N20 Season of Comedy

BAC’s N2O Festival brings together an inebriating mixture of previews and works-in-progress from some of the most hilarious folks in comedy before they inject laughter into the 2009 Edinburgh Fringe from 5th August. Catch the cream of this year’s Festival before they head north of the border.

EXCLUSIVE EDINBURGH PREVIEWS FOR TWO WEEKS ONLY

Monday 13 July - Saturday 1 August, 2009

PERRIER AWARD WINNER DANIEL KITSON (WORK IN PROGRESS) / PERRIER AWARD WINNER LAURA SOLON

2006 IF.COM AWARD WINNER PHIL NICHOL / 2007 IF.COMEDY AWARD NEWCOMER TOM BASDEN

PAPPY’S FUN CLUB, THE PENNY DREADFULS, RICHARD HERRING, KEITH FARNAN, HANS TEEUWEN, IDIOTS OF ANTS, CARL DONNELLY, THE COMEDY ZONE, NEW ART CLUB, STEFAN GOLASZEWSKI

The stellar line up features a raft of Perrier and if.comedy Award winners, including Clapham resident Laura Solon premiering her brand new solo show: her first since winning the Perrier Award in 2005 for Kopfrapers Syndrome: One Man and his Incredible Mind. Daniel Kitson, who won in 2002, shares the first work in progress showings of The Interminable Suicide of Gregory Church. Also on the bill is Phil Nichol, winner of the 2006 if.com Award for The Naked Racist.

Other highlights include The Penny Dreadfuls with their latest show following Edinburgh hit Aeneas Faversham Forever and Pappy’s Fun Club brand new sketch show, World Record Attempt: 200 Sketches in An Hour. Frisky and Mannish’s School of Pop was a huge hit at Brighton Festival, offering an alternative perspective on pop classics. Richard Herring muses on Hitler’s moustache and outrageous Dutch superstar comedian Hans Teeuwen returns to BAC with his surreal brand of humour.

BAC Artistic Directors David Jubb and David Micklem said: ‘N2O is the perfect way to warm up for this summer's Edinburgh Fringe, or to get a taster if you won't be heading to this year's Festival. We're looking forward to work by some of our favourite names and also to welcoming some of the best new and up-and-coming comedians to the old Town Hall. Come and join us for a pint and a chance to see the best of the Festival without leaving London.’

BAC has a reputation as a space where some of the UK’s top comics have presented their work early in their career, including Bill Bailey, Harry Hill, Lee Evans, The League of Gentlemen and Mitchell & Webb.

Listings Information

DANIEL KITSON Mon 13 July - Sat 25 July, 6pm
WORK IN PROGRESS: The Interminable Suicide of Gregory Church
Gregory had fifty seven letters to write. He’d never written that many letters, not in one go. In fact, he’d never written a single letter and it was taking significantly longer than he’d anticipated. He’d started, full of optimism, curiously enough, at 9am and now here he was 8 hours later half way through letter twenty four. He glanced at his watch and then at the noose hanging over his head.
Gregory sighed.
Had he known how long suicide letters take, he thought, he wouldn’t have cancelled the milk for the morning.
Work in Progress towards a new show about a death postponed by life.
£3 (£2 concs)

CHARLIE BAKER Mon 13 July, 8pm
The World’s Greatest Show-Off
In a city full of show-offs, why not see the greatest? Imagine Frank Sinatra, Jack Black and Jethro had a son. Imagine no more as Charlie Baker presents a preview of his debut Edinburgh show.
£8 (£5 concs)

THE COMEDY ZONE Mon 13 July, 9pm
Avalon annually hand pick the freshest talent on the stand up comedy scene, and this event is always a must see at Pleasance in Edinburgh. 4 short sets by up-and-coming stand ups. Past participants have included Noel Fielding and Chris Addison.
£8 (£5 concs)

IDIOTS OF ANTS Tues 14 & Thurs 30 July, 9pm
This Is War
The Ants are back at N2O with their unique blend of fast-paced sketch comedy. The creators of the most viewed BBC3 comedy clip on YouTube (search for ‘Facebook in real life’!) return with an all-new show.
‘Must See’ Daily Telegraph
£8 (£5 concs)

