Laugh a minute! (Jongleurs)

Member Name: djmc

Product:	Jongleurs
Date:	21/04/01 (1461 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Can be extremely funny, good for parties, hen/stag nights etc

Disadvantages: Expensive drinks, poor service, very busy

I had never been to a comedy club and I’m sure I wasn’t in the minority. I had always imagined them to be dark, smoky little rooms with a bright light pointing at the stage, upon which stood a young hopeful trying to make people laugh with old gags. Its not that I never wanted to go, but really never had the chance - it’s not the kind of place you go on a Saturday night instead of the pub. However, at the end of January we had a departmental work night out to "kick off" the first quarter of the year. Someone decided that we would go to Jongleurs comedy club in Bow, London.

Jongleurs are a chain of comedy clubs around the London area and one that I had never heard of before. Although I only visited the branch in Bow, I am led to believe that they all pretty similar. The building is modern looking and nicely furnished. There is a separate bar area downstairs, with the comedy club itself, upstairs.

The first thing that hit me was the size of it! As I said, I always imagined them to be seedy looking, small dark rooms with lots of round tables surrounding the stage. However, what I found was a large rectangular shaped room, with the stage area against one wall, lots of tables of varying sizes surrounding it, and a bar at one end of the room.

We comprised a large group (55 people) and were placed on two sets of tables put together in one corner of the room. I should imagine that the whole room has a capacity of perhaps 500 or more. The other people varied from couples to college groups and hen nights! However, I do question their ability to handle very large groups adequately, but more of that later!

So, what about the comedy? Well, the show itself consists of 4 comedians and a compare. It lasts for about 2 hours, with a 15-20 minute break in the middle. The comedians are generally not famous and are more the up and coming stars. We checked the billings before we went and only recognised one of the listed
names, this being Paul Tomkinson - the (now) presenter of the Big Breakfast. Although, he didn’t turn up on the night. However, this was in no way detrimental to the quality of the show.

The compare himself was extremely funny and had most people laughing within a minute or so. The comedians were all funny, but obviously personal taste comes into play, and different people found some more humourous than others. It’s the usual polished act, and you just know that they do the same thing night after night. They seem to know what makes people laugh and how to link the gags together seamlessly!

What becomes distinctly evident is that they rely solely on the audience to make their show a success. As I was aware, they tend to "pick" on certain members of the audience throughout the whole evening and they seem to become the butt of every other joke. How do they pick their victims? Well, I don’t think that there is an art to it…..it always seems to be people that are nearby and have some kind of distinguishing feature or draw attention to themselves. The evening I was there, the audience members that were singled out included of a group of blonde girls, a young lad (well, young being 17 or 18) and a very tall blonde haired Norwegian man with a comical name (which unfortunately escapes me!)

So were there any problems with the club? Naturally!! The main one being (in my opinion anyway!) that it is not fun being the butt of the joke for the night! Not that it happened to me, but I would find it extremely humiliating to say the least. Avoiding this problem can be difficult, because it is not just a case of sitting away from the stage! Most people are drinking way before the show begins and if you are anything like me (and a lot of others there!) then your bladder begins to give way after not too long. As the show goes on for quite a while, you are bound to need the toilet at some point. One of the common ways that
the comedians got people to laugh was to embarrass someone innocently on their way to the toilet! It became a game, in that people were poising themselves on their seats, ready to get up when the comedian was looking away or in the middle of another gag!

Talking of toilets and other facilities, that brings me on to my next point…..the toilets were clean, if a little undersized for the volume of people wanting to use them. The bar was well stocked although quite overpriced - not that it bothered me, because my boss placed his Visa card behind the bar! However the main problem with these two facilities was that because they don’t allow you to buy drinks during the performance, and most people are too scared to get up for the toilet, there is a mass exodus during the short break, with half of the room mobbing the bar and the other half crowding the toilets - not ideal in a 15 minute break!

We had ordered food before we got there and had expected it to save us any waiting. The food was heavily overpriced and not even pleasant to eat. It came in wooden baskets and the portions were small and the food lukewarm. Considering we had paid over £400 in food alone, this was a disappointment, not to mention that some people didn’t get any food at all. The staff were rushing around all over the place serving everyone else in a short space of time. If you managed to get hold of one, you would be lucky, and if they actually came back with what you asked for, you’d think you’d won the lottery!

As for other services, there was a disco after the show, although for it to work, they had to uproot everyone from their seats and drag the tables and chairs away to make a dance floor! This was quite a disaster as most people just stood around and got in their way - it was like spaghetti junction! As for the disco itself…….it was nothing special. The usual dance music to start everyone off, followed by the older 70’
s and 80’s classics. The DJ had a lot to be desired and couldn’t mix a pancake! However most people were heavily intoxicated at that time, and didn’t seem to care.

So who should go? Well, I wouldn’t recommend cancelling your Saturday night at the pub and going with your friends. At £12 per ticket, plus extortionate drink and food prices, it could prove a very expensive evening. It really is best for work groups (like us), birthday celebrations, stag/hen nights and other similar outings. In conclusion, I did have a good time and was laughing so much sometimes, that tears were running down my cheeks. However I wonder whether I would have been as impressed if I had to pay......

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