Comedy Club Line-Up

Next Monday night JUICE will return to the fantastic Market Vaults pub in Stafford with our monthly Comedy Club! This exciting show is a mix of professional comedians testing out new jokes & material, as well as some newer comedians gaining experience. It’s always a fun, unpredictable show from start to finish.

Last month marked our return to The Market Vaults for the first time in two years, and it was a great show. We packed the pub with somewhere between 50 and 60 punters, everyone having a good time. Through out partnership with House Of Bread, we raised £100 for low-income families, vulnerable adults and homeless people across Stafford. The House Of Bread will be back next Monday night and we’re hoping to SMASH £100 and raise even more money!

The line-up of professional comedians for August has been confirmed and we’re very excited about some JUICE Favourites returning to Stafford!

 

Craig Deeley – a stalwart of the Midlands comedy scene, Craig is an experienced, professional comedian who delights audiences with his story-telling style. A true Favourite of JUICE Comedy, Craig has performed at virtually all our venues over the years.

Kate McCabe – a comedian who got her start on the New York comedy circuit, Kate crossed the pond to join the Northern comedy scene in the UK. Adept at both stand-up and improve comedy, we were lucky enough to have Kate perform for us as part of our professional show at The Gatehouse Theatre in June.

 

Harriet Dyer – Energetic, unique and bonkers, Harriet Dyer is a stand-up comedian no audience will forget. JUICE was lucky enough to book Harriet during some of her earliest gigs, but now she regularly performs for major comedy clubs such as The Glee Clubs, The Stand and The Frog & Bucket.

Also on the bill will be Jayne Edwards, Adam Blaize, Graham Wythenshaw and Joe Ross Williams. As ever, this line-up is subject to change.

Monday 3rd August at The Market Vaults, Stafford. The show starts at 8pm, but spaces in the pub are LIMITED so make sure you arrive at 7:30 in order to get a good spot to enjoy the show.

TV Stars

Tonight, as part of BBC 3’s oddly named “Feed My Funny” series, two JUICE Comedy favourites will be airing pilot episodes for their very own TV shows. Both of these brilliant comedians have performed live at our monthly Comedy Club at The Market Vaults and other shows that we’ve produced in-and-around Stafford.

Both these TV pilots premier tonight at 11pm on the BBC iPlayer, but will then be available on-demand at a time and location of your choosing.

Radges

Set in a pupil-referral unit in Scotland, Radges is about a group of teen outcasts trying to survive a small-town. The cast includes Sarah Hadland, whose comedy credentials include everything from Miranda to Green Wing, That Mitchell & Webb Look to Horrible Histories.

The pilot has been written by JUICE Favourite Fern Brady, and is based on her own experiences in a similar pupil-referral unit. Fern first performed for JUICE many years ago at our Comedy Club in the back of a pub, and we were then lucky enough to get Fern on-stage for our big show at The Gatehouse Theatre.

If Fern’s stand-up is anything to go by,  expect Radges to be smart, sharp, original and ever-so-slightly bleak. Here’s a clip.

Funz & Gamez

A bizarre entertainment game show that’s almost definitely for kids! Hosted by Phil Ellis, who’s girlfriend has left him, taken the house and sent him spiralling towards a full-on breakdown. Phil is joined Jim The Elf (on loan from the North Pole), Bonzo The Dog and the very unsavoury Uncle Mick.

Phil Ellis had one of his very first gigs for JUICE at our monthly comedy club and was an instant hit with our audience. One of his memorable performances saw him do the entire gig in a Dominos Pizza uniform from his ‘other job’. We were also lucky enough to have Phil Headline one of our very first professional comedy shows at the old Reynold’s Cellar Bar.

Other performers in Funz & Gamez also include the talented & hilarious Will Duggan & James Meehan, both of whom have gigged numerous times for JUICE in Stafford.

You can expect a unique, creative, anarchic and bonkers comedy show. Here’s a clip.

Both these shows premier at 11pm tonight on the BBC iPlayer, and will be available on-demand after that.

The Homecoming Show

Last night was the Homecoming Show for our Comedy Club at it’s new venue, The Market Vaults and it was a great success! There were a couple of teething problems with the sound and comedian Liam Pickford had to drop out at the last minute, but we packed the venue with a great audience, had a lot of laughs and raised some money for charity.

