It features interviews with Johnny Vegas, Jo Brand, Ed Byrne, Jack Whitehall, Russell Kane, Rhod Gilbert, Shappi Khorsandi, Lenny Henry and others and is worth a watch.

Is there anything that grabs your attention?

James Cook has joined this cohort with a post titled ‘Why the Birmingham comedy scene repeatedly dies on its hole…‘. His gripes are that (and I apologise for paraphrasing):

• research shows that residents of Birmingham are the most risk averse in the country. We have a drinking culture, but not much of a ‘going out’ culture. This makes things difficult for promoters
• there are too many poor quality comedy night charging people good money to see new, unpaid acts. These nights are rubbish and will put people off ever going to a comedy night again

I don’t claim to know too much about this – I go to the occasional stand-up show, but I don’t have James’s experience of the local comedy scene and he’s not the first to have made this complaint. However, from a lay punter’s point of view, I was under the impression that if comedy’s your thing then Birmingham caters for you pretty well. We’ve got:

• the NIA and LG Arena for the big, mainstream touring shows
• Town Hall and Alexandra Theatre for other biggish touring shows
• two main stand-up venues - The Glee Club and Highlight
• other occasional shows at The Public and the MAC. Warwick Arts Centre and various places in Wolverhampton are fairly close too
• some smaller, regular nights bringing in some decent national names (Comedy Junction and Popcorn Comedy)
• there’s a proliferation of other, smaller nights at pubs and bars around over the city too

In terms of general promotion, we’ve got a dedicated comedy website and (almost?) every year the Birmingham Comedy Festival draws a ring around a load of shows happening over the space of a month and shouts about them.

That seems like a pretty healthy spread to me. Certainly a good deal more than many other towns and cities can claim. Does it constitute a ‘scene’? If not, is it just the audiences for the smaller gigs that are missing, or something else?

I’d be interested in hearing what people think. Or, seeing as how he started the discussion, leave a comment on James’s post.

We’ve got a pair of tickets to see acclaimed comic and Fringe favourite Paul Sinha at Town Hall on Tuesday 23rd November up for grabs.

Here’s a little more about Paul:

Paul Sinha has spent much of the previous decade garnering rave reviews for his self-deprecating tales of his life as a GP, lovelorn gay bachelor, quiz fanatic and social coward. This year, he doesn’t want to discuss turning forty, because he has bigger fish to fry. A racist called him a racist. Paul would like to fight back.

And if that hasn’t tempted you, here’s a selection of glowing reviews from his recent Edinburgh Festival show and more:

‘Superbly crafted and erudite stand-up… highly recommended.’ ***** Scotsgay
‘This is one of the best written shows in Edinburgh right now.’ ***** The Skinny
‘Mesmerising… entertaining and thought provoking’ **** The Scotsman
‘Alluring mix of quick wit, self-deprecation and fierce intelligence’ **** Fest
‘Impressive… a breathless polemic relieved by sharp jokes.’ **** Chortle
‘Intelligent and bitingly radical… genuinely funny… enjoyable and uplifting.’ **** Broadway Baby
‘Fast-paced, surprising twists and laugh-out-loud punchlines’ **** Hairline
‘Paul Sinha is a star.’ **** Edinburghisfunny
‘A triumph…explosive punchlines and laser guided political asides.’ Independent On Sunday
‘Reassuringly intelligent and very funny’ Observer

To win, all you have to do is leave a comment on this post with your name and we’ll pick one winner at random at 12noon tomorrow.

Good luck!

Listings come from Live Brum (although they’re not coming through quite right at the mo, so check Live Brum itself), news comes from Chortle and they add their own news, previews and reviews. Their Twitter account puts out a weekly top tip.

The Glee Club and Jongleurs are the main venues around town so it’s worth browsing their listings too, just in case.

You can download the audio from the website and play it via a Garmin or TomTom satnav thingy or a GPS-enabled smartphone or PDA. It’ll play on your computer too if you want a taster.

In case you’re interested in creating something similar yourself then have a look at Geovative for the tech behind the scenes.

There’s a bit of a review here from The Guardian and I’ve downloaded them for the next time I’m out and about. If anyone else has a go I’d be interested to hear what you think.

Created in Birmingham doesn’t tend to cover comedy very much although, as people have pointed out, there’s no lack of creativity going on with it.  The problem is that, although I come across plenty of listings, there’s been no-one (that I’ve found) writing passionately and consistently about the city’s comedy scene.

Until now – enter Who’s Laughing Now?:

With news, listings, features and a kind of curation area for YouTube vids, it’s been launched to coincide with the Birmingham Comedy Festival and is the brainchild of Rich Batsford and Simon Harper.

Rich explains on his own blog that:

The site has been created with the intent of developing the comedy scene in the area and is more or less an open forum – we are very happy for all local promoters to send in previews of their events.

We are also on the lookout for other writers or budding journalists who are interested in publishing reviews through the site. Whilst there’s no money on offer, its all good experience and we would expect to be able to get free show tickets for our contributors when they are reviewing a show. Are you interested? – please contact us

I’m really chuffed to see this and think there’s a whole heap of potential here, so good luck to them.

Comedy escapes CiB’s notice most of the time so here goes a mention of the Birmingham Comedy Festival 2008, featuring an impressive list of talent, including the Edinburgh Festival’s newly crowned Perrier (or whatever) Award Winner, David O’Doherty.

Holding up Birmingham’s end are drag duo Patrick and Bernadine (Solihull Arts Complex, 4 Oct) and a whole host of local folk at ‘Wrote Under and Friends Comedy’ at the Kitchen Garden Cafe on .  There’s possibly a few more localers too, but none I recognised on the festival’s listings page.

The Old Joint Stock Theatre is also hosting a day dedicated to Tony Hancock at the Old Joint Stock Theatre on 11 October.

It’s the big names that will stick out, of course, and there are plenty of those this year.  As long as Dylan Moran, Mark Steel and Ted Chippington get the attention they deserve all will be well.

The festival starts on 3 October and ends on 12 October.  Visit the Birmingham Comedy Festival website for more info.

cutup loads of tv and film footage and make daft audio and video with the results

and describe themselves as the Chuckle Brothers with samplers. Think adverts, political speeches, sitcoms and music videos all mixed together inna cheeky style, along the lines of Eclectic Method, Negativland and The Party Party, if you’ve heard of them.

My favourite track (so far) is DJ Reach’s recreation of NERD’s ‘Lapdance’, using quotes from Alan Partridge. It’s very special (and maybe ever so slightly NSFW) and is on his Myspace page.

The Chop Shop are DJ Reach (who also has a YouTube page) and Roger Species and they’ll be playing at Custom Made at the Hare and Hounds, Kings Heath on 24 May.

The gig is on December 19th. Details here.