Lincoln Comedy Festival « LoveLincoln.co.uk

October 14, 2011

Record Ticket Sales for Lincoln Comedy Festival

Filed under: News — Tags: Engine Shed, Lincoln, Lincoln Comedy Festival, Lincoln Drill Hall, LoveLincoln.co.uk, LPAC — admin @ 10:53 am

Sell-out shows, record-breaking ticket sales and a few strained cheek muscles were the result of a fantastic week of comedy at the Lincoln Comedy Festival.

Nineteen shows took place across three venues as the fourth annual comedy festival brought a mix of some of the best performers of musical comedy, sketch, stand-up, dance and improvisation in the UK as well as some of TV’s best comedians.

The seven-day festival which took place from 5^th to 11^th October recorded its highest ever ticket sales with over 4,000 tickets sold!

The likes of Jack Whitehall, Sean Walsh, Shappi Khorsandi and Jon Richardson graced the line up alongside Tom Stade, Dave Spikey, Andrew Lawrence, Frisky and Mannish, Fascinating Aida, The Boy with Tape on His Face and many more!

Festival Director Shaun Almey said: “We had sell-out shows for Jon Richardson and Shappi Khorsandi’s double header at the Lincoln Drill Hall, Fascinating Aida at the Lincoln Performing Arts Centre and Jack Whitehall at Engine Shed.

“The Suck It and See weekend programme worked particularly well this year and there was a lovely atmosphere around the Drill Hall. There was a healthy turn out for all the shows and people spent the afternoon having a drink, enjoying good food and watching a few shows or just nipping in and trying something they had seen or heard about.

“There was a particular buzz about The Boy with Tape on His Face whose show was absolutely fantastic and had the audience in tears of laughter. It was also great to see so many families in for Little Howard on the Sunday afternoon.

“Overall the festival was a great success and has set the bar to beat next year which will be our fifth anniversary. We’re hoping to make the Lincoln Comedy Festival 2012 bigger and better than ever!”

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October 10, 2011

Comedy festival is a laugh and a half

Filed under: Features — Tags: Fascinating Aida, Henning Wehn, Lincoln Comedy Festival, Lincoln Drill Hall, LPAC — admin @ 4:38 pm

Five o’clock on a rainy Saturday afternoon is not, I would suggest, optimum timing for a stand-up comedy gig, writes Jez Ashberry.

Henning Wehn, Germany’s self-styled comedy ambassador, admitted as much when I spoke to him before his visit to Lincoln Drill Hall for his Lincoln Comedy Festival appearance. “It’s a five o’clock kick-off so we’ll just have to see how it goes,” he said wistfully, assuming perhaps that the inclement weather and lack of alcohol would put a damper on his audience.

He needn’t have worried. I was pleasantly surprised by the buzz around the Drill Hall when I arrived for the gig – he must have packed around 200 people in – and Wehn soon won them over with his smart and edgy culture clash comedy, toying with British and German stereotypes and clobbering the Dutch, the Greeks and the Poles along the way.

“I’d like to apologise to all the Germans in the audience for the late start to the show,” he intoned over the mic at the beginning. “This was due to English inefficiency.”

Wehn’s show continued in this vein, poking fun at our obsession with the war, our stereotypical view of Germans and our inability to beat his country at football. At times he took the audience out of their comfort zone, as when he conversed with a compatriot audience member in German for a couple for minutes (“We were just doing what you English do every time you go abroad”) or when he discussed the Holocaust.

Henning Wehn is unique in that he only does stand-up in a foreign language, and his 75-minute effort was well worth the applause he won from his audience at the end. This was the first date on his UK tour – catch him if you can between now and Christmas.

A couple of hours later I was in another packed venue: this time the LPAC was sold out for the visit of Fascinating Aïda. If you’re not familiar with their act they’re a winsome trio of ladies in evening gowns who perform comic songs accompanied by Dillie Keane on the grand piano. It’s only when you hear their songs that you realise this is not an act for the faint-hearted…

Fascinating Aïda are a subversive lot: refined and genteel on the surface, they sing songs about greedy bankers, dogging, Tesco worship and being ripped off by RyanAir. Musically dextrous, they can turn their hand to a range of styles, from light classical through jazz to hip hop – a hilarious routine in which 60-year-old Dillie Keane professes to be ‘down with the kids’. They even ended their act with a clever song about the delights of Lincoln and bewailed the fact that their next date was in Woking…

Their song ‘Cheap Flights’ has become an Internet sensation – “With over 3 million hits it’s gone fungal!” If you can’t see them live at least click on to YouTube and see what all the fuss is about.

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October 3, 2011

Henning Wehn – No Surrender

Filed under: Features — Tags: German, Henning, Henning Wehn, Lincoln Comedy Festival, Lincoln Drill Hall, No Surrender, Wehn — admin @ 4:15 pm

As a stand-up comic who only ever performs in a foreign language Henning Wehn is practically unique, writes Jez Ashberry.

