Ian Waller enjoys a return visit to Bath’s best comedy venue for a child-free evening out
Go on, admit it, as much as you love your kids, every now and then you just need a night off. The Krater Comedy Club at Komedia in Bath offers a great excuse – a roll-call of top comedians, along with a MC and the chance to have food and drinks brought to your table.
My wife and I had been a few times before and kind of last minute, we thought we deserved a little grown-up indulgence. If you haven’t been to Komedia, seriously, you’re missing out. It’s a cracking venue which plays to host to a great range of musicians and comedians, all in Bath city centre, at generally affordable ticket prices. The food’s good too.
The Krater Comedy Club takes place every Saturday evening and offers three comedians and an MC, with a disco club night at the end if you fancy it. OK, they’re not generally your top of block comedy stars, rather a combination of one or two who you might have seen in a support slot at something like Live at the Apollo on the TV, plus a couple of support acts for the big names. For our latest visit, the selection was Ben Norris, Alistair Williams and – the Live At The Apollo one – Marlon Davis (pictured above), along with host, MC and audience wrangler Michael Legge.
Yes, OK, pervious visits have seen a decidedly mixed bag of comedy talents but this time around it was all top-notch fun. For MC Michael Legge, it was mainly getting the audience warmed up stuff, inevitably picking on the front row (you have been warned), who, to be fair, took it well and played a good hand. While Michael, for me anyway, started a bit slow, as the evening went on he found his rhythm and generally did a cracking job.
First up of the three main acts was the excellent Ben Norris, a dad of triplets and – according to the poster – circuit legend. He was fantastic, delivering a wonderfully considered series of one-liners and anecdotes, and playing the audience banter like a pro. Like all parent comedians, there was the inevitable stories about his kids, including how one is doing the Duke of Edinburgh Awards. “He’s doing a great job. He’s already crashed the car and said something racist!”
Alistair Williams, meanwhile, left off the audience bashing relied more on a cheeky smile and excellent one-liners and anecdotes. Then top of the bill was the superb Marlon Davis, who initially gave the impression that he could be some bloke who just wandered onto the stage and look a bit dazzled, but them produced a wonderfully clever, original and very funny style of stand-up that was a joy to see.
This was a cracking night out and while was bailed on the disco – I’ve always been a terrible dancer and we had to get up the next morning to get the middle one to judo – it was great to remember what a grown-ups night out was like.
For more information of the Krater Cmedy Club and other upcoming events at Komedia, go to komediabath.co.uk