Comedy in Hull - A Ringside Seat - Thursday 2nd February 05 By Jim Higo

While we all sit around moaning about the lack of decent live entertainment in Hull; Buzz Comedy Club have been doing something about it. While we get in from work, moan again about the lack of decent live entertainment in Hull, then put our feet up and watch some more reality TV; Buzz Comedy Club have been bringing alternative comedy acts to venues in the North.

While we moan some more about the lack of decent live entertainment in Hull before vegetating in front of another mind numbing soap opera; Buzz Comedy Club are putting on quality comedy nights in Hull. The question now is "Does anybody care?" Buzz are showing a commitment and faith in the area by putting on comedy shows at both The Ringside Pub on Beverley Road (the first Thursday of every month) and also at Nellies in Beverley.

The first night at The Ringside was Thursday 2nd February and 48 paying punters crammed into the upstairs room, which I estimate made it about a quarter full. From a population of 200,000 plus, this is a truly remarkable turn out. Little wonder really that acts look upon Hull with a combination of indifference and disdain.

Maybe we secretly want to exist in a cultural and artistic vacuum? Maybe we actually enjoy moaning about the lack of decent live entertainment in Hull? Maybe we really like having nowt to do? Or maybe most of us are just too fucking idle to get up off our arses and tear ourselves away from the tele (I know most nights I am). We arrived slightly late and the compere, scouse Bill Woolland greeted us in the traditional stand up manner with a torrent of (mild to moderate) abuse.

Woolland's material may not be cutting edge or topically satirical (who cares) but he kept the audience amused with some witty interaction and showed a more than capable array of put downs especially when dealing with a heckler who was unfortunate enough to possess a particularly prominent proboscis.

The first act was Dominic Woodward a stand up from Manchester. His twenty minute routine had the audience howling hysterically at gags on themes ranging from importing scallies to France, the deaf and the blind, mobile phones in cars and a job interview for Halifax Bank (my favourite bit). Woodward's comfortable style was both endearing and impudent and apparently he used to work in McDonalds as well.

Second on was Mike Wilkinson from Leigh for a slightly longer set which, although seeming at times a bit disjointed, was sprinkled with some great one liners and laid back sarcasm. Mike was relaxed and confident with great gags about pound shops and overdubbing a porn film for an Irish audience.

The final act of the night was Duncan Oakley with his own brand of musical comedy. An impressive guitarist he delivered a mixed repertoire of impressions, rewritten pop songs and some fast and frantic original material. From a version of Paint it Black for Michael Jackson to his provocative One for the kids he provided tremendous entertainment in an irreverent, loud and wonderfully childlike manner. Cleverly mixing the music with the stand up, he produced a marvellous climax to a cracking evening.

I don't know how many times I laughed throughout the night but if it was a hundred times, then it was a hundred times more than if I'd stayed in and watched The Bill. I also talked to other members of the human race (some who weren't even from Hull) and drank lager socially rather than at home with the Slaters and Mitchells. I don't know if the people of Hull will support the Buzz comedy nights enough to enable them to be a success. Nor do I know if anybody really cares whether the comedy nights continue or not.

I don't even know if Buzz have really just recently won the 2005 Les Dawson Award for excellence in promoting live comedy, as they proudly boast on their website. But what I do know is that I will be back at The Ringside on Thursday 3rd March to see the next comedy night and if you enjoy laughing, then maybe I'll see you there as well. You know it makes sense. www.buzzcomedy.co.uk

Reviews, Books - The Horse Whisperer by Nicholas Evans Reviewed By Steve Rudd
	It was in America that horses first roamed. A million years before the birth of man, they grazed the vast plains of wiry grass and crossed to other continents over bridges of rock soon severed by retreating ice. They first knew man as the hunted knows the hunter Read more...

Reviews, Books - Eleanor Rigby by Douglas Coupland Reviewed by Steve Rudd
	I realise that by deciding not to do things, I've lost millions of threads of chance and opportunity to have new experiences, to meet new people - to be alive, really. So now I'm going to start doing things I'm bad at again. Heck, I'm going to do things Read more...

Reviews, Books - The Cossacks by Leo Tolstoy Reviewed By Steve Rudd
	The one way to be happy is to love, to love self-denyingly, to love everybody and everything. If you fancy a nice little slab of classic literature, then this beauty of a story might be for you. Set on the harsh Russian Steppes back in the nineteenth century, this simple-living Read more...

Reviews, Books - Pink by Gus Van Sant Reviewed By Steve Rudd
	Famed Hollywood-based director Gus, like actor Ethan Hawke, is now making his name as an author too. This is his debut novel, and a bizarrely tripped-out one at that, putting the reader in the mind of Douglas Coupland Read more...

Reviews, Books - God's Debris by Scott Adams Reviewed by Katherine Horrex
	God's Debris explores the philosophy of physical science within a fictional story. It was written by Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert and is the number one best-selling E-book on the planet. Adams himself describes it as a Read more...

Reviews, Books - Ice Run by Steve Hamilton Reviewed by Steve Rudd
	This is Steve's sixth action-thriller novel, and it is arguably his most exciting and accomplished so far. Michigan-born Steve sets all his work in such a perpetually snowbound state (or so it would seem from reading his work), Read more...

Reviews, Films - Ae Fond Kiss by Ken Loach Reviewed By Jane Foster
	I've been a Ken Loach fan ever since I saw Kes. I tend to think of that film now as the million-times-better precursor to Billy Elliott ( I couldn't be doing with that schmaltzy effort). Loach is the king of social realism that hits you where it hurts, and yet leaves you with a lingering sense of having Read more...

Reviews, Books - One Man and his Bog - 20 Years of The Adelphi Reviewed By Michelle Dee
	I have just returned home from a Monday night at the Adelphi club on De Grey Street clutching a prized copy of the unique One Man and his Bog. (The History of the Adelphi) I had new dark Kit Kats to eat but I didn't spare them a thought, until I had read Read more...