They tried to make me go to Riyadh, but I said no, no, no...

Posted on 2009/04/05 17:51:56 (April 2009).

[Friday 3rd April]
A rather nice impromptu work night out occurred this evening. Started off at the usual beer-and-pizza thing where I found a couple of colleagues at a loose end, who all fancied going to get something to eat after work, and so I persuaded them to go to my favourite little Sardinian eatery in Belgravia - the ever wonderful Oliveto.

After that, another colleague had proposed we head over to the Headliners Comedy Club in Chiswick, which, as I had nothing better to do, sounded like as good a plan for the remainder of the evening as any. I don't know why I don't make the effort to go to see live comedy more often, as I always enjoy it immensely. On the bill tonight were three comedians - Jim Tavaré, Otis Cannelloni and Scott Capurro. We arrived a few minutes late so missed the first half of Tavaré's act, but I thoroughly enjoyed Otis Canneloni's onslaught of lovingly hand crafted gags. Perhaps my favourite was the fabulous pun which forms the title for this post - describing a recent tour of the Middle East he'd done -

"I've been to Dubai, Kuwait, Beirut, all over the place. They tried to make me go to Riyadh, but I said no, no, no..."

I enjoyed it even more because half the audience didn't get it (if you're still a bit confused, it's a pun on an Amy Winehouse song), and of the half that did I guess the majority weren't big fans of good old fashioned puns. So I was pretty much the only person laughing. I think in places my sense of humour is probably the absolute inverse of other people - in the same way some comedians try to be avant garde by being deliberately shocking and outrageous, to me a brave comedian is one who attempts to get away with an appallingly groanworthy pun like that. Otis Cannelloni, I salute you.

So that was a lot of fun. After the comedy, we headed on for a couple of final drinks at a nearby cocktail bar, before hailing a small fleet of taxis to take us all back to the various and diverse bits of London we live in.

You're not alone. Otis' delivery was fantastic - I was already crying with laughter by the time he steam-rollered us with that gag.

Posted by Al at 2009/04/06 00:33:32.

Are you sure it wasn't Rayader in mid-Wales?

Posted by John's Mum at 2009/04/06 22:11:08.

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