This is a review for a couple of 2001 shows at Birmingham’s Arcadian Centre, 70 Hurst Street, B5 4TD. Which I believe could hold around 600 people.

March 2^nd and 3^rd (Friday and Saturday) saw the Glee Club put on shows with:

• Brendon Burns – Compere
• Paul B Edwards
• Jimmy Carr
• Andy Maxwell (more usually known now as Andrew – see his many appearances with Jimmy, here)

Solihull News reporter (Enda Mullen) gave the show an enthusiastic review (see British Newspaper Archives, here).

He said:

That nice chap you saw on the telly, waxing lyrical about the battle of the sexes in a witty manner, might seem more like a psychopath with Tourette’s syndrome when he performs live.

Wonder who he was talking about there?

When he moved on to specifically talking about Jimmy’s, by name, he described him as:

…a real star in the making, if there ever was one.

This was character comedy as its best, the comic playing a bumbling, middle class, public schoolboy type who manages to get the wrong end of the stick through amusing wordplay and class confusion.

This was a highly skilled and well thought out act, original, intelligent and side-splittingly funny.

The reviewer goes on to mention that the Friday night Glee Club audience can be a “bear-pit” but that Andrew seemed comfortable in “involving them to great effect”.

February 28^th and 29^th 2001

It would appear that the Glee Club (and the Brummies) appreciated these guys as they had also performed earlier in the week, on Wednesday and Thursday.

Those two nights had a line-up of:

• Mickey Hutton
• Andy Maxwell
• Brendon Burns
• Jimmy Carr

Background

At this stage of his career Jimmy had been performing above pubs and “going on stage after strippers” (his words) so there was no tour name.

He was now starting to get more regular bookings and was appearing more in dedicated comedy clubs and slightly bigger rooms.

Still a jobbing comic – but about to take a step up, at the Edinburgh Fringe, with Rubbernecker.

There is a page (here) about the UK Comedy Circuit and another for Pubs and Clubs 1998-2001 (here).