Comedy

Remarkably, McCarron and Petty have achieved all this while holding down ‘normal’ day jobs. McCarron lectures in English Literature at Roehampton University, where he’s introduced comedy courses as part of the Creative Writing programme. Petty works in IT for a bank. ‘Sadly there’s no synergy with comedy there,’ he says. ‘But both our jobs are quite flexible. We also have a lot of comics running the actual nights for us – people like Aggie Elsdon, Nigel Taylor, Sion James, Lewis Bryan, Kevin Shepherd and Jay Sodagar, to name just a few!’
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Petty does the bookings, promotion and PR. McCarron helps out with this and hosts many of the shows. They share an identical philosophy and the same dislikes: ‘Comics who become promoters to give themselves stage time. Small nights where it’s all about the comics and the audience is disregarded. Gong shows – they’re bloodthirsty gladiatorial events and degrading for the performers. Free comedy night in the main bars of pubs, which are hell for punters and performers alike. For God’s sake, find a function room instead! There’s about 20,000 of them in London!’

Above all, they take a realistic view of what’s needed. ‘With our knowledge of acts playing the circuit, we can book comics into each club who suit the size of room, budget, location and so on.’ More often than not, this doesn’t involve ‘big’ names. ‘We’d noticed there was a large number of acts who couldn’t get a paid slot at, say, Banana Cabaret, but could perfectly well headline a night at one of our smaller places.’ But there’s a growing ambition, too. One long-term plan is to run venues and produce shows at the festivals in Brighton, Leicester, Glasgow and Kilkenny. And Adelaide.

See listings for Laughing Horse Camden (Wed 10 & 17 and Sun), Kingston (Sat), Wimbledon (Sat), Richmond (Sun), Oxford Circus (Mon) and Soho (Tue). Acts wanting to enter the New Act of the Year competition should consult www.laughinghorse.co.uk . Performers interested in booking shows into the Free Fringe should go to www.freefestival.co.uk