Loads of funny female comics took to the stage and had the audience laughing all evening. Highlights included the compere Mrs Barbara Nice, the 2009 winner of the Funny Women competition Miss London, Carrie Quinlan, Deborah Frances-White and a memorable and hilarious performance by A Ant (Bridget Christie).

Dead Ringers star Jan Ravens taught us how to impersonate Anne Robinson – we had to make crow noises to practice her voice! With so many brilliant acts on the bill, some of the sets were over too quickly. Even the interval was fun thanks to free cupcakes courtesy of Wendy May Cakes.

Funny Women was founded in 2002 to inspire and promote female stand-up comedians. The annual Funny Women competition gives female stand ups the opportunity to compete and get noticed. One of the most successful comedians to come from the awards is Mock the Week star Sarah Millican.

Visit the Funny Women website to find out about live stand-up comedy events, including the Second Sunday Showcase and workshops where you can learn some comedy skills.

Now here at the Met Bar we don’t take ourselves too seriously (as you may have noticed by now!), but even we were feeling unusually subdued this week, so we knew we needed something extra special to perk everyone up. Luckily, our good friend Jonny Awsum came to the rescue on Wednesday by taking us all on a Summer Holiday, when the Jonny Awsum Show went tropical!

Hawaiian leis garlands were mandatory uniform upon entering the bar, and Russell – everyone’s favourite cross-dressing glamorous assistant – was resplendent in just a grass skirt and a pair of coconuts.

Things kicked off with a limbo competition. There were no surprises when Jo walked away with the winning prize (make of that what you will!). This was quickly followed by a sing-a-long with West End star Jack Shalloo to Summer of ‘69.

Other top hits of the night  included Heaven is a Place on Earth and Freedom with singer/song writer extraordinaire Belle Humble.

A hula hoop competition kicked off the second half of the show, which ended up with just about EVERYONE in the bar having a go. Jamie sadly let the Met Bar team down when he lost out in the final “hula-hoop off”. It was so much fun; the hula hoop was being passed around the bar long after the show had finished!

After the rock ’n’ roll raffle, there was just time to round things off with a final rousing rendition of Summer Nights from Grease – ending the night on a truly tropical high! Take a look at all the action below:

So forget the January Blues, here at the Met Bar we’re all about fun in the sun! Join us next month on 17 February when the Jonny Awsum Show will be all loved up…

American comedian Schaffer is offering you the chance to see his stand-up show for free until the 24 February. If you enjoy the show, you can put some money in the collection bucket at the end.

Lewis Schaffer’s routine consists of unrelenting bitterness, insulting the audience, shambolic attempts at telling jokes and apparently having his act die on stage.

This doesn’t sound promising, but it’s actually really funny and my face still hurts from laughing at last night’s show. My friend and I continued to giggle at our favourite moments as we walked back to the tube.

I’ve seen Schaffer live before and it’s clear that underneath what appears to be of layers of desperate failure there’s a genius with a brilliant act. Just go with it; the more awkward it gets, the funnier it is.

Get yourself on the guestlist for Lewis Schaffer’s show and go along for some very big laughs (unless you’re easily offended, in which case, consider yourself warned!)

5 Jan–24 Feb, 8pm every Tuesday and Wednesday at The Source Below.

The best acts from the year – The Misers, Jem Cooke, The Amateurs and Alfie Palmer – came back for a Christmas sing-a-long with the Met Bar members, and after a warm up interactive version of “The Twelve Days Of Christmas” (complete with Jonny’s glamorous assistant Eleanor dressed as a partridge) the bar was already in high spirits.

The Christmas music quiz made the stakes even higher with the audience screaming out to be the first to win the coveted Quality Street prizes!

But the magic Christmas moment came at the end when Jonny invited all the guests on stage to join him in a rendition of Band Aid’s “Do They Know It’s Christmas”.

As the song went on guests started to head for the stage and join in, and by the end everyone had flooded it completely! Suffice to say that screaming at the top of our lungs and dancing like crazy to a whole string of Christmas hits we definitely now know its Christmas time! Take a look at all the fun below:

This is our last blog of 2009 as we are actually NOT partying for a couple of weeks (!), but we’ll be back with a bang in January with news of our live music, anarchic quizzes and space and fairytale themed parties.

But for now its time for Jamie to put a santa hat over his quaff, and Jo to put flats on for the first time this year and enjoy a festive break – Merry Christmas!

If you’re after some festive season panto-style entertainment with a bit of a twist, you could do a lot worse than come out for Frank’s Closet at Hoxton Hall Theatre, as a colleague and I did last night…

We were welcomed to the theatre – an old-style music hall in London’s East End – by Pearly Queen Sheila Blige. In a pre-show warm up in the theatre bar, Sheila sang a rousing tune about a pair of Royal con-artists, The Faking Kents (say it out loud). By the time she led us into the auditorium, we were all joining in with the chorus, which made an excellent start to the evening.

Once settled, a loudly enthusiastic audience greeted the Gaiety Girls and main character Frank to the stage for their first number. The show is a night in the life of Frank, who is about to leave behind his gay bachelorhood to tie the knot with his boyfriend, Alan. But in order to begin his newly married life, Frank must get rid of some truly spectacular costumes and put his past to rest.

His past does not go quietly though – rather, each outfit in Frank’s closet conjures a gala farewell performance by the diva it once belonged to. We get Julie Andrews going from Sound of Music to S&M, Judy Garland complete with Ruby Slippers, ABBA’s Agnetha and a chunky can-can from Ethel Merman (my personal favourite).

The divas were all played brilliantly by Russell Whitehead, who managed to capture the essence of each different performer while putting his own finesse on the tunes. Frank was the talented Gary Amers, a very deft mover on stage and impossible not to like. The rest of the cast were also great – the Gaiety Girls were cheeky and entertaining and the two dancers very fit.

With lashings of innuendo, London references and luvvie theatre in-jokes (I live in London: this outