Why does property have better comedy connections than me?
It turns out that property people have better comedy connections than I do. I met two of them at drinks with King Sturge last Thursday. I’ll come to that.
My best comedy connection is rubbish, but I’ll share it anyway. In January, I performed at the Comedy Cafe in Shoreditch on the same bill as former Sun editor Kelvin McKenzie. He was filming a ‘Kelvin tries stand up’ show for obscure digital TV channel Blighty and it didn’t go well. Here’s a review: http://www.chortle.co.uk/news/2009/01/29/8194/
See? It’s a rubbish story. If it was judged the same way as a Property Week news story it’d be a news in brief, at the bottom of page 11, and news editor Laura Chesters would probably axe it before it went to press. It’s a rubbish comedy connection too. Kelvin McKenzie isn’t a comic.
Two people at King Sturge did much better.
The first is European investment partner Penny Hacking who told me she was once in a troupe of ten backing dancers for Julian Clary. He was very kind and patient with them, she says. I didn’t think Penny would be as impressed if I told her I recently saw Pete Burns looking at kitchenware at John Lewis on Oxford Street. You know, Pete Burns from Dead Or Alive. And Celebrity Big Brother. Oh, forget it.
The second King Sturge comedy connection is residential partner Tim Wright who said he regularly has dinner parties with Jack Dee. He is like that in real life, apparently.
As a teenager it was Jack Dee videos that made me want to try stand-up, so even meeting someone who washes up while Jack Dee dries – I’m guessing – is a bit exciting.
I had two thoughts when Tim first told me this. The first was: ‘I wonder if he’ll put in a good word for me.’ That was quickly ousted by the second: ‘As if Jack Dee would even be remotely interested.’ I doubt their next evening do will involve Tim telling a similar anecdote about how he met a wannabe stand-up who also writes about the proposed RICS valuer accreditation scheme. It’s even less likely than me talking about Kelvin McKenzie.
The other topic of comedy conversation was The Property Comic (http://www.pmguk.com/comic/) for Land Aid (http://www.landaid.org/), and how tickets had run out for 1-2 July. It’s true, but Property Merchant Group is looking at putting on two more dates on 22-23 September. I hope I’ll be asked back if next week goes well. We’ll have to see.
For now, I’ll leave you with one of my favourite bits of Jack Dee.
In return, if you’ve got any good comedy connections then please let me know at: richard.heap@ubm.com
And if you’ve got any videos of Julian Clary’s backing dancers then send them through too.
