Ha Bloody Ha ran comedy nights on one of the Ealing Studios sound stages on Friday and Saturday nights. Ealing was the first UK film studio, built in 1902, and I suspect this picture is probably how the building looked in 2002.

It had a licensed bar and seated 125+ people.

Friday May 10^th 2002

Entrance was £8 and booking “strongly advised”, for the 8pm show, starring:

• Gina Yashere
• Paul Zerdin
• Jimmy Carr
• Drew Cameron

The Saturday 11^th show featured:

• Gina Yashere
• Paul Zerdin
• John Bishop
• Pat Monohan

Also, on Saturday (but at Elliott Hall, Harrow) was Rich Hall as Otis Lee Crenshaw. Whereas the gigs above got you 4 comics for £8 – Rich’s gig was £12 (£8 concessionary).

Background

At some point in 2002 Jimmy launched his first “named” tour: Bare Faced Ambition (here).

There is a Chortle Review of the tour (here) that is dated Jan 1^st 2002, which I suspect is inaccurate as the earliest mention of the tour name that I’ve seen was a WIP gig that July. That would make more sense as his first couple of tours were usually launched at the Edinburgh Fringe in August.

He was still performing at places like Up The Creek and Balham’s Banana Cabaret, but also doing a lot of comedy festivals too, across all corners of the UK. These festivals included Edinburgh (here) and Canada’s JFL (here).

Plus, he got to make his first business trips to the US – going twice to New York to appear on Conan (here).

• See all 2002 posts under this tag.
• UK Comedy Circuit information – here
• Pubs & Clubs 2002 – here