1999 and we’re looking at the Cosmic Comedy Club, 175-177 Fulham Palace Road, Hammersmith, W6 8. The pub had opened in 1896 as The Greyhound and then, as the Cosmic Comedy Club, was known as a stand-up venue in the 1990s. It went through the name changes of Astro Bar, Puzzle and (the final name before its closure in 2017) Southern Belle. Pubology has some details and an image here.
Tuesday June 1st 1999 and we have an 8pm gig with FREE entrance. And what a line-up for a Tuesday (or any other night):
- Micky Flanagan
- Matthew Wallers
- Stuart Lloyd
- Greg Rogers
- Dave Parton
- Anthony Topazio
- Rick Smallwood
- Jimmy Carr
- Richie Long
- Robbie Pointer
- Ian Salt
That’s a lot of comedians for what is described as having been a “small, intimate venue”.
Having started out in 1998 (see posts here) this was very early on, in Jimmy’s comedy journey.
Who else was gigging?
That weekend had a couple of recognisable names gigging in the area. Note – they were not playing the rooms on their own, just pulling out some names that (1) you may recognise and/or (2) Jimmy has mentioned in interviews etc. or worked with on TV:
- Thursday May 27th – Paul Sinha was at the Cosmic
- Friday May 28th – Janey Godley and Paul Thorne were on the bill at the Cosmic and Alex Zane was at The Room in the Orange Tree pub
- Saturday May 29th – Dave Gorman was at the Cricketer’s Club in Kingston and then, at 9.45pm, at Rowan’s Café Bar in Chiswick. Paul Thorne was at the Cosmic and Boothby Graffoe at the Turk’s Head, Twickenham
- Sunday May 30th – Addy Borgh (full name Addy van der Borgh) played both the Grange Tavern and The Room in the Orange Tree pub
Background
At this stage in his career Jimmy was just performing above pubs and “going on stage after strippers” (his words) so there was no tour name at this point. Just driving up and down the UK, sometimes doing 2-3 venues a night, trying to get spots on open nights and hoping to get enough to cover his petrol money. There is a new page (here) about the UK Comedy Circuit
Leave a Reply