Alternative Comedy Memorial Society. New Red Lion.

The best place to get your alternative comedy fix is to attend the fortnightly Alternative Comedy Memorial Society gig at the New Red Lion. The bill included lots of people that I hadn't had a chance to see before (Chris Boyd, Jacob Edwards, Mushy Bees, a Hungarian man and Thomas Nelstrop) and lots of my favourites (John-Luke Roberts, Thom Tuck, Nadia Kamil, Tom Bell, William Andrews and Colin Hoult).

There seems to be another returning feature that I didn't quite pick up on last time - to kick things off, a comedian will do a set in another language. A Hungarian man, who's name escapes me, broke into English half-way through his set and John-Luke Roberts responded by poking his head out from backstage and giving him a very disapproving look. Nadia Kamil pretended to be a penis pretending to be Banksy and William Andrews had a jumper on his head whilst showing footage of a lost dog on a motorway that defied capture for hours whilst simultaneously playing For Today I Am A Boy by Anthony and the Johnsons. He said that he didn't understand why people feel emotional while listening to songs like Angels by Robbie Williams but then this scenario propped up in real life and he found himself sobbing. He went on to say that it's not the song invoking emotions per se, but the events taking place while listening to the song. GREAT STUFF.

I did enjoy Chris Boyd, however, he did use quite a bit of audience participation to get laughs (after his set Thom Tuck congratulated Richard, the audience participant, for turning Petis Filous into Frubes - hilarious). Stand-up from a zombie, Thomas Nelstrop, made me giggle lots; "one zombie turned to another zombie and his head fell off... we've all been there". Wasn't so sure about The Masked Comedian (Jacob Edwards - although, I do appreciate what he was trying to do) and Mushy Bees (he/she was a great artist, though). Tom Bell was excellent (he always is) and I especially liked his Angelina Jolie recipe for pancakes.

There were some great larks just before both intervals: a Q&A with a piñata called Alan (he was destroyed by a monkey, aka Thom Tuck, before questions were asked and answered) and 2 audience members played Gareth Gwynn Buckaroo aka THE BEST GAME EVER INVENTED. Basically, 2 contestants took it in turns to place a plastic fork in Gareth Gwynn's spectacular beard and the first person who's fork falls out is the loser. After each fork was strategically placed, Thom Tuck would shake Gareth Gwynn (quite violently at times, I have to say). At the end of the game, Gareth Gwynn had 33 plastic forks in his beard. He came back on stage for another round after the second interval only to reveal that the beard was no longer (RIP).

Photos, as ever, are by Diamond Geyser.

A thought.

Spotting Greg McHugh in the audience will bring about what can only be described as a "fangirl moment".