The response to our Homecoming Show was been brilliant, and we had 50+ excited punters in the building. All the seats were taken, it was standing room only and the rest of the audience crammed themselves into the pub to watch the show.

Chris Norton Walker drove all the way from London to have a prolonged-yet-hilarious argument with virtually the entire audience.

Critically-acclaimed Michael J Dolan explained why he hates himself, hates other people and hates life, and we somehow laughed through all of it.

We also had a last minute replacement in the form of Tom Little, who stepped in to replace Liam Pickford. As replacements go, Tom Little was fantastic. Tom was a Finalist in the BBC Radio New Comedy Awards last year, and earlier this year he won the prestigious Leicester Mercury Comedian Of The Year award.

Tom’s persona is unique, fascinating and hilarious and he had the 50+ audience in the palm of his hand from beginning to end.

As promised, our Homecoming was an exciting, chaotic and funny show. Best of all, the generous audience helped us raise £100 for House Of Bread, giving donations that will help vulnerable adults & low-income families in Stafford.

The next JUICE Comedy Club is on Monday 3rd August at 8pm.

Market Vaults Line-Up

We’re just two weeks away from our Homecoming Show at The Market Vaults, and we couldn’t be more excited!

For those of you who haven’t been to our monthly comedy club before, it’s a great show. We play host to a collection of professional stand-up comedians from all over the country, who come to the heart of Stafford to road-test some brand new jokes and material. The quality of comedians we attract is always high, and we can now exclusively reveal the line-up for 6th July!

Michael J Dolan – the grumpy misanthrope of the stand-up circuit, a comic who levies hilarious negativity at life itself. Michael performs for major comedy clubs such as The Stand, The Frog & Bucket and XS Malarky as well as Headlining our JUICE show at The Gatehouse Theatre. Described as “Skilful humour from the very dark side” by The Sunday Times.

Chris Norton Walker – a prolific comedian and actor, Chris has gigged the length and breadth of the country as well as performing at The Comedy Store in Los Angeles. One of the most-requested comedians we’ve ever had at JUICE, his animated performances & dry delivery are exciting and memorable.

Liam Pickford – one of the most exciting new comedians on the circuit today, Liam’s act is part-anarchic-stand-up & part-alcoholic-breakdown, which has led him to be described at “the new Johnny Vegas” (by us). Liam hates audiences, hates comedy and only does it for the free beer.

Paul Savage – jack-of-all-trades, Savage is a professional comedian, MC & cartoonist. One of the longest-serving comedians at our comedy club, Paul is the Resident MC for all our professional comedy nights. The last night he played our comedy club at Joxer Brady’s, he leaped onto the audience who crowd-surfed him from the back to the front of the building.

Tom Allsopp – a verbose story-telling comedian, Tom had his very first stand-up gig at JUICE and hasn’t looked back since. A firm-favourite with the JUICE audience, Tom is now an accomplished playwright and Champion of BBC game show Pointless.

The show will be hosted by Stafford comedian & JUICE Founder Rob Halden, who will be generally titting around and delivering nonsense.

Exciting comedians, great night out and FREE entry!

Monday 6th July 8pm at The Market Vaults

House Of Bread

One week after announcing our big Homecoming at The Market Vaults on 6th July, we got to make a further announcement this week.

For ten years we’ve been providing Stafford with a monthly grass-roots comedy club for absolutely FREE. Every month comedians come to the heart of Staffordshire to test out new jokes and new material, and the audience get to be a part of that experience with no entry fee, no charge at all.

That’s not going to change. Our monthly comedy club is still absolutely free. But now we’re going to be asking our audience to make a charitable donation.

 

We’re going to be imploring our audiences to make a donation to the House Of Bread, a charity that provides food, hot meals, support & services for low income families, vulnerable adults & the homeless all across Stafford.

In the current climate where governments & councils are cutting services and support for those in need, charities like the House Of Bread are becoming a necessity and a lifeline for a wide spectrum of people. And they need our help.

So, starting Monday 6th July, on The First Monday Of Every Month, JUICE will continue to put on a great stand-up comedy show for absolutely free. But we’ll be asking out audience, as they laugh and enjoy themselves, how much has our show been worth? £8? £5? Do you think our show was worth £3? Whatever you think our show has been worth, however much entertainment you feel we’ve given you for free, please donate that money to the House Of Bread.

Official Volunteers from the House Of Bread will be at our monthly comedy club with their charity boxes for people to donate to directly.

• Maybe you think over the last decade you’ve had £10 worth of free comedy from JUICE – you could donate that.
• Maybe you think our show has been worth a fiver – you could donate that.
• Maybe you’ve got a pocketful of change from buying your last round – you could donate that.

Thanks to our wonderful new venue, The Market Vaults, we’ll be doing this each and every month to try and help people out. And if you don’t have any money to give (because times are tough), House Of Bread will have a Food Bank Collection Box with them where you can donate things like;

• Tinned Fruit
• Biscuits
• Dried Pasta
• Rice
• Toiletries

We’re excited about this new chapter in JUICE and we hope you’ll be able to join us and doing something small to help people in Stafford.

Coming Home

Last night was a HUGE night for JUICE Comedy, as we returned to the Gatehouse Theatre for the first time in over a year. These big, professional shows are so much fun for us. We get to play with a budget, hand-pick our favourite comics from the circuit, bring them to the heart of Stafford and showcase them in what is just a beautiful room for stand-up, The MET Studio.

Every comedian that we book tells us how much they love playing The MET Studio. It’s intimate but not small, with nice, low ceilings for the acoustics and round cabaret tables for the front row. It’s also fantastic to have professional sound & lighting to highlight our comedians and make them the best they can be.

For this show we’d put together one of the strongest line-up of comedians we’ve ever had. Strangely for us, only a handful of tickets were sold in advance for the show. Even 5 days before the event, we’d only sold 40-odd tickets. This caused us a lot of concern, as all our previous shows were three-quarters full weeks in advance and sold-out before the night. As it turned out, three days before the show tickets started flying out the door and we ended up having the BIGGEST ATTENDANCE EVER for a JUICE show!

But it was a stressful month for us when it looked like tickets weren’t selling. Our friends & colleague in the theatre industry tell us that, across the country, people just aren’t buying their tickets in advance and every show comes down to the last 5 days.

Paul Savage returned as our Resident MC, holding the show together & warming the audience up. Paul has a natural ability to engage people and draw them into the event. His audience interaction is brilliant and sets the perfect tone for the rest of the night.

First on the bill was Freddy Quinne, a comedian who has earned a reputation for being one of the most entertaining and exciting MC’s on the circuit and is gaining lots of attention on the circuit. Freddy actually had his first ever gig as a comedian for JUICE Comedy five years ago, so was it great to welcome him back now as a true professional.

In the middle of the show we had Kate McCabe, a stand-up who began her comedy career in America and who now has a great reputation on the English comedy circuit. Kate brought her background in Improv and physical comedy with her, performing some very memorable physical routines.

Also in the middle section was Hannah Silvester. Hannah has performed for JUICE at our grass-roots comedy club, and we’ve seen her numerous times at new material night, but it was great to showcase her on a professional stage. Hannah possesses a unique voice in the comedy world, delivering brilliant routines on middle-class domesticity and some excellent musical comedy.

Headlining the show for us was the wonderful Danny Buckler. Danny is a comedian with such a high-level of talent that we’re constantly amazed he isn’t on the telly every week. The show so far had been good, but Danny took it to another level and made the show great. The audience was laughing so much and so hard that twice when Danny tried to wrap things up, the audience wouldn’t let him and begged for more (which Danny was happy to give).

In the middle of all this came a special announcement from JUICE Founder Rob Halden. As you wil know, Dear Reader, out monthly comedy club became homeless two months ago when cafe/bistro Number 15 was suddenly & unexpectedly closed down. For the first time in 10 years JUICE was homeless, with no venue for our monthly grass roots comedy club. But last night Rob Halden announced that JUICE had found a new home. Or, more accurately, an old home.

On Monday 6th July JUICE Comedy will return to the venue where it all began, the pub formerly known as Joxer Brady’s, but now currently the successful and popular bar The Market Vaults!

We’ve incredibly excited to return to our spiritual home, which has improved drastically since the last time we were there! The pub has a completely new lease on live with a refurbishment, wider selection of beers, some of the best food in town and a commitment to live music.

We think The Market Vaults is going to bring us a brand new audience and this chapter in JUICE is going to be the best one yet!

Monday 6th July – New Material Show

The Market Vaults – 8pm – Free Entry

What’s old is new again, as we return home to the Market Vaults! This FREE show is our grass-roots comedy club and will feature professional comedians road-testing BRAND NEW material for the very first time. It’s fun and unpredictable and we’ll have details on which comedians will be performing very soon!

Where To Find Us

Wednesday 25th September 2013

Welcome, dear reader, to the first J-blog in quite a while. But we haven’t been resting on our laurels all this time, we’ve been hard at work putting together some really exciting shows for Stafford!

JUICE has recently taken over the comedy nights at Staffordshire University, and Monday night saw our debut show at the Legends venue for Fresher’s Week. To kick things off we’d put together a stellar line-up of comedians, a really first-rate bill.  Headlining this show we had star of Mock The Week and Dave’s One Night Stand, Mr.Gary Delaney!

Gary gave Stafford a very special 45 minute set which included a Sneak Preview of the brand new material he was due to record on Tuesday for Mock The Week!  This was a rare treat for any audience, and we were really excited that Gary wanted to work with us and Stafford Student Union.

We didn’t have just ONE TV star on the bill, we also had the talented Fern Brady as well! Fern is a fast-rising star in the comedy world, and will be appearing on Comedy Central’s Alternative Comedy Experience later in the year.

Paul Savage returned as our resident MC and Compere, continuing the relationship he’s built up with the student audience over the last few years. Also on the bill was the energetic self-help enthusiast Robin Parmiter. Robin previously impressed JUICE at our New Act / New Material Show, and it was great seeing him in front of a large audience.

Although this show was open to the public and promoted to non-students, it’s notoriously hard to get the people of Stafford to come up to the campus. The show was a real bargain, just £5 to see a TV-level Headliner. But alas, the people of Stafford did not make the journey. But not to worry, dear reader, 140 students packed-out the Legends venue until it was standing-room only!

We’ve also been putting together our next show at the newly refurbished MET Studio! On November 1st JUICE returns to The Gatehouse Theatre with a line-up of brilliant comedians. Not only will we have the simply marvelous sketch-troupe Gein’s Family Giftshop, but we’re also having the brilliantly misanthropic Michael J Dolan! Both these acts have just finished up exciting runs at the Edinburgh Festival. Tickets are already available from The Box Office.

Sunday Share

This week’s Sunday Share features brilliant sketch troupe The Beta Males! The guys are performing every night of The Fringe Festival at The Pleasance Dome!

Wednesday 31st July 2013

Right now thousands of comedians are descending on Edinburgh for tomorrow’s commencement of the world’s biggest arts festival. Some of JUICE’s favourite comedians will be performing at the Fringe Festival, and throughout August we’ll be able to bring you exclusive blogs from comedians reporting behind the scenes!

Speaking of Edinburgh, we’re really proud of the Edinburgh Festival Previews we were able to put on in Stafford over the last three months. All the comedians who performed are no doubt going to achieve great things at this years Festival. Look out for Tony Jameson, Michael J Dolan, Katie Mulgrew, Phil Ellis, Kiri Pritchard-McLean and Gein’s Family Giftshop, as they’ve got bright and exciting futures ahead of them!

Monday night sees the start of a brand new chapter for JUICE Comedy, as we move our monthly New Act / New Material Show to Number 15. We’ve got some great things lined up for Monday night, including the release of our JUICE Comic Strip. We’ve collaborated with Stafford artist Jade Thompson to create a series of newspaper-style comic strips. We released one of these online earlier in the year. This time around, however, JUICE decided to do some guerrilla/zine-style publishing. The small black-and-white comics are a simple concoction, dreamed up by our imaging & design whiz CODENAME_U81K.

The comics are absolutely free and will be available as of Monday from Stafford businesses such as Number 15, Joxer Brady’s and Stafford’s very own comic book shop Too Fat Goblinz. Make sure you look out for them!