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by Joe Wilson |
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When I started the Madhouse, I wanted to put on acts at the cutting edge of comedy. But I could hardly have imagined the crazy antics of Dr Luther Coleman, a psychiatrist turned stand-up comedian who became so enamoured with a member of the audience he needed to be physically ejected from the premises. Or imagine Verity who, during one performance, pulled a rotten banana, a giant trout and a frozen chicken out of her knickers. Or the many other nutty acts who won laughs with stunts as diverse as impersonating pigeons, turning up with a kitchen sink (for one gag) or hiding a doughnut between the buttocks.
That is not to say the Madhouse hasn’t pulled in the big names and future stars of comedy. Top comedian Johnny Vegas - the man who made pottery the new rock n roll - chose the club to make a rare London appearance and said afterwards it had restored his faith in comedy. And a whole host of comedians — including Henry Naylor, Brendan Burns, Tony Law, Simon Evans, Kevin Hayes, Rob Rouse, Dominic Frisby, Alfie Joey, Barrie Hall, Hitchcock’s Half Hour, Hal Cruttenden and Addy Borg - went on to major success at the Edinburgh Fringe and on TV after honing their skills at the club. The first gig was on June 1, 1997 on a sunny evening in an upstairs room at the Prince of Wales, in Nevill Road, with five good comedians and a weird animal impressionist with personal problems. It proved an instant success, although tough times were to follow. I hear the Prince is in excellent hands but, in those heady days, it was badly run, and, within three months of the Madhouse’s launch, it was forced out by a rotten manager.
After an eventful holiday at the Arsenal Tavern, in Finsbury Park, the Madhouse moved to the Birdcage, on Stamford Hill, and an upstairs room that looked like it hadn’t been decorated since Victorian times. A packed house greeted ex Teletubby Dave Thompson, who headlined the first gig at the venue, kicking off a wild year, in which the Madhouse truly gained a reputation for lunacy. But in January 1999, the Birdcage’s landlord of that time was evicted by the brewery and I moved the Madhouse to its current home, Ryan’s Bar, on Church Street. For two-and-a-half years now, the Madhouse has been in the downstairs room at Ryan’s, a lovely pub with a fantastic owner, manager and staff. Now on the first Wednesday of every month, the club is flourishing. And, unlike the vast majority of successful comedy clubs, Joe’s Comedy Madhouse has not gone mainstream. |
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Joe’s Comedy Madhouse - Stoke Newington’s only comedy club
- celebrated its 100th gig on Wednesday, July 4, at Ryan’s Bar on Church Street with
its distinctive brand of bizarre stand-up. Over the past four years, the Madhouse has put
on more than 400 comedians, most of them living up to the club’s mad reputation. 