KEITH FARNAN Weds 15 July, 8pm
No Blacks. No Jews. No Dogs. No Irish. All Welcome
Whilst working in a restaurant in America, Keith came across one of these old racist signs in the manager's office, a guy he had thought was a pretty decent type. Amongst his employees were a young African-American waitress, a Jewish waiter and Irish Keith. The story of that summer and the tension between a racist chef and the multicultural staff frames Keith Farnan’s exploration of racism and religion-ism in the bad old days. The BNP are on the rise, the economic state of the world is in tatters, jobs are being lost and everyone’s scared. But surely we’ll never see those types of signs again. Or will we?
£8 (£5 concs)

NEW ART CLUB Weds 15 July, 9pm
This Is Now
The critically acclaimed and award-winning Morecambe and Wise of dance mix comedy with choreography and live art. It’s 1983 - Madonna releases her first album, Karma Chameleon by Boy George’s Culture Club is the top selling single in the UK, and the 13 year old future contemporary dance star Tom Roden illegally tapes the first Now That’s What I Call Music LP onto a C60 cassette. Fast forward twenty six years – Madonna is a divorcee, Boy George is in prison and Tom has teamed with Pete to form New Art Club. Finding the old cassette in a draw one day, the two of them listen to it together and a brand new show is born. Join Britain’s funniest dance duo as they jump headlong into the dark pool of days gone by and come out covered in a filthy 80s gunk.
£8 (£5 concs)

UNSUPERVISED DETENTION Thurs 16 July, 9pm
Sketch comedy that breaks all the school rules. Our delightful former pupils present a perfectly behaved hour of social satire, surprising songs, scintillating scenes and accordions, as they discover the world that awaits them outside the school gates. Anyone who fails to attend will be locked in the toilet.
£8 (£5 concs)

LLOYD LANGFORD Friday 17 July, 9pm
Every Day I Have The Blues
A new stand-up show about responsibility, growing older and blues music from the misanthropic Lloyd Langford, writer for Never Mind The Buzzcocks and The Now Show.
£8 (£5 concs)

FRISKY AND MANNISH Sat 18 July, 9pm
Frisky and Mannish’s School of Pop
Now one of the most in-demand acts on the comedy circuit, Frisky & Mannish were last month nominated for Best Cabaret and Most Groundbreaking Act at the Brighton Festival with their show School of Pop. Felicity Fitz-Frisky (an English eccentric) and Hansel Amadeus Mannish (a gypsy genius), hail from the world renowned Leipzig Conservatoire, and they are on a mission to re-educate the world about the plethora of hidden elements dormant within the ubiquitous pop classics like Come On Eileen and Thriller.
£8 (£5 concs)

PAPPY’S FUN CLUB Mon 20 July, 8pm
World Record Attempt: 200 Sketches in An Hour
The latest show from if.comedy Award nominees at Edinburgh 2007 and winners of the Chortle award for Best Sketch Act in 2008. Pappy's Fun Club have recorded their own TV show for Channel 4, their own radio show for Radio 4, and appeared as part of Comedy Shuffle on BBC3 and Comedy Cuts on ITV2. Their sell-out third Edinburgh show, Funergy, attracted further critical praise and was followed by a tour of Britain and Ireland.
£10 (£6 concs)

TOM BASDEN Mon 20 July, 9pm
Now That’s What I Call Music-Based Comedy!
Following his if.comedy Award-winning solo debut in 2007, the multi-talented Tom Basden returns with another show capturing the essence of the absurd once more. A barrage of brand new music, ideas, pictures and photos, audiences are invited into the mind of a truly original thinker, as Tom Basden explores the nonsense of modern living with songs on an enormous range of subjects, from the glitteringly abstract to the microscopically mundane. Dynamically dithering around the stage, constantly surprising audiences with his offbeat ideas and sheer ingenuity, Tom’s interpretation of the world is a disarmingly funny, if peculiar take on life as we know it.
£8 (£5 concs)

PHIL NICHOL Tues 21 & Weds 22 July, 8pm
A Deadpan Poet Sings Quiet Songs Quietly…2006 if.com Award winner Phil Nichol previews his new show. Ridiculously deadpan one-liners, fantastically sublime comic poems and quietly engaging comedy songs interspersed with the hare-brained musing of an idiot.
£10 (£6 concs)

CARL DONNELLY Tues 21 July, 9pm
Relax Everyone, it's Carl Donnelly
Relax everyone, multi-award winning newcomer Carl Donnelly is bringing his hotly anticipated debut solo show to this year’s N20. Come along, kick back and laugh yourself silly at his tales of life as a 21st century slacker. Winner of the 2006 Laughing Horse new act competition, the 2007 Chortle Award for best newcomer and the 2007 Leicester Mercury Comedian Of The Year.
£8 (£5 concs)