Germany’s self-styled Comedy Ambassador to the UK first tried his hand at stand-up eight years ago while working in marketing for Wycombe Wanderers FC.

He has since made a successful career as a teutonic funny man highlighting the cultural divide between Britain and Germany and challenging the stereotype that England, not Germany, has all the best jokes.

What makes his act remarkable is that he has never tried to make his own countrymen laugh in his own language; that, he says, would require a whole lot of new material and a complete change of direction.

““I could do comedy in my own language but I’ve never tried it,” says Wehn. “You have to make your material relevant to your audience. How interested are you in the difference between Cologne and Dusseldorf? Not very.”

Wehn has been described as “a vulnerable man grappling with a language that isn’t his own,” but after eight years he has learned to turn his linguistic handicap to his own advantage.

“Of course it’s harder doing comedy in a foreign language,” he says. “First and foremost it’s a craft, and it takes time to get good at it. Back in the day apprenticeships lasted seven years, and I think stand-up comedy is like an apprenticeship. If that’s the case then I should be qualified by now.”

Wehn’s last outing in Lincoln was supporting Stewart Lee at the Engine Shed. This time out he’s slated for a 5pm Saturday slot at the Drill Hall and he’s interested to see how things go.

“It’s an early kick-off –“ he still can’t resist the old Anglo-German footballing rivalries – “so I suppose we’re going to find out what afternoon audiences are like aren’t we?

“Will people want to be indoors at five o’clock? What will the audience be like if they’re all sober? As a rule of thumb it’s better if people in the audience are with it – I’d rather perform to a sober audience than a drunk one.”

To find out for yourself book tickets for Henning Wehn by calling 01522 873894 or by emailing boxoffice@lincolndrillhall.com

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September 30, 2011

Lincoln Comedy Festival – Not Just That Funny Bloke off the Telly

Filed under: News — Tags: comedy in Lincoln, Lincoln, Lincoln Comedy Festival, LoveLincoln.co.uk, Shaun Almey, we love Lincoln — admin @ 10:01 am

There’s less than a week to go before the fourth Lincoln Comedy Festival kicks off and audiences are being urged to take a chance on something new.

There’s a diverse mix of shows in the line-up this year including some of the best performers of musical comedy, sketch, stand-up, dance and improvisation in the UK as well as TV favourites such as Jack Whitehall, Dave Spikey, Arthur Smith, Shappi Khorsandi and Jon Richardson.

A new addition to the festival is Piff the Magic Dragon, a sell-out at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival, who is stepping in and replacing Loretta Maine in the 5pm spot on Sunday 9^th October.

His show goes something like this: It’s not easy being the last of your species. Piff’s wife has run off with Prince Charming, his brother’s in rehab and health and safety laws have forced Piff to quit the booze (dragons aren’t allowed alcohol: it combusts). And nobody is taking Piff seriously as the Greatest Magic Dragon of All Time.

Festival Director Shaun Almey said: “I really want to emphasise that TV comedians aren’t the only good comedians out there; there are quality acts littered across the comedy circuit performing every night of the week in gigs, big and small, up and down the country.

“I get the feeling these days that a lot of audiences tend to make their judgements based on whether a comedian has been on TV or not as to whether they’re good, which isn’t necessarily the best way of deciding. Sure, there are some great acts on TV, but I can bet that most people would laugh more watching comedy live, often without knowing any of the comedians on the bill, than they would sitting watching a 10-minute spot on TV.

“Tastes obviously vary and one person’s favourite act is another persons most hated, and that’s the way it will always be. The best way to find out which is which is to go to gigs, take a chance and watch them live in person without any preconceptions that it’s ‘the bloke/woman off the telly’ so they must be good.

“We try with the festival to bring a bit of everything to Lincoln so we’ve got straight stand-up, sketch, musical, one-liners, surreal, improvised and observational acts all performing during the week. Yes, some of them are ‘off the telly’ but there’s plenty of other great acts that aren’t – or aren’t just yet – that people will enjoy just as much.”

Audiences can also take advantage of the Suck It and See Weekend programme which is designed to encourage people to watch a few shows at a discounted ticket price on Saturday 8^th and Sunday 9^th October.

The festival, which takes place from 5^th – 11^th October across three different venues in the city, starts with a bang with New Art Club’s Big Bag of Boom at the LPAC. The world’s funniest dance duo is back in Lincoln with their latest piece of genre-defining, dance-up comedy, bringing together the most explosive moments from a decade of award-winning shows.

Other acts lined up for the festival include Sean Walsh, Tom Stade, Andrew Lawrence, Fascinating Aida and The Boy with Tape on His Face.

This year budding local stand-ups will also have the opportunity to sign up for a weekend stand-up course with early alternative comedy scene legend and former resident Comedy Store compère Tony Allen!

Check out www.lovelincoln.co.uk for details of the full line up! For clips of all the acts performing at the festival and ticket details visit www.lincolncomedyfestival.co.uk.

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