MONKEY BUSINESS BLOG 2011

 

Friday 7 January 2011

My friend John Archer

made a very impressive appearance on ITV1 FOOL US with Johnathan Ross

Penn & Teller  doing his magic routine John Archer did fool them all and was chosen to go to Las Vagas

 

 

Saturday 8 January 2011

A perfect show ,and happy full house for our first show

of the year with all these great acts

Paul Chowdhry

Nick Doody 

Kerry Godliman

 

Kate Lucas

 

+

Matt Richardson

 

 

Saturday 15 January 2011

another full house ,and wonderful night of top comedy

with German comic

HENNING WEHN

Scottish stand up

Geoff Boyz

Nathan Caton

 

Kate Lucas

 

 

Visiting New York comic

Moody McCarthy

 

+funny geek

Pete Dillon-Trenchard

 

and fabulous newcomer

Martin Hill

 

Saturday 22 January 2011

Another happy full house with

smashing performances

from

ABANDOMAN

 

Andy Zalzman

sketch group

      Kieran & The Joes

+

Elliot Tiney

and

newcomer

Gary Trow

 

Sunday 23 January 2011

I was a guest on Internet radio jnetradio.com along with comic Hanna Warman and Tiny Iron also known as half man and half amazing .The famous wrestler from Tottenham has the biggest bicepts in Britain.

After the show in Mill Hill ,we all left together .Tiny had claimed lots of girls regularly line up to say hello to him .I didn't want to hurt his feelings but I did ask him why I didn't witness any of this on the streets of Mill Hill ,he replied "broth it all happens in Tottenham ,not really Mill Hill.

Tiny Iron Half Man Half Amazing

Friday 28 January 2011

We had a singles comedy night with

Hip Hop Comedy duo

ABANDOMAN

Plus

the Peep`s show`s excellent

ISY SUTTIE

plus

excellent award winning

Aussie stand up

Celia Pacquola.

Kieran & The Joes

 

Saturday 29 January 2011

A full house again tonight enjoyed six acts that included performances from

top stand up

Tom Stade

and funnyman

Rob Beckett

 

Thursday 3 February 2011

Our New Act night at The Oxford in Kentish Town included TV & radio personality

Alex Zane

 

trying out new Material & Rachel Anderson

 

 

Saturday 5 February 2011

Steve Hughes

 

Tom Stade

new act

Vahid Jahangard

 

and hypnotist

Hank Stone

all provided excellent entertainment tonight

to a very happy full house

 

 

Saturday 12 February 2011

Multi award winning stand up

Chris Addison performed a top secret set tonight .

 

also included in our full bill was

JEFF INNOCENT

Kate Lucas

 

and

JAY FOREMAN

 

 

Thursday 17 February 2011

Dave Gorman

 

did a top secret first ever set at Monkey Business

to a delighted audience ,and the man was amazing.

 

 

 

Saturday 19 February 2011

A SENSATIONAL NIGHT

with top secret sets from two comedy superstars

Dave Gorman

and

Chris Addison put in another one

  also included in our full bill was

JEFF INNOCENT

Kate Lucas

and

JAY FOREMAN

 

 

Friday 25 February 2011

My friend from the 80`s ,punk singer

Poly Styrene

lead singer with the band x ray spex, famous for her albums like Germ Free Adolescent and hits like Oh bondage up yours ,is reported in the media to be battlling brest cancer.

I was often billed with poly in my poetry and band days, as we shared the same manager (the late Falcon Stewart ) the same Awsome record lable ,and we lived in the same house in Fulham

I wish Poly a very speedy recovery & lots of love

 

Saturday 26 February 2011

Rich Hall who was booked in to give a top secret performance phoned me at 6.30pm to let me know that he felt really unwell ,but would make it up to me at a later date . We still had an excellent night which included a remarkable set from

Nathan Caton

 

Saturday 19 March 2011

Our wonderful headline act was

The Horne Section

 

 

Saturday 26 March 2011

A good night which included a superb performance from

Hari kondabolu

 

 

 Wednesday 30 March 2011

Harry Hill put in a performance tonight

 

Lee Nelson performing at the Harry Hill gig Wenesday 30 March 2011

Kate Lucas at the Harry Hill gig

performing at the Harry Hill gig Wednesday 30 March 2011

 

Sol Bernstein

at the Harry Hill gig Wednesday 30 March 2011

 

 

Saturday 2 April 2011

We had a lovely evening with some great acts including multi award winning

Lee Nelson

  who popped in to make another secret appearance

 

The bill also included

Spencer Brown

 

and

Mick Ferry

 

Saturday 9 April 2011

It was a warm evening ,

but Monkey Business still enjoyed a full house .

The great entertainment was provided from

excellent impro group

The Noise Next Door

+

musical comedian

Robert White

highly enjoyable Irish comic

Paddy Lennox

and funny character act

Ray Green

 

Sunday 10 April 2011

I spoke at Speakers corner for the first time this year

,and I felt I was in good form .

