Posts Tagged ‘comedy’

I appear to have become the resident photographer at Jan Jacks Laughter House.  This is a good thing.  I get to see some of the top comedians in the country, and I don’t have to pay.

On the bill last night were Juliet Meyers, Andrew Watts and Steve Day.  They all put on great shows, but my favourite had to be Mr Watts.  The lady with her head in her hand was being picked / hit on by Mr Watts.  Superbly funny.

It was a rainy night in Salisbury and it was the second time this year I’d left home with the sole purpose of laughing at people for the evening.  The event was Laughter House in Salisbury which was taking place at the Milford Hall Hotel.

On stage were compare Phil Dinsdale, with comedians Jan Jack, Andi Osho and Mr Bob Mills.

The audience was partly filled by local business networking people.  A fiver from each of their tickets was being donated to the Pash4Cash fund.   Pash aka Sarah Howells is a local business woman and friend to many of us, founder of “The Passionate PA”.  The fund has been set up by a couple of her close friends so she never needs to worry about money again.  For those who don’t know Sarah’s story you can find her blog here.

Okay, back with the fun stuff.  Another fine evenings entertainment was had.  Although I’m still not quite sure I liked it when the compare picked on the photographer!  It’s funny really.  A few years ago I used to hide at the back of the room in comedy clubs, the thought of being picked upon almost scared me enough not to go into the room in the first place, now I’ve got so much more self confidence I’m up there towards the front shooting away.

Enough with my words, and on with a few photos from the night…

Last night I was asked to do some photos at a comedy club in Basingstoke.  Now there was a time when comedy clubs scared me a little.  I was scared I was going to be the poor sap some mean comedian picked on for the evening.

Now though, I don’t care.  At least I don’t care when I have my camera in my hands.  I feel I have a proper reason to be there, to walk around, and stuff.  Also I feel part of the crew, I’m there doing a job, and the comedians seem to respect that and hence I’m not a target.

My visit to Jan Jack’s Laughter House (www.laughter-house.co.uk) last night was my first visit to a comedy club in about 8 years.  Then I was sat in the back row, scared shitless I’d be one of the audience the comic picked on.

The show was great, with host Danny Dawes introducing Matt Reed, Spam Ayres, Joel Dommett and the main act Bob Mills.

It was one of the hardest things I’ve had to photograph.  Normally at concerts and live shows the hit rate of acceptable shots goes down, but the lighting was just awful for me (great for the audience and performers) but for me, urghh, bad bad bad!

I had my Canon 5D Mark II up at 5000 ISO, I was shooting at f2.8 and I was still only getting shutter speeds of around 1/20th.  Flash, not that I had one with me isn’t an option at live shows like this.   My hit rate took a tumble, I must have deleted about 85% of the shots either on the night or in post editing.

Given the lighting, and it was the first time I’ve photographed comedy, I’m really pleased with the results.