First of all apologies this post has no pictures, but in the rush to get out I forgot my camera, and those that Rainbow took are not fit for public consumption!

Rainbow and Buddy came down this weekend and to while away the evening we went to the Dave Comedy Festival, which in a word was awesome!

The reason for the last minute rush was due to our printer rejecting the ink and we therefore could not print off the second act’s tickets. One quick phonecall to the ticket hotline and they printed off the tickets for us to pick up after dinner. Thank you very much guys, couldn’t have asked for more!

The first act was “The Geeks Strike Back”, billed as :

A long time ago on a comedy stage not so far away …
It is a bright time for geeks and stand-up comedy. Danish comedians Niels Forsberg, Morden May, and Mads Brynnum have been hiding in a secret base for the past year. Now they’re ready with a show that’s guarantied to score a critical hit. A show about all the important things in life: zombies, Death Stars, board games, and evil plans of world domination.

These guys were very funny, and I am ashamed to say I got the majority of the jokes. I guess that makes me a geek of some description, although I’m not sure what flavour yet!

The Exchange Bar was an odd little venue, with the act taking place downstairs. The seating was a complete mix of occasional chairs and little sofas. Buddy was delighted by the spinning chair in front of him, although the guy in front didn’t enjoy spilling his drink as he was spun round by said delighted person. I did like the intimacy and quirkiness of the venue, but it wasn’t completely soundproofed from the bar above so there was quite a bit of background noise. And on the way out, we couldn’t find the stairs due to the curtain covering it and followed several bemused men into the gents!

Then, it was a quick walk away to the Belmont Hotel to see Grainne Maguire’s show “If I could just love myself as much as I love Ed Miliband, my life would be perfect”.

That was all we knew about the show beforehand, except for a short Youtube video on the events listing. I have to admit part of the reason for booking this show was the location and the time it was showing, but she was great.

Her views on Kate Middleton opened my eyes to a more cynical viewpoint. What I did like about her act was that at the end she wrapped up the stories and linked them together with a sort of moral lesson to the story. I would definitely go to see her again, so fingers crossed she is around next year.

We finished off the night at the Lansdowne for a cocktail or two, and only as we left did we clock Grainne was sat in there with her manager (I assume). Would have liked to have spoken to her after the set to congratulate her, but the moment had passed and we had the night bus to catch.

So would I go to the Dave Comedy Festival again? Definitely, the entire night cost broke down as follows :

• Ticket for the Geeks – £5 + booking fee + credit card fee
• Ticket for Grainne Maguire – £3 + booking fee
• Dinner at Pizza Express – £13 for 3 courses using a voucher

It was a cheap night out but full and relaxed, I’m not much into clubbing and the like anymore so it was fantastic to have a good night out and get the endorphins flowing!

On a side note, the other morning I was very confused to walk to work hearing the sound of Big Ben. After checking Facebook a few days later, I found the culprit :