CityLife

Seymour's Sundayland is a bundle of fun

SUNDAY SERVICE: Seymour Mace

THERE are plenty of stand-up gigs cropping up in pubs and bars across the city but every now and again something a bit unusual breaks out.

The latest edition to only a handful of gigs trying something a bit different is Sundayland.

After all comedy doesn’t just have to be confessional stand-up or, for that matter, earnest.

“The main emphasis is on having fun, being silly and trying to build up a core audience of people who like to have a laugh and they’re not too serious about… I don’t know, I don’t like people who are too much up their own ar*e about comedy. I know you probably can’t write that but…” explains Seymour Mace, comedian and creator/curator of Sundayland.

It’s unsurprising that someone such as Mace should start up a night like Sundayland given that he is one of the more quirky figures on the stand-up circuit.

Sporting off the wall one-liners, an endearing oddball demeanour and a toy sheriff’s badge, his stand up set has always embraced the kooky.

“I got into comedy because I like to have a laugh and to be stupid and I think it’s easy to lose sight of that especially when you turn professional and then it all becomes about - you’ve got to make money, you’ve got to pay the bills.

"But the best comedy is by the people who love to do it and that can be people who are getting paid and people who aren’t.

Enjoy it

"If you love doing it then I think it comes across to the audience and that’s why I wanted to do Sundayland because I really enjoy it.”

Fellow comedians and character actors Lee Fenwick and Peter Slater are fellow core members of the show, then there are other special guests each month, this month it’s CityLife Comedian of the Year Eddie Hoo and Jeff Downs the man behind the Conspiracy Theorist Rod Shepherd amongst other characters.

Stipulation

“The only stipulation (for the guests) is it has to be character-based comedy that they do because there’s not really any nights for character comedy is there? (None) that I can think of that are specifically character comedy nights, a few do sketches but this is me doing my bit.”

The rest of the show involves a fair amount of audience interaction and a great deal of tomfoolery.

“I present it from behind a desk - I suppose it draws comparisons to Vic and Bob because that’s the way it’s presented and because I’m from the North East and it’s silly.

"I do features, I do the news for dogs, I do little bits and pieces like party popper roulette; it’s like Russian roulette but with party poppers and only one of the party poppers is live.

"There’s live Guess Who where the audience become the board. You get a punter up from the crowd, the audience all stand up to become the board, the punter picks one out I turn round and then I’ve got three guesses and if not they win a prize.”

All in all it’s a perfect way to round off the first weekend of the month.

“It’s exactly what I want it to be and it’s getting better every month, hopefully it’ll just keep growing.

"I'm thinking about taking it to Edinburgh this year, we’re trying to sort out a venue up there to do it.

"So hopefully we’ll build up a cult following. If you like comedy but you’re a bit bored of stand up, come along and see Sundayland, you might not like it but I can guarantee it’ll be different from what you’re used to.”

Sundayland is at XSMalarkey (Remedy) on the first Sunday of every month. 8.30pm. £1.50 members, £3 non-members.