Revelry at The Redchurch

For the first time in some time I ran a Saturday night event in Shoreditch. The last time I did this it was in a basement of a thumping nightclub and mixed bands with comedians. On reflection a very odd mix but it was how I met people like Andy Onions so it's probably responsible for my descent into mirth making rather than rocking out.

No bands this time around as not only did it turn out this combination simply doesn't work but also also that The Redchurch is a lot smaller than The Workshop and is much better suited to people standing up with a microphone rather than whacking out riffs on guitars.

Not that this stopped my MC for the night, Ariane Sherine, who intermittently belted out sexual innuendo and impressive levels of filth during her transitions from one act to another. Elsewhere Daniel Offen read the audience right and moved away from political commentary to sex, Kate Weston played with her boobs whilst singing a children's TV theme song and Dangerous T got more than a few bemused laughs for his prune juice material.

By the second half the lads in the front row who'd powered the room's energy level so far with their cocktail fuelled interaction and reaction had become lads who'd clearly drunk a lot of cocktails and had peaked into a contented slumber. This made things trickier for the performers that followed but late addition Andy Storey made the room his own and I convinced enough people in the room to join me in "Shuffle and Stop" to make it work. Headliner Sophie Henderson was better than she seemed to think she was, the front row woke up and the largely female audience down one side of the room discussed her take on Dalston and new relationships until way after the end of the show.

All in all, a promising debut which can only build from here.