his remarks were funnier and far more worth getting into trouble for than Brand’s and Ross’ prank phone call.

Mancunian comedian Jason Manford also upped his game in 2008 adding to his team captainship on 8 Out of 10 Cats with his first solo fronted comedy show Tonightly, which aired every night throughout August.

As ever August brought about an interval in the regular circuit as the comedy community headed for its annual busman’s holiday in the Scottish capital.

Many Manchester acts put on fine performances at The Edinburgh Fringe this year including, Lee Fenwick, Justin Moorhouse and Seymour Mace; but two in particular stood out.

There were more accolades for Jason Cook who performed his second show ‘Joy,’ the follow up to the equally acclaimed ‘My Confessions.’

Plus fellow adopted Geordie Sarah Millican’s debut solo show at the Fringe, ‘Sarah Millican is Not Nice’ garnered many four and five star reviews and won the if.commeddie award for best newcomer.

After a summer break, when XSMalarkey reopened in September it found itself in a new venue, well almost.

Bar XS had had a refit and showed off its reorganised room, with better sight lines to the stage, a lick of paint and a new name – Remedy.

Within the first few weeks of its reopening, the City Life Comedian of the Year heats were held there for the first time. The new pre-heats vetting system worked and the quality of the acts was high.

Though all of the acts that were in the final were great, it was Chinese Mancunian Eddie Hoo that won with his iconic (on the local circuit anyway) brand of highly skilled gags that cut very close to the bone.

The final as ever was during the Comedy Festival and this year saw shows from the likes of Jimmy Carr, Richard Herring, Russell Howard, and Tim Minchin.

Also during the festival was the final of Beat the Frog World Series, which was won by Sam Gore who added the accolade to his previous Anything for Laffs competition trophy - the competition organised by Mirth on Monday comedy night in Iguana Bar in Chorlton and whose final was in September.

In the world of TV, Mancunians Chris Addison and Carl Cooper penned their first sitcom for TV with the Armando Iannucci produced Lab Rats plus Peter Kay made a return to the telly with his X Factor spoof.

Into 2009 and as ever the acts keep on coming. Already booked in are Russell Brand at the Apollo in February, Rob Brydon at The Palace in March,  Ross Noble at the Opera House in May plus rising star Russell Howard returns to Manchester for a gig at the Apollo in June.

Of course in addition there are our regular comedy events and acts at The Comedy Store, Frog and Bucket, Comedy Lounge, XSMalarkey and Mirth on Monday; plus a plethora of nights put on by the likes of Agraman and Rob Riley and other gems of club nights with a range of talents in the pubs, bars and backrooms of this city. Including the infamous Beyond a Joke probably the roughest night of them all.

And don’t we just love them all.