Geek Night Out - What Am It?
Paul (left) and Rob (right) rock Geek Night Out
To be fair, it’s probably down to Rob Deb’s history with geek comedy that I first began to ‘come out’ as a geek. I’d always used my exhaustive knowledge on the subject in my comedy material (throwing in weird references to shows no one had heard of bar me and 200 other internet users) but hadn’t found a place to really sell it. It was at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2008 that it all began to come together.
I was up there with a sketch show and wanted to see a few shows to take a break from my own. I’d been invited to Rob’s show, The Dork Knight, and enjoyed not only the content, but the fact that the audience was one of the warmest and friendly I’d seen at the festival. It seemed there was a market for geek comedy, or certainly a place for it amongst the straight stand up shows and boring whimsy comedy that flourished in other venues.
During the very last night of the Fringe, Rob decided to throw out his show and decide to do a straight Q&A session between him and the audience. A few other guest comics came along (like myself and Imran Yusuf) to bolster the show and be there to field geek questions Rob couldn’t cover. It was one of the most fun and entertaining nights of my career and it was a shame that it may be another year before we could do that again… So we didn’t.
Fuck that. Rob and I decided to put our heads together and slap together a show that could take the essence of that one off gig and make it a regular night of great, intelligent comedy but with the geek passion that we infused into it.
Safe and fun
To cut a very long story short (too late!), we thought it would be best if we ran a show that allowed acts to talk about their geek passions in a ‘safe’ environment, but also make it fun and interesting for the audience. At the end of the night’s entertainment, we thought a Q&A session between the acts and the audience might be a bit of a laugh and so we included that element of the Edinburgh show.
To skip to the end, we’ve had six months of shows now that audiences and acts have loved and come back for more. We hope you can come along (if you haven’t already – what’s wrong with you people…unless you live outside London) join in with us as it’s something, we think, is unique, fun and better than a bunch of bloody stand ups going “Oh, aren’t rainbows great?! Imagine taping a bunny rabbit to one and covering it in moonbeams and sprinkles, wouldn’t that would be adorable?
Wait… I quite like that!
Looking good, guys!