If you haven’t discovered The Ocelot Comedy Night yet, my first thought would be ‘where the hell have you been?’
My second thought would be ‘you are completely missing out!’
My third thought would be ‘where have I left my keys?’ but my mind isn’t what it used to be.
We’ve been doing it for a good few years now and month in month out we bring some bloody good quality comedians to Swindon’s Vic and it costs you no money at all.
That’s right, it’s completely free. Although, Darren behind the bar would be grateful if you bought the occasional drink or two.
It takes place on the first Monday of every month and is organised by prestigious comedy agency Mirth Control.
It’s Swindon’s longest and greatest running comedy night bringing you the best national and the occasional international stand- up Comics.
This month you can pop along on Monday July 6 and as usual we’ve got a cracking line-up.
Headliner
We’re pretty pleased about this as we’ve managed to bag the great Gary Colman. We don’t mean Arnold from Diff’rent Strokes (although that would be amazeballs and pretty miraculous seeing as he died a few years ago.)
Geordie funny man Gary Colman is neither a small black man nor the world’s worst ‘Diff’rent Strokes’ tribute act but a critically acclaimed, fresh new stand-up comedian. In 2009 Gary was a finalist in three national new comedy awards (Hackney Empire New Act of the Year, TV Comedy Forum ‘Future of TV Comedy’, and Jongleurs New Act of the Year), won a best ‘comedy actor’ nominee (“my MacBeth ... hilarious”) and became a performed playwright.
In 2012 his first Edinburgh Show ‘Still Rarely Rong’ , a cute and heart-warming show about the disembowelling horror of family life, gained him 4 and 5 star reviews. His 2013 follow-up show was ‘GRIND’, another joyous, uplifting show about the crushing banality of life detailing his former career as reluctant hedonist and professional snowboarder.
Opener
The opening act always has the most difficult job as the audience relaxes into the evening but this month we’ve got Sally-Anne Hayward who will definitely get the party started with a bang. Sally combines the things you shouldn’t like about your best friend’s mum with the sensibilities of Jack the Ripper. An accomplished radio presenter with stage and TV acting credentials (‘Absolutely Fabulous’ BBC, ‘Why the Long Faces’ Square Donkey Productions, and TV warm-up for ‘Deal or No Deal’ Channel 4), Sally-Anne’s confident persona and quick wit have rapidly made her a much sought-after comedian.
Compere
Your host for the evening is Gary Sansome. Gary will be the one trying to get the audience into the spirit of things (so no slow hand-claps please!) He’s a tough speaking (to English folk anyway) off the wall Scottish Comedian and MC.
The Open Spots
Between the opener and the headliner we have two open spots from up and coming comedians. This month we’ve got Njambi McGrath and Smurf (Mark) Docker.
Njambi is described as “the hottest thing to come out of Africa since the Sahara”. She performs regularly on the London circuit. Born in Kenya she worked in IT before retraining to work in higher education, a precursor to venturing into the world of stand-up comedy.
Smurf started stand-up at the relatively late age of 12 as a defence mechanism when he was bullied at school. Not because of his weight, or ginger hair, but because he was a bit of a prick. Smurf used to collect smurf’s when he was younger. Hence the nickname. He’s just glad that he didn’t collect Star Wars figures, because that would have made him a right c**t.
Doors open at 8pm with the comics on stage at 9pm.