I had to deal with a few unpleasent hecklers though ,including two poorly educated jew haters speaking to me in Jamacian slang.

 

Saturday 16 April 2011

It was another hot show tonight with

excellent stand up

Nathan Caton

+

Matt Kirshen

and

superb showman

Wes Zaharuk

+

funny stupid ,and likeable.

Gatis Kandis

and 

Harlot`s Bra a hilarious female duo

and

John Davoren

 

Saturday 23 April 2011

It felt a little different tonight as The Steeles pub had just changed hands,

after being a sucessfull family business for 30 years .

I just hope that the excellent relationship I have had with the pubs previous owners continues

with The Steeles new owners.

If they were to make any drastic changes I think it would be a mistake,

as the pub is presently a huge success the way it is.

Monkey Business has been part of the Steeles sucess over the last four and half years.

 Everybody in the comedy industry recognises that we have one of the very best comedy clubs

in the UK .

 

Paul Chowdhry multi award winning and critically acclaimed legend put in a secret gig with us tonight.

 

Paul Chowdhry

 

Saturday 26 April 2011

Just heard the very sad news that Punk singer Poly Styrene of

Ex Ray Spex

 from the eighties lost her life today.

I knew her well as we shared the same house in Fulham together.

We had the same manager in Falcon Stewart.,and the same record label (Awome) .I

was her support act on a number of occasions.

Poly was a highly interesting gifted pleasant individual .RIP

 

Dangerous Minds | Portrait of Poly Styrene as a young artist: 40 minute documentary

www.dangerousminds.net

Here’s an intimate look at the much-beloved Poly Styrene.

This BBC documentary from 1978 took me a little while to track down, but here it is in its entirety.

Well-directed by Alan Yentob. Poly was such a extraordinary combination of vulnerability and strength.

 

Thursday 28 April 2011

Just heard The Syrian ambassador's invitation to the royal wedding tomorrow is withdrawn amid criticism of the violent crackdown on pro-democracy protests in the country.

(Sami Khiyami Syrian ambassador with the Queen)

 

 

Thursday 28 April 2011

Malace a double act were good fun at our new act night tonight

 

Thursday 5 May 2011

Mae Martin 

who has been nominated for two Canadian Comedy Awards was a big hit at out our new act night tonight

 

 

Saturday 7 May 2011

We had a nice busy night with no less then seven acts performing tonight which included

Dan Antolpolski

JAY FOREMAN

and

Dyball and Kerr

 

+ smashing 15 year old top actor an magician

Paddy Gibson

and

Damian Kingsley

 

 

 

Thursday 12 May 2011

It was a full house tonight and a cracking night which included

David Mills

Steve Vinacour

Phil O'Shea

Philip Simon

and Lloyd Griffith

and

Gatis Kandis

and this is me on the night on an audience members

lap hosting the show

Martin Besserman taken on Thursday 12 May 2011

 

 

Saturday 14 May 2011

Sweden`s Magnus Betner controversial performed a brilliant 1 hour set

at Monkey Business to a delighted audience.

Magnus Betner performing at Monkey Business

 

 

on Sat 14 May 2011

other wonderful acts on the bill were

Spencer Brown

 

funny musical comic

Vikki Stone

and showman

Stefan Gaphauasen

 

 

 Saturday 21 May 2011

We had our quitest audience attendance for some time ,but our line up was superb with

Controversial ,and very funny

IAN COGNITO

 entertaining girlie Canadian

Katherine Ryan

The 2011 Hackney Empire award winning camp comic

 David Mills

 the lovely Welsh delights of

Frankie Williams

and

excellent stand up and tv personality

Michelle De Swarte

 

 

Saturday 28 May 2011

I was made to understand tonight by the manager of The Steeles that the new

 owners Faucett Inns were thinking to make the upstairs room into a possible dining area or something.

 The previous owners recognised  that I was very good for their business 

They understood that Monkey Business comedy club brought the pub  much bigger dividends overall in terms of it being a regular Saturday night club, with its huge profile.

Our comedy website now receives over 4000 hits a week.,and has a huge mailing list of over 14.000 customers

Between September and April the club invariably has full houses, and

often needs to turn people away due to its popularity.

 

 Monkey Business  made the previous owners  far more money than anything else they had ever tried before

upstairs on a Saturday night,  

Among the top acts that have appeared at The Monkey Business Comedy Club  have been 

Harry Hill, Russell Brand, Michael McIntyre, Omid Djaili, Jimmy Carr, Alan Carr, Dara O Brian, Howard Marks, , Noel Fielding, Rich Hall, Adam Hills, ,Rhod Gilbert, Stewart Lee, Stephen Merchant, Lee Mack,Tim Vine, Reginald D Hunter, Russell Howard,Sean Lock,Ed Byrne Stephen K Amos Lee Nelson , Jack Whitehall, Simon Amstell, Dave Gorman, Chris Addison, and  just about every other top name .

