June 1999 had already seen Jimmy at the Cosmic Comedy Club, appearing with Micky Flanagan (here).
Located at 175-177 Fulham Palace Road, Hammersmith, W6 8, the pub had opened in 1896 as The Greyhound and then became 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.
Saturday November 6th 1999 was “new act night”, compered by Windsor. Admission was free so I think we can guess how much the acts were paid!! Starting at 8pm the line up were advertised in this order:
- Barry Castagnola
- Teresa Hellen
- Village Hall People
- Graham Alexander
- Alun Cochrane
- Mark Down
- Mark Alen
- Pam Ford
- Jimmy Carr
As they were all new acts, I doubt the ordering meant anything. Jimmy being on last COULD have meant that he had an earlier gig somewhere else, that I’ve not found yet.
Alun Cochrane has appeared on 8 Out of 10 Cats and would also have known Jimmy from various festivals (here).
Who else was gigging?
The ad for the show above was in the Hounslow and Richmond Chronicle and there were a couple of other names advertised that you may recognise:
Thursday 4th / Cosmic Comedy Club
For £5, from 8pm, you got to see:
- Andy Smart
- Dylan Fielding
- Richard Ayoade
- Gordon Southern
- Nick Wilty
Friday 5th / The Room, Orange Tree Pub
Starting at 7.30pm Laughing Club took your £6, laid on Alfie Joey as compere and delivered:
- Stewart Lee
- Ivan Steward
- Ava
- Danny and his Yellow Balloons
Sunday 7th / The Room, Orange Tree Pub
Laughing Club again. From 7pm Juliet Cowan compered a £5 evening:
- Shaun Pye
- Steve Morrison
- Stuart Stanley
- Francesa Martinez
- Adam Green
Shaun Pye has written for all kinds of UK panel shows (here).
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 page (here) about the UK Comedy Circuit
There is another page (here) for The Year 1999. It lists everyone that I can confirm were on the circuit with him, plus which comics were on TV / Radio that year.
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