Comedy Callbacks 6 finalists are announced
The heats of the first ‘Comedy Callback’ competition were held on Saturday at Jongleurs, Broad Street, and we broadcast live from the venue (see: http://www.rhubarbradio.com/live/events/comedycallbackday1.aspx ).
Thirty aspiring comedians were chosen from over fifty entrants to appear live at the heats, each performing five minutes of stand up to our team of judges that included Scott Hempel, Manager of Jongleurs and Broad Street Manager, Mike Olley.
Three hours of heats and an hour of deliberations later the Comedy Callback finalists were decided upon:
Gary Colman is an exciting new act on the comedy circuit who is quickly gaining a reputation as a strong opening act. He has been described as “a hilariously funny, cheeky story teller; absurd, surreal yet all true”.
Okse combines his two loves, comedy and painting. To high acclaim he released a collection of his artwork “The Art of Comedy” and now takes his deserved place on the stand up stage. Okse is described as “one of the worlds new sensational talents”.
Simon Jones our Welsh bundle of charm, Simon turns the problems he encounters in life into a unique brand of observational comedy with deadpan delivery. Simon is summed up in one word “hilarious”.
Andrew Ryan has quickly established himself as one of the most exciting new comics climbing the comedy ladder, being described as “funny, funny, funny” and “one to watch, for sure”.
Simon Feilder returned to the comedy stage in 2008 and is full of excitable energy delivering his own brand of surreal, self-deprecating comedy. Simon has been summed up as “a stand out stand up act”.
Lou Chawner has been performing on the comedy stage February 2005. His confident style of storytelling, original material and unique style sees him described as “Cool, crude, and very funny”.
Our six finalists now proceed to our grand final on Saturday August 1st where they will perform in front of Maria Kempinska, Founder and Creative Director of Jongleurs Comedy Club, and comedian Frank Skinner for a chance to win the coveted prize of a contract with Jongleurs. As you would expect, we’ll be broadcasting live from the final too.
Caroline Ashton, Marketing and Communcations Manager for the Broad Street BID and organiser of Comedy Callback said “The standard of competition today was high. We had 30 contestants that we had to whittle down to six finalists and it was a difficult task for the judging team. All the comedians here today could have held their own in our final. I’m excited for the final and to see who our judges pick as our first “King of Comedy Callback”.
To get your tickets to attend the final of Comedy Callback and see Frank Skinner presented with his Walk of Star honour please visit www.jongleurs.com.
For further information please contact Caroline Ashton, Marketing and Communications Manager, Broad Street Business Improvement District at caroline.ashton@broadst.co.uk, or telephone (07722) 447 496.
Some interesting acts, but in general the material was a bit hack – the only comedian I really rated, and the only one to make me laugh out loud, was Lou Chawner – so I’d have to agree he was a worthy winner. My least favorite was fellow welsh man Simon Jones – I was hoping he was going to be someone we, in Wales, could have been proud of, but his act left me cold – How old is he exactly, because he seemed to be putting on the exaggerated accent of an old Welsh Boyo – his act was not contemporary, and bordered on the perverse – with the first part of it concentrating on being the victim of a paedofile vicar and enjoying it, and then ending his act with a “joke” about an epilepltic child drowning in a swimming pool being the best wave machine in Wales – as someone who has a 13 year old epileptic cousin who almost died last year I found this joke sickening – maybe a more skillful comedian could have handled this sort of subject matter more delicately, but in the hands of an obvious amateur it just seemed he was trying to get laughs from being purely offensive.