 

 

Saturday 4 June 2011

 Lee Nelson

performed another secret set getting ready for his new TV series on BBC 3 ,and huge coming tour  .Sadly it was a very quite night due to the heatwave ,but all the acts were fantastic including Norway`s biggest comedy star

Dag Soras ,and

     Matt Kirshen

                          

 

 

 Thursday 9 June 2011

    Top magician Pete Firman did his Edinburgh preview

at The Oxford Kentish Town

 

 

 

Saturday 11 June 2011

   acts that performed tonight included 

cheeky funny award winning

Gordon Southern

Nathan Caton

star of channel 4 Skins

Emma award winning

Inder Manocha

 

 

Saturday 11 June 2011

The area manager for Faucett Inn told me today that they are happy to keep The Monkey Business Comedy Club at The Steeles at least until mid November .

I have no idea why they would wish me to go.

 

 Thursday 16 June 2011

at The Oxford in Kentish Town we had

two excellent award winning acts

doing their Edinburgh previews

Francesca Martinez

and  Patrick Monahan

 

 

Saturday 18 June 2011

Lee Nelson

from the Well Good show performed another brilliant top secret set tonight (photo of Lee Nelson Sat 18 June 2011)

+

The hip hop comedy duo

Abandoman 

were also in excellent form 

also pleasing an audience of about 80 was regular star of Mock the week

 

ZOE LYONS

 S

 

Saturday 25 June 2011

a full house 

Our big headline act tonight were

crowd pleasing eccentric 

FRISKY & MANISH

 

 

Saturday 2 July 2011

Patrick Monahan

 performed his impressive Edinburgh Preview

and the other very entertaining performer on the night was very funny

Russian Tatiana Ostrakover

 

Thursday 7 July 2011

Tonight , we were treated to an Ediburgh Preview from the excellent award winning story teller

Sara Pascoe

 

 

Saturday 9 July 2011

The lesbian comic Suzi Ruffell  was very funny tonight

 

 

Thursday 14 July 2011

Rayguns Look Real Enough

the fab musical comedy duo

treated us to a superb Edinburgh preview.

 

 

 

Friday 15 July 2011 .

I went down to Hammersmith to have a heated debate on the radio about woman involved in comedy ,

and if they were as funny as men .It was good fun.

 

 

Saturday 16 July 2011  

We had a full house with a fantastic line up again which saw

Lee Nelson

 doing a secret set getting ready for his BBC3 Well good show released soon

.

 

Other wonderful acts that performed included

 

  Andy Zalzman

 

Jen Brister

 Kate Lucas

 

Lloyd Griffith

and

 Vahid Jahangard

 

 

 

Thursday 21 July 2011

Tonights audience enjoyed one of the best Thursday nights we ever had with plentiful of very good acts including 15 year old JP Luttrell ,

Russian Tatiana Ostrakover

plus an excellent Edinburgh preview from those hadsome boys

The Noise Next Door

 

 

Thursday 28 July 2011

A large turn out came to enjoy some good acts and two performances fromEdinburgh Previews from

 S KE T C H   D E P A R T M ENT

and

Le 122 Stefan Pejic & Ceri Phillips

A decent crowd came along to enjoy a number of  good acts that included

 

 

Thursday 4 August 2011

ELLI TAYLOR

a hugely popular star on ITV s show SHOW ME THE FUNNY

performed tonight

 

 

Saturday 13  August 2011

 I am very saddend to be told by the manager of The Steeles that I must stop the club there at the end of October.

 I have  two and half months notice, which gives me a bit of time to seek out a new venue ,but I cannot see any logic in getting rid of an established comedy club that brings huge profits,and profile to the pub .

I thought the ugly riots over the last few days would deter people from going out ,but it was a reasonably sized crowd infact,

  excellent stand up

Martin Coyote

 

was amongst a few really good performers that entertained tonight

and also proving magic is a ever popular art was 

 lovely Laura London

Laura London

 

Saturday 20 August 2011

We had a quite night ,but there were some good performances from

Chambers & Nettleton

David Baker 

Harriet Kemsley 

BOB WALSHY WALSH

 and impressive visiting Canadian comic

Bobby Maire

 

Thursday 25 August 2011

 My really good friend Pat Monahan who often performs at Monkey Business

 

Saturday 3 September 2011

Fot the first time I operated two shows on a Saturday night ,

This came about because of me having to leave the Steeles in two months time .

Interestingly The Steeles was quite ,but our 1st Saturday night at The Oxford did very well.

All the acts doubled up doing well at both clubs.

Our acts included 

 Lucy Porter

 

David Hasselhoff impersonator 

 Stefan Gaphausen