STEFAN GOLASZEWSKI Weds 22 July, 9pm Stefan Golaszewski is a Widower
In 2054, Stefan Golaszewski's wife died. Now, in 2056, he performs his new one-man play dedicated to her memory. Crushed, alone and 76 years old, he revisits their life together, from the moment they met to the moment she died, and the love still decomposing in his heart. This bitter-sweet story is for anyone who has ever suffered loss as Golaszewski depicts a seemingly perfect life cut tragically short.
£8 (£5 concs)

The PENNY DREADFULS Thurs 23 & Fri 24 July, 8pm
The Never Man
A terrifying new comedy thriller set on a mysterious theme park island. The competition-winners are thrilled to wake up on Beef Island, the joyous theme park resort, full of everyone’s favourite beefy friends. But there’s no way out for one man, waking up with a jolt, remembering nothing of his past. Beef by beef he starts to uncover the horrifying secret behind the island.
£10 (£6 concs)

DAN ANTOPOLSKI Thurs 23 July, 9pm
Silent But Deadly
Triple Perrier Nominee and star of BBC2’s Hyperdrive shares his brand new show.
‘One of this Festival’s unequivocal highlights’ Scotsman 2008
‘Innovative, truth-seeking weirdly magical stuff’ List 2008
£8 (£5 concs)

LAURA SOLON Fri 24 & Sat 25 July, 9pm
Rabbit Faced Story Soup
Laura Solon’s first live show since her 2005 Perrier Award winning debut. A character based comedy narrative of a publisher whose world falls apart when her most prized author goes AWOL and she starts talking to an imaginary rabbit to get her through, assisted by a hopeless call centre worker, and Sir Michael, her sex obsessed boss. From the star of Radio 4’S Laura Solon: Talking and Not Talking, as well as a regular in BBC 1’s Harry and Paul, and ITV’s Al Murray’s Multiple Personality Disorder.
£8 (£5 concs)

RICHARD HERRING Sat 25 July, 8pm
Hitler Moustache
Reclaiming Chaplin’s moustache for comedy, the star of The Headmaster’s Son and 90s double act Lee and Herring muses on iconography, whether racists are closer than Liberals to believing that all people are the same and why an innocent square inch of facial hair has taken the blame for Nazism.
£10 (£6 concs)

GINGER AND BLACK Mon 27 July, 9pm
The Extraordinary Life and Times of Harold
A wartime tale of Churchillian intrigue, suspense and mystery using songs, sketches and animation featuring the highly original male female double act. Ginger and Black recently provided tour support for Simon Amstell and became Chortle Best Newcomer nominees.
£8 (£5 concs)

MARCEL LUCONT Tues 28 July, 9pm
Sexual Metro
France’s premier award-winning misanthropist, philosopher and lover brings his ‘wonderful French wit’ (Time Out) and ‘brilliantly brusque routines’ (Chortle) to you, the ‘ignorant masses’ (Marcel Lucont).
£8 (£5 concs)


BRIAN GITTINS Wed 29 July, 9pm
Roadside Café Owner
In 3 years on the circuit, Brian has written 14 jokes. He’s run them past his wife, Cheryl. She said they had ‘disappointing punchlines’.
‘One of the best comedy characters of the decades’ Ricky Gervais
£8 (£5 concs)

HANS TEEUWEN Thurs 30 & Fri 31 July, 10.30pm
Dutch superstar, comedian, jazz singer and defender of free speech, Hans most likes to spend his days in a hot bath contemplating world peace. But this summer he is returning to BAC with his phenomenally surreal, critically acclaimed cabaret ahead of his run at the Edinburgh Festival.
£10 (£6 concs)

ED ACZEL Fri 31 July, 9pm
Explains All The World’s Problems… And Then Solves Them
A new show to save the world, including such problems as the credit crunch, climate change and, crucially, stand-up comedy. Please note there is a strict no refunds policy on problems you feel he hasn’t solved.
£8 (£5 concs)

THE ORIGINAL TEMPO Sat 1 August, 9pm
Shut Up, Play!
Six Japanese musicians who make music from the unlikeliest objects. Teacups, water, boxes, nutty antics, blown bubbles, glow-in-the-dark drumsticks, grunts, squeals, sound loops and audience noises come together in a kaleidoscope of sound, theatre and colour.
£8 (£5 concs)