Joss Jones - You Should've Been Here Last Week

[00:00:00] You can count the punches on one hand But the sweet they were completely wrapped

[00:00:07] They were filled up to the gunnolds They were chewing down the street

[00:00:16] They said you should have been it last week apparently when you started. I had to text somebody and ask them when I first got involved in comedy

[00:01:46] because I couldn't remember think it was 87.

[00:03:02] What was the reason you got into comedy promoting?

[00:04:20] Was there any grand scheme behind it? and all the crew who were sort of quite, they weren't hard, but you know, they were the crew from the main venue, and they were all just sort of sitting around having a post sort of geek beer and what Newman was having a bit of a meltdown in front of them, and they were all just looking at him with this like, like crib. Oh. Oh. But it was brilliant that club.

[00:04:24] And it did run for quite,

[00:04:26] well, it ran until we moved to cosmic in 94 when we were there until whatever that was 2000 or so.

[00:05:41] That was a long time wasn't it?

[00:05:43] Nearly eight years I think it was.

[00:05:45] Yeah. you can't see. This is you can go, oh god this used to be a really good gig. I'm going to talk about story someone told me that when the sex crystals play the somebody started, think that you'd be doing this? No, no. Yeah, when I was, when I was in the 80s, yeah. I like to hear, in comedian years of about 93, no, of course we didn't, we thought it was going to be

[00:09:23] he sort of is in contact with a new young promoter. And I should say that's absolutely brilliant

[00:09:25] that somebody who's only 18 year old

[00:09:27] is having a go at setting up Zoom gigs

[00:09:31] and setting up gigs.

[00:09:32] And that sort of in-built enthusiasm,

[00:09:39] you can't advise someone to be like that.

[00:09:42] They're just like that, aren't they?

[00:09:43] They're just kind of giving it a go and they're sticking

[00:09:45] at it. It's just a joy from start to finish. And it's a real blast of comedy for me. I go and see absolutely loads of comedy for the month.

[00:11:03] I squeeze into 30 or days or 28 days in Edinburgh, sort of heckle, they were a bit posher. And it's not as kind of up for it as the North London crowds, I don't think. And yet you still, you've stuck there for nearly seven years, didn't you? And they did come, they did come, but we did run, you know, we had a lot of midweek shows that were hard work to get people into.

[00:12:22] And I don't know if you remember, but in the old days we used to do Edinburgh previews and when it was, there's a compare, there's three comics and you're bound to like one. Yeah. No, she was made to rocketry wasn't it? Well, I hated all four of them actually. So how do you think, and can you been doing it a long time,

[00:15:00] how do you say that the comedy scene has changed? Well I might be wrong but that's how it seems to me that it's... I don't know I want to hear more from you Josh about what you think the problem is with the three comics and MC? I don't really want sort of cause any rutions but it seemed like there was these lineups that got sort of put into universities that

[00:16:04] I mean that leads us on to the other question, I mean, what do you see as the future of, um, there's a big question that the future of live comedy or comedy in general?

[00:16:09] How, how do you think it's going to pan out?

[00:16:11] Well, I think that we find, I think it's established now.

[00:16:14] It's this thing where if you're an act now, you can

[00:16:18] tour and do solo shows, even if you've not got this sort of massive TV exposure behind.

[00:16:25] And, and, and the theatre's little, but you're so far from the stage and it is worth it because there is still that amazing shared experience that laughter, you know, that you get when you're laughing your heart out and you catch the eye of a complete stranger who's really, really laughing as well and it's brilliant. That's what's brilliant about it. It's like having a dance, you know, you

[00:18:46] And obviously in the early days when some really good friends, you know, like Sean Hughes, when Sean won the period, we already had booked being to bring that show to do it with us

[00:18:53] at the TNC2 at a hurry corner.

[00:18:56] And when he won the period, we were sort of fully expecting him to say sorry, Joss, I've

[00:19:00] got to, you know, like, not gonna let me, but he didn't.

[00:19:03] He held it in with us.

[00:19:04] And that was absolutely there as well going, what have we come here for? I don't like comedy. We went in the curry house last year. What's wrong with the curry house? Oh, I've got paintballing. Oh, God. Ironically, I wish they would.

[00:20:20] As you're still booking, and there might be a few comics watching this, what's a good

[00:20:24] way for approaching you for bookings? a full show by somebody. I'm definitely happy to, you know, keep it to contact me. Are you one of the promoters who likes to see film stuff as well though? I mean, I don't insist on it. You know, if an agent or another club says to me, you know, these people are great,

[00:21:40] you should book them. I'm more than happy to trust people. I think,

[00:21:44] well, I can't necessarily get got their own style. I knew you get a new act saying to me, how do I get started? How do I get started? And I always just sit and just go to comedy and it's the same if you want to be a promoter. Just go to gigs and talk to the people and talk to the promoters and talk to the acts. And it's common sense really.

[00:23:01] You know, it's common sense that you don't put all the tables in a big pile next to the fire Well I'm going to thank you for being on the podcast. It's been once great. Yeah that was great. Yeah it was great it was great to have a chat. Yeah really nice. Yeah so that was just Joan's interest in what she was saying about why she thinks the club comedy is being usurped by art centres and theatres which is her viewpoint.

[00:24:22] Just pence who you interview we've got very different reactions from people like Stephen The mouth goes dry, you start sweating, your palms are sweaty. Yeah, the small of your back starts sweating. Places that really shouldn't be sweating are sweating. Your mind is confused. You don't know what to do. What to say. That's the other thing, by the way, there are so many types of commonly deaths.

[00:25:42] I don't know, because once Simon Bly and I once did the Portsmouth John's,

[00:25:46] which is amongst the most hideous gigs in the corner of the room. What's that? Yes, ambience. What's that noise? You know at the old comedy store in Leicester Square, because it was in an L-shape, the bar was round the corner. And when comedians started to struggle, that's how you knew you were going badly because they'd appeared their about why I died. He just can be some feedback. No, leave me alone. About the go on stage. Yeah, you're looking for a bit of fellow feeling and solace. No, you're not going to get it. I've never once terribly at the Berwood Tavern in Berwood in Birmingham, when Frank Skinner was the conperme, a terrible, terrible death coming off stage.

[00:28:22] And he actually hid from me.

[00:28:26] He didn't want to talk to me this out, I'll be okay. And then within about 30 seconds of being on, it suddenly dawns on you. Oh, shit. I'm going to die as well. It's just that unbreakable confidence that you're lying in

[00:29:43] the trenches, waiting to go over the top, you know, it was employable. Oh, God. You know, I think I might have told you that story before about me. When I did this gig at once, the comedy viaduct in Hanwell, just run by the Burkhats, and I had a fantastic gig, absolutely brilliant gig. And two people in the audience were really gushing afterwards. I let them be playing a drink. You're great, you're brilliant. Have you got any other

[00:31:03] gigs coming up? And I sort of laughing, he said're part of PODEMY now, me PODEMY. Yes! And it's a part of a new group of comedy podcasts, which we recommend that you check out the other offerings that PODEMY have. And once again, if you've enjoyed this, tell your friends, for those people watching the YouTube,

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