2006 — A Move to Yeovil, a New Partnership & Some Very Strange Sunday Nights!
In 2006, Shaft Of Wit Comedy made the move from Torquay to Yeovil, teaming up with the newly opened Beach Bar to launch a monthly comedy night on the first Sunday of every month.
The launch brought together three of the hottest rising stars on the comedy circuit, Patrick Monahan, Andrew Lawrence and Jon Richardson, setting the stage for two years of top headliners, open spots and some of the weirdest audiences I have ever encountered. Sunday nights in Yeovil were certainly never dull!
When the night eventually ran out of steam, a new venue under new management offered a fresh start. Enter Tabernacle Junction — and another chapter in the Shaft Of Wit story.
Jon Richardson — From Rising Star to Comedy Royalty
Shortly after his appearance at Shaft Of Wit, Jon Richardson went on to support Alan Carr's first solo show on a 60-date national tour. He later teamed up with Russell Howard for a BBC 6 Music show, before performing his first solo Edinburgh show the following year.
That Edinburgh appearance saw him win the Chortle Best Breakthrough Act Award. The rest, as they say, is history.
Having met Jon at his first gig in May 2003 and made many bookings with him in the years that followed, more than twenty years have now passed. I’m proud to have played a small part in Jon’s comedy journey and to have witnessed, first hand, his well-deserved rise to the top.
Patrick Monahan — From Rising Star to Award-Winning Comedian
Patrick Monahan was already making a name for himself on the comedy circuit, having won ITV’s Take the Mic in 2001. He went on to win ITV1’s Show Me the Funny in 2011, followed by television appearances, national tours and a successful career as a much-loved comedian and compere. His later achievements included the Leicester Comedy Festival Lifetime Contribution Award in 2021.
Andrew Lawrence — A Rising Star with a Distinctive Voice
Andrew Lawrence was another rising star who would go on to make a significant mark on British comedy. After finishing runner-up in the 2003 So You Think You’re Funny? competition and winning the BBC New Comedy Award in 2004, he went on to appear in the BBC sitcom Ideal, perform on Live at the Apollo and Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow, and write and perform comedy series for BBC Radio 4. He was also nominated for the Edinburgh Comedy Award in 2006 and 2007.
From a new partnership in Yeovil to the early appearances of comedians who would go on to become household names, 2006 was another memorable chapter in the Shaft Of Wit Comedy story.
Review: Gagging For It
The Beach Bar was bursting with energy for the opening night of Yeovil's only comedy club – Gagging for It – on Sunday 30 April, 2006.The shiny new venue has a large space and is a good area for comedy, with raised seating areas, sofas to relax on and cabaret-style table layout at the front.With cheap entry price, and plenty of drinks deals, it's an appealing night's entertainment for students.
​
​
Kai Barron
Compere for the evening was promoter Kai Barron. Coming on stage screaming at the bewildered audience with herbs tied over his eyes, he then claimed he was "parsley sighted".This got more groans than it did laughs, but he recovered quickly with a joke about a woman on the front row with very big hair.Having moved to Yeovil from Torquay (where he also promoted comedy nights), his jokes from a Yeovil person's perspective hit the spot, with the local people producing many laughs.There were some average jokes in his act but also some cracking lines, including one about the bar having a Michelin star: "tyre-fitters by day".But the main job of a compere is to warm up the audience for the acts, and he did this well. By the time the first act was ready to come on, the audience was raring to go.
.jpg)
Patrick Monahan
You automatically feel comfortable with Patrick Monahan on stage. He has a very welcoming and likeable manner that wins over the audience from the start of his set. Having travelled to Yeovil on the train, he started with an impressive amount of jokes about Yeovil, the train journey, and why it felt like he was in Lord of the Rings. He had terrific banter between audience members, including a table of big firemen in tight T-shirts. He was delighted when he found out one of them was actually called Sam. He started an anecdote about being in Ireland that seemed like it was leading up to a good punch line, but was distracted by someone throwing some cigarettes in the audience. Irritatingly, he never finished the story. But the punters soon forgot this, as the improvisational material that followed proved to be very popular. If Monahan had been a more serious person, what he said about Yeovil could actually be quite insulting to the residents, but his charming style and friendly demeanour put the audience at ease and people joked with him about their own town. An excellent opening act and a terrific start to the show.
4.jpg)
Jon Richardson
After a short break, Kai Barron returned to introduce the next act. Jon Richardson is a Bristol-based comedian who's only been doing standup since May 2003. During this time he got to the finals of many competitions, became regular compere at the Comedy Box in Bristol, and impressed the likes of Jasper Carrot and Dave Spikey.
The audience loved him from beginning to end, some even showing their love by shouting that they fancied him. He handled all of the heckles brilliantly, and was very quick-witted with his responses.
Some more hilarious jokes about Yeovil, and some banter with the firemen was comedy gold. Why the idea of firemen getting cats out of trees with a hose hasn't been thought of before, I don't know, but the image is very funny indeed. Headed for big things I'm sure, Jon Richardson was another exceptional addition to the bill.
5.jpg)
Andrew Lawrence
Another interval later, and it was time for the headline act. Before Andrew Lawrence had even got to the stage, the first heckle of "ginger" was shouted by an audience member.
Lawrence handled this well, with stories about growing up with ginger hair and why he didn't want to come to Yeovil.
His croaky voice and startled face made for entertaining viewing, and his material started off being very funny, and very slightly disturbing. Armed with a guitar (which would have been better if it was tuned), his first song about a woman he drowned in a lake was hilarious, always returning to him singing a high-pitched melody that got more laughs each time it was repeated. But at this time in the evening, and after a few drinks, the audience got slightly restless and seemed to turn on Lawrence, heckling him throughout the remainder of his set. For a while, it was the comedian swearing at the audience (a strange way to try and win them back), but I don't think many people could have turned that audience around. I found the next song about his little car with an alter ego-like vocal line very funny, along with about half the audience. But the other half were too persistent to keep quiet, and this spoilt it for me.
He lost control and couldn't regain it, which was a shame as his act had been pretty decent up until that point. In front of the right audience, Andrew Lawrence would have gone down a treat, but at the Beach Bar, most of the audience wanted straightforward jokes, which he wasn't producing.
Overall
All in all, it was a great night's entertainment. The main problem is the talking – the bar area got very noisy while the comedy was on, which was somewhat annoying. But the acts were all excellent (even if not all the audience thought so) and for a £5 entrance fee, what's stopping you going along? The next comedy night is on Sunday 28 May, 2006 and will feature regular compere Kai Barron, and headliner Ian Cognito.