London has its own version of The Comedy Store (see here) that opened on May 19th 1979. That May 2009 would be its 30th Anniversary is indisputable. What I can’t nail down is exactly which date the 30th Anniversary Charity Gala was. Or which charity may have benefitted.
I suspect it was May the 18th or 19th.
If it was the 18th then Jimmy had a busy night as, early evening, he was doing a WIP (work in progress) gig at the Hen and Chickens (for his Rapier Wit tour).
What’s confusing is the publication dates on the various stories, so bear with me while I try and pick the bones out of it all.
Chortle announced that the 3 comperes / performers would be:
- Alan Carr
- Andy Askins
- Ian Stone
- Jack dee
- Jack Whitehall
- Jimmy Carr
- John Moloney – compere
- Lee Mack
- Marcus Brigstocke
- Paul Merton
- Paul Thorne – compere
- Paul Tonkinson
- Paul Zerdin
- Phil Nichol
- Phill Jupitus
- Rhod Gilbert
- Sean Meo – compere
- Stephen K Amos
- Terry Alderton
But the Chortle review (here) has the date of January 1st 2009 on it, which must be a typo (unless they have a time machine that I’m unaware of).
The BBC ran a Comedy Store at 30 piece, but this was just giving us “10 things to know”, rather than anything about the event (worth a read though). Although it was dated May 19th 2009, that’s not much help in pinning this event down.
It is interesting though in that it tells us that the opening night featured Alexei Sayle and…Sandi Toksvig. Not 2 names I would have put together.
The article also mentions performers having to “relieve themselves in a sink” and I seem to remember Sandi telling a story (probably on QI) about having to be lifted up onto it, as she wasn’t tall enough to climb up.
That BBC article also tells us that Americans that have played “our” Store included:
- Mike Myers
- Ruby Wax
- Emo Philips
- Dennis Leary
- Chris Rock
A review from The Standard gives us a performance image of Jimmy but is bizarrely dated as April 5th 2012, despite reading as if it had happened immediately after the show.
There is another review from The Independent – but that’s dated May 25th.
There is another article (titled “feature for The Independent”) that is on Textual Healing. This was dated May 18th but is, again, just a historical look back at the club.
Worth a read as it has a paragraph from the comedians, below, talking about their first gig there:
- Alexei Sayle – 1979 (opening night)
- Julian Clary – 1985
- Jack Dee – September 1986
- Eddie Izzard – 1988
- Shappi Khorsandi – 1999
- Michael McIntyre. 1999
- Jimmy Carr – 2001
- Russell Howard – 2002
- Lucy Porter – 2002
- Alan Carr – 2004
For anyone that wants to see a 10-year anniversary Alexei Sayle round up – see this on YouTube. Bizarrely with Mark Thomas pretending to be Alexei’s grandson.
In conclusion – a fund-raising night happened…not quite sure which night or who benefitted.
But I got to read a lot about a famous London Club!!
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