WHAT A SHOW – The comedians were hilarious, the burlesque dancers were amazing, a chicken moon-walked and people ate marshmallows. The acts were great, our staff were great, the audience were fantastic -(only 2 spilled drinks the whole night) What’s even more amazing is that a quick nosey around Facebook revealed the rest of Glasgow’s comedy audiences were rude, heckled, talked through the acts etc…we  had people helping out bringing drinks back to the bar and turning the fans on and off for us!

Before the show

Tickets went on sale a little late for this show for several reasons

• Being too thick to figure out how to install the new booking system
• Enjoying those mystical 4 days of summer often known as “Glasgow Summer”
  

So I was a bit concerned that we might be empty but in the last week the tickets started flying out and we sold out on Thursday, 2 days before the show.  I had every faith this show would sell though as it’s a very strong line-up with lots of our favorite acts.

SHOWTIME

Billy Kirkwood

Take a genuinely nice, funny guy, throw in some Red Bull and a mild case of ADHD (the condition, not the Rock Band) and you’ve got Billy Kirkwood. Billy just done a gig in Inverness then drove 3 hours straight to Enterteasement.

Before the gig started, a phenomenon occurred, people raced for the seats at the front. People are normally scared to sit at the front of a comedy show in case they get picked on – with Billy, you want to be in the front because he leaves you with that feeling that he’s everyone’s best friend. Billy done all his funnies and even played a game of Cuddily Bunny (Fluffy Bunny for anyone outside Ayrshire) where our resident front rower Derek was defeated by Enterteasement newcomer Tracy (I think that was her name)

Yet another Word class performance from a man truly at the top of his game right now.

GARY DUNN

Gary’s always goes down well with our audience…and let’s be honest , if you’ve got a moonwalking chicken you’re acts pretty much going to be safe no matter where you go. ‘Colin The Chicken’ dances, did stunts and eventually found a spectators chosen car. There’s a point in the act where you find yourself completely forgetting it’s attached to wires and 2 bits of wood and you realise you’re laughing, screaming and showing genuine concern for a puppet.

Then he made a human puppet from a spectator. The spectator was excellent and he played along to the songs and dances. The whole act was held together with joke after joke and got us off to the perfect start.

SANTA / GRAHAM MACKIE

Mackie’s been in the comedy industry for a long time and even when he’s slagging off Billy Connelly and telling horrible jokes about his daughter he still looks like a big cuddly Santa. Graham told one of my favourite jokes of his about the Shawshank Redemption happening in Greenock Prison. The highlight for him had to be when he got heckled. Graham does a lot of compering and is a match for anyone throwing an insult his way but on this night a comment from the audience flew under his radar and took him by surprise. He was telling a story about going to a make-up counter to get some foundation for his daughter, an audience member (Gemma) said “Uh Oh”. Nobody else heard this but it gave Santa a short fit of the giggles. Hopefully she’ll stay off his naughty list at Christmas and not end up down his celler (You had to be there)

VENDETTA VAIN

Vendetta was the first real top professional that we hired and since then she’s always been one of our favorite acts. She’s moved to London now so we don’t a chance to see her often; but, when she’s available we’re always the first one to snap her up. She did her Russian dance for us which has really unusual music that encourages the audience to clap along to. This ends with a fan dance and the trademark Vendetta pose. Most girls, do a quick pose then run off stage but Vendetta poses for a perfect picture and well deserved round of applause.

Her second act was a balloon pop act to the track Rhinestone Cowboy. In complete contrast to her powerful first act this one was more about fun. Every time a balloon popped more of Vendetta was revealed all followed by another fantastic pose. Great acts – thanks Vendetta – hope to see you again soon.

DAIQUIRI DUSK

Daiquiri has been flying the flag for Scottish Burlesque for the last 7 years. In the last few years she’s done great things and now is not only a burlesque performer but a burlesque teacher, writer and maker of nipple tassels – don’t you just hate these multi-talented people!?

One of her many claims to fame is a Britain’s Got Talent performance where she received a standing ovation from Amanda Holden. So if it’s good enough for Amanda, it’s good enough for us. Her, Bonnie Lass act that starts with a cheeky Scottish poem then finishes with a Highland dance burlesque act.

Excellent and well received.

MICHAEL REDMOND

Michael is an Irish comedy legend, I don’t know if he ever had his marbles but he’s definitely lost a few over the years and the madness just adds to the comedy. Who could get 5 minutes of comedy out of eyebrows? However, one of the best laughs of Michael’s set was a heckle. He was doing his set and was talking about how small jockeys are and someone shouted:

“Are they small or far away” ( A reference from Father Ted talking to Dougal about cows – Michael Redmond was Father Stone in one of the episodes)

Surprisingly as well he also done a bit in his set where he asked the audience who he looked like. In my 14 years attending comedy clubs and watching it on TV I’ve only ever heard 2 comedians do a “Who do I look like?” segment. Maybe the audience had a “he looks like a…” feel to them. Great set and a wonderful applause & screams at the end.

THE TEAM

Our team, yet again, were fantastic! For this first time ever, I don’t think I was stressed on a night and I think this is only the second time we’ve had Cupcake, Star and Lindsey working together. It’s great having people who are great at what they do who genuinely care about what they do.

Charity: You guys Raised £75 for charity via Bathbombs, Minions and raffle. Most of this will go to Bwindi hospital and some will go to a local donation.

Audience: It’s not quantity…it’s quality, but when you have quality and quality – you’ve cracked it.

Chris Matthews: Took 9 people for a night out, Derek, Tamara, Chris Whitehead, Jaggy Pickes, George & Ann Price, Ryan & Kelly, Neil & Jo, Ricky & Carly, Jackie(aka wee burdie) Jo and Gemma, Zoe’s party of 6, Alan King….and the rest of the 120 people were all fantastic.

SADLY: Kev from the Admiral is leaving for pastures new. He’s been great for us, discovered a way of setting up the chairs with the canter passage & has helped out with the sound.

Next show – See Billy Kirkwood on our Woody’s Comedy Club Full Launch night on
May 30th www.woodyscomedyclub.com

Enterteasement: September 13th with yet another great line-up including 2 acts we’ve never seen before. One of Holland’s top magicians & one of the founding members of The Funny Farm.  Tickets go on sale soon.

May 10th Enterteasement Review

What a night! What a SHOW!!! The acts were incredible, the audience were perfect – I’m just sad to say it’s over! Here’s a wee re-cap on the journey.

The Story

We always try to put on the very best line-ups with the resources we have and over the we’ve had some quite spectacular shows. However, this month was one of those months that for some unbeknown reason some of the elite of the Comedy, Magic & Burlesque world were free. It’s been our biggest show ever and the first time we’ve actually provided travel & accommodation for the burlesque acts. (Travel = Train, accomodation = they stayed at mine). This was our most expensive line-up and to balance things off a little we increased the price by £1. Boy you guys didn’t like that!! and it showed in the ticket sales! After our February & March show successes where the tickets sold out in up to 3 weeks before the show I thought this show would have been similar to Robbie Williams doing a warm-up gig for Michael Jackson! But no! The tickets went very, very slowly and for a while I thought we’d actually be empty. However, on the day of the show we sold the last 24 tickets and had a nice busy room.

The Show

STU WHO? Compere / Comedian

StuWho is a very special acts for us. He’s known as The Godfather of Scottish Comedy and he’s been there from the start and literally done it all. TV, massive theatres, working with celebrities, travelled the world etc. Whenever a comedian asks me for advice I say, “Add StuWho on Facebook, watch what he does, find out where he gigs and learn.” He’s a guy who does everything right – When I informed him I’d forgotten to print of the running orders he said, “It’s ok I’ve brought my own” Now that’s professional! It’s always special for me having Stu on the bill because I remember the first time I asked Stu to do Enterteasement, he hadn’t heard of us as we were still quite new and he’s one of the acts who normally only plays the big clubs / theatres. To my surprise he was free and he had a question / condition. it wasn’t changing rooms, poster, description – a bowl of blue smarties. He asked:

“Is it a fun gig?”

I said yes and he signed up and luckily for us he loved the gig and has been back twice since then.

Before I (Woody) took to the stage to go over the house rules I was a little worried as the audience were really quiet and there was a lack of energy in the room. I said to Stu “I’m a bit worried as there seems to be a lack of energy in the room” Stu simply replied, “Well I’lll f***in fix that!” And that’s exactly what he did.  Stu took to the stage and with a commanding performance took charge and got the show the audience laughing and ready for the first act.

Great compere!! – Kirsty Wilson

COLIN CLOUD – Mentalist

A Trendy Sherlock Holmes walked onto the stage and after some lighthearted interaction with the audience he chose 2 people at random to come on stage. One audience member was to think of a word and the other was to think of a card. It just so happens one of the people he picked was Gary Meikle – one of our comedians from March. It was quite funny to see Gary who’s got great stage presence on stage sh***in himself as he was so excited to be involved in the trick and worried people might recognise him and think he was a stooge. Colin, Successfully read what card Gary was thinking of and what word the woman was thinking of.

He then gave the audience the chance to think of any question they wanted. He picked the birthday girl and figured out she came from Irvin, had 2 cats and knew what the names of the cats were.

He finished on his signature piece which not only amazes me; but, really annoys me as I’ve seen it several times and I can’t figure out how it’s done. Colin asks a member of the audience to think of a Surname and just by looking at them figures it out. It almost too perfect; but is one of the closest things to real magic I’ve ever seen. Great performance from one of Scotland’s future big named stars.

Absolutely loved the mind-reader guy never seen anything like that before – Margaret McGeoch

LULU ROXX – Blonde Burlesque

All the way from Newcastle the World Burlesque Games Best Newcomer 2013 came to stage with a fantastic act involving Maracas, an umbrella.  . Not only is Lulu beautiful but you can tell as soon as she walks on stage that she’s a trained dancer. Every step was clearly thought out, she interacted with the audience, flirted and had lots of high impact moves to get great reactions from the crowd.  Her first act was of a cheecky Swedish girl who came on with the a trench coat and stripped while teasing the audience.

Her second act  was more fast paced with a bump and grind edge and big impact moves.  This had the big finish of some glittery champagne which covered some of the audience.  Most of whom loved it except the girls with the fake tan in the front row.

That bendy blonde girl was amazing – I want to marry her – Hazel Murray

TILLY TASSLE – Burlesque

LULU’s partner in crime came to the stage with the same level of class, beauty and stage presence. Now I have to appologise becase I’m not uptodate with my gymnastic terms so there were cartwheel / handstandy type things, splits and bending in ways normal people can’t bend. All in time with the Boom Town music and totally spectacular. This act started slow, then there was a music change into a higher energy act The finish for this act was a champagne finish (one of the classics in burlesque) and it was an excellent way to finish the first half.

Her second act introduced an Enterteasement first – ‘Talcum Powder’  This was combined with some glitter and hidden in a large feather fan.  When she waved this it created a glittery smoke that temporarily covered the audience.  The act started slow but after a music change she changed tracks to a more upbeat song and introduced a mixture of acrobatics and balletic dance movement creating a circus inspired spectacle.

 Smoking hot burlesque – best I’ve ever seen

ROSCO MCSKELETON – Comedian

Real Name Rosco McClelland, Rosco used to be a Stand-up comedian, pretty good and decided to do the Skeleton as a one off at Halloween. Unfortunately for him it went really well, it was unique, original and a breath of fresh air for the Scottish comedy scene. If you haven’t seen it, imagine a Glaswegian Jack Dee with a skeleton painted on his face. He takes to the stage and in a very deep voice he delivers his terrifying true tales to the audience. His slow delivery creates a tension in the audience as they’re dying to laugh but at scared to miss the punchline.

it was absolute class! loved every minute of it as did our audience. One of his punchlines caused our photographer, Stuart Crawford, to buckle over nearly dropping his camera in the process.

Also, something that surprised me was the amount of women who came up to me after the show to say,

“See that Skeleton – he was so sexy” – numerous women

JANEY GODLEY – Headline Comedian

Janey has been on our bucket list for 2 years which is quite ironic because after crossed her off the bucket list I added, ‘Buy new bucket’ to my shopping list.

To my surprise Janey has never performed in The Admiral Bar (we bit of trivia for you – Billy Connelly has – sadly not at Enterteasement) So I think she was pleasantly surprised when she walked through to see seats a stage and a full room of happy punters (that’s quite a rarity). I’ve never seen Janey do the same set twice – she just opens her mouth and funny comes out. When the audience stops laughing she starts again. It was one of our strongest headline performances we’ve had at Enterteasement with her twitter jokes and stories of her husband going getting great reactions.  We’ve now had 7 female comedians and 2 female comedy magicians and after each show people always come up to me and say; “I don’t normally find woman funny but she was amazing”. I don’t book people to ‘tick a box’ I book people I think our audience will like (rant over). They didn’t like Janey they loved her! She walked off stage to a tremendous response and it was a shame she had to run to another gig as she would have heard yet another great reaction when Stu closed the show.

[after seeing Janey]  Need more botox, my laughter lines are now back.  Mrs Murray

PHOTOS

For over 120 photographs visit www.facebook.com/enterteasement

Funny stories

Kick the bucket: After the burlesque girls done their champagne routines, I mopped the floor – the novelty value seeing a man with a mop seemed to make some of our female audience members happy. The novelty value quickly wore off for when I ended up breaking the fu**in bucket – doh!

Born Winner: At the start of the evening I introduce the house rules and some bits of housekeeping.  One of which is that you can win free tickets by filling in the comment cards.  When I walked off a male asked if I was collecting the comment cards yet.  I said “well the show hasn’t started yet so you how can you have any comments about it? “  He’s responded, “I just really want to win the free tickets” 

Real men wear pink: Regulars come in different shapes and sizes but one of our guys Mike, has asked to take booth 1 for the next year!  Very impressive.  Mike turns up every month but we’ve noticed that he’s got a thing for his favourite white shirt.  So on his reserved sign last month we wrote, “We think you should wear a pink shirt next month”.  As Mike’s a real man – he own’s a roofing company, we thought – there’s no way he would wear a pink shirt.  However true enough – he arrives wearing a pink shirt and 007 cufflinks just to keep his manly status 🙂

Strange answer: Colin Cloud asked an audience member to think of someone they knew.  He then said, “And when was the last time you thought of this person?”  Any normal person would think about this for a while and probably not know and say “last week”, “I don’t know, “a while ago”.  Our audience member was more specific, “When did you last think of this person”  He instantly responded “Friday”  (Maybe you had to be there – but it was funny)

AFTER SHOW

We went upstairs and had a drink and all just really had that feeling of “that was brilliant”

We received the following comments:

“Best Enterteasement Ever”

“Best Burlesque you’ve had at Enterteasement”

“Best Stand-up Comedy Show i’ve ever Attended”

“Miles better than The Stand”

“Best night out I’ve had in 3 years”

“Colin looks trendier every time”

“What’s it called when you want to pump a skeleton?”

After the show the girls came back to mine and what lovely girls they are. You look at these 2 stunnng girls and you think DIVA and you’d be wrong – amazingly down to earth. As they’d been travelling the whole day and performing at night I was going to take them out for something to eat and where did they choose? McDonalds! When they left, the tidied up and made the bed and couldn’t have been nicer or been less hassle.

See Our Acts Again?

If you would like to see any of our acts then please add them on facebook check them out as they tour all over and why not spread the love by hitting the like button on their page and telling them you enjoyed their act. That would be your good deed for the day and would encourage them to grace our stage oncemore.

STUWHO: https://www.facebook.com/stuwho

JANEY GODLEY: Can be seen gigging all over Scotland and you can listen into her award winning (and very funny) weekly podcast done with her daughter & fellow comic Ashley Storie.

http://www.janeygodley.com, http://janeygodley.podomatic.com/

ROSCO MCSKELETON: Skeleton Comedian: https://www.facebook.com/ihbihuibgvgigigv

COLIN CLEOD: (Mind-reader) Performs at the Stand Monthly & lots of shows at the Edinburgh Fringe www.colincloud.com, https://www.facebook.com/ForensicMindReader, https://twitter.com/Colin_Cloud

LULU ROXX: Blonde Burlesque Girl: Part Of The Headline Honey’s who travel the UK.

https://www.facebook.com/missluluroxx,

TILLY TASSLE: Dark Haired Burlesque: Part of the The Coquette Collective (Mixed Burlesque troupe)

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Tilly-Tassle/526950934056344

Audience

without you guys there wouldn’t be a show, so massive thanks to all of you including:

The party of 13 for Kirsty Gale. She send us a facebook message to say the day after to say:

“We all had a fab night last night! Thanks again for helping with the tickets!”

Chris Whitehead: Chris has been at our last 3 shows but he is a special audience member. He draws some of the acts. We asked him why he does this and he said, “I go to a lot of shows and I get so much from them that I just wanted to give something back” What a great attitude!

Ashish: Has now been to the last 3 shows and says they just keep getting better.

Byron & Fiona: These guys came to see StuWho about 7 months ago and fell in love with Enterteasement. They come most months now and bring different people with them and always look glamorous.

The Superfans / Hardcore regulars / the ever presents . Tamara & Derek, George Price (who came on his lonesome), The Early bird & photobomber, Neil – who never told me it was his birthday!! (ya fud – I owe you a pint!), his crew is so big it now has sub-crews from Jocelyn. Oh, and where’s Stephanie?- That’s 2 shows she’s been missing, if it hits a third show I’m reporting her missing.

John Brown: John attended our very first show and this is him finally coming back!

Ami Lee:  Booked the booth at 5pm on the day of the show.  Found the gig because someone in the group had said she had seen Janey and wanted to see her again.  Ended up with one of them being a burlesque dancer and wanting to perform for us – small world.

JAGGY PICKLES: Our main fan who can be found on booth 1 – he loves the show so much he’s just asked if he can take the booth until further notice 🙂

Big Thanks To

Our Team: Cupcake, Star, Amanda, Stuart Crawford, Lindsey Leeper.
The Admiral:  Who’ve been great with us – we heard great things about the burgers!

Next Show

JUNE 14th – Tickets on Sale Soon