Peter Grahame Walsingham - You Should've Been Here Last Week

[00:00:00] You could count the punters on one hand, but the sweet they would completely wrap.

[00:00:07] They were filled up to the guttles, they were chewing down the street, they said,

[00:00:16] You should have been here last week, I swear, you should have been here last week.

[00:00:23] Oh yeah, you should have been here last week. It was absolutely mobbed. Mobbed last week, it was. I have no idea why that's meant to make you feel better because it normally just utterly depresses you, doesn't it? Well, yeah, you think, well, wait a minute, am I just one week behind in every one of

[00:01:41] my bookings?

[00:01:42] What's going on?

[00:01:43] Yeah, well, if it keeps on happening experiences of being a promoter, which do indeed stretch for about 43 years. So he's probably the longest in the tooth promoter that we interview in all these podcasts. I would say there's not many people being doing it longer than 43 years is there? There's a few actually, there's one that you mentioned that we are

[00:03:02] going to interview, but we'll let the interview play out. Yes. Here he is. Obviously we have And you are the runner, the person behind the, can also say, esteemed downstairs at the Kingshead Comedy Club in Crouch End, mostly pronounced by MCs as crucial in your... That's right. A co-founder really with Hugh Thomas, which is some of your less esteemed listeners, a

[00:04:22] younger will remember.

[00:04:24] Yeah.

[00:04:25] I remember. this in this short time, but I've been quite ill over the last year. And as a result, Georgina particularly has been covering for me at the club. And I get all these reports back from comics saying it wasn't the same in that room because Georgina was being nice to me.

[00:07:05] No, I was just thinking I was even going and found this place in Crouch End underneath the pub and put on a show and asked me to help out as a, you know, as one of his students or post-students, because after I'd left, I mean, he was a lovely guy and a great presenter, but he's not a great organizer. And Alex had seen it said I'd like to have that and Hugh sold it to him for whatever it was. And on one provider says as long as I can do it in my own So, you know, there was a small mixture and the stuff coming off the street as well, you know, street entertainers at Covent Garden was just a funny little network of pubescent tax, you know. I mean, what's given you the most amount of pleasure from booking a comedy?

[00:09:44] What would you?

[00:09:45] Money. Yeah, so it's never been a thing about money. It's something I enjoy doing and I've often said to people I've never had to sign on and when I haven't got work elsewhere, it's made the bills, you know And we the other thing I know people tease us about it, but we do other stuff there We do music we've got a very good set up the sound and broadcast there which we invest in

[00:11:02] We never give the comics good microphones because they know more than you've ever known in your life. Yeah. And I'm very careful about who the host is. And if you have the right host, you have less chance of trouble. It's

[00:12:24] difficult to shout at some hosts. You know, you're looking the idiot. people do not realise don't laugh at that. That is crucial information. Investing some lights and a microphone that isn't going through an Argos home entertainment set. Think about the focus of the show which is the stage and then if you work backwards

[00:13:42] from that you should make all the right decisions they won't allow them on the dance floor which is in front of the stage. I might. Now there's 3000 quiz world for floor days. Oh, good. I was a musician years ago, one of my gigs. I used to do the tea dances at the Ritz.

[00:15:02] Oh wow.

[00:15:03] It was a piano trio, piano bass and drums.known sax fan player who was on it once as well. I think you got the sack because we'd get this 15-minute break while the piano player, Jeremy Westford, who is this incredible player

[00:16:20] and nobody had ever heard of,

[00:16:21] knew every song in the book and played brilliantly.

[00:16:24] We'd get 15 minutes off.

[00:16:25] We'd play for four till, sorry, four till, can go into the comedy. Both of you probably know this. I would much rather spend my time with musicians in that little room than comics. Comics are psychopaths. Yeah they are. I don't

[00:17:40] know what psychopaths are. One of the funn you know with Harding, Mike, Harding? They do a few songs and then find that the the chat between the songs was getting bigger and bigger. I think there was the same

[00:19:03] thing but then the folk circuit was certainly the precursor for comedy clubs place, you know, office block with with eight big rooms in the basement that were made out of concrete, you know, it's not glamorous. It's not pretty. The number one dressing room at the Palladium is fucking awful. You know, it's so I had that from going following my father around

[00:20:20] these places as a child, just knowing that it was just business show business. I still like a laggy old git. You still go back to instances which were exciting. I mean, I get in Andrew Bailey on form with just the early 20s, I imagine. In his late 50s, mid 50s, and he was event apt and he was sorting things out and trying bits out with this horrible, horrible doll that had just been bought off the shelf, you know.

[00:24:06] minutes we've ever seen in our life. Hugh and I were crying with laughter as everything was reversed. Every time the doll talked, go did he. Everything was the wrong way around.

[00:24:15] And it was just so brilliant and so funny and the whole audience was in fix of laughter

[00:24:20] and then it slowly dawned on everybody. This wasn't by design.

[00:25:21] It'll be the doll. You're a cop.

[00:25:22] I'm back.

[00:25:24] What was that you said?

[00:25:28] And if you're going to ask me the other one, one of the opposite of that

[00:25:32] was something that happened either.

[00:25:35] Not that long ago, Kevin Maccalya came down, hadn't seen him for years.

[00:25:39] And he just said, I just want to work this thing in.

[00:25:42] And Stuart Lee was standing with me at the audience and then he doesn't have another owl and he points at that. I mean what is your favourite sort of comedy then Peter? What's your favourite sort? That's what I say, you know, I think it's when things happen that you don't expect to happen, you know, and it's the same as with a surprise gag, you know,

[00:28:08] He described the Crouch End audience. What are they like? Encycled. Yes, I'd go with it. It has to change radically. I mean, when we started, it was

[00:28:14] Bedside Land, we had a Hornsie College of Art up the road. Now, a garage is going to

[00:28:20] cost you more than two of your houses are put folks. And then, you know, think about it. Just be polite. Tell us your name, your telephone number, say what you want to do. We can talk it through, you know, I have this thing that everybody says

[00:29:43] is ridiculous about still wanting to do it on the phone. I do I didn't know anything. I didn't even know that scene existed. Do you remember who was on the bill in the early days? Oh God, yes, it would have been John Sparks and we'd have people like Melanie Harold and singer-songwriters alongside musicians, alongside comedians. Yeah, especially the little tiny booth to the side of the stage. It's amazing that even in this little cubby hole, he can hear not only what the acts are doing on stage, which is about 25 feet away. And there's a window and a wall

[00:32:20] in the way. He can hear exactly

[00:32:22] what's going on. He can also hear

[00:32:24] who's actually coming down

[00:32:26] downstairs into the king's head. that's I was really looking forward to that gig this weekend, but now I'm guaranteed I'm going to stiff. We've also been Jonas for other people. Oh, it's terrible when you're the Jonah. I was a Jonah to an act who's now given up. And I think I might have been at that last gig that he did. And even we were discussing it, he's going they've died in Bournemouth. And then, you know, even on the journey, you're saying, perhaps you should stop talking about this. Yeah, it's got inside your head. Yeah. And go, yeah, yeah, of course. Yeah, that's what I'm going to do. Of course, go out and die in Bournemouth. That's exactly what will happen. That's what does happen.

[00:35:00] Yeah, so a big sign outside the town saying, Bournemouth twinned with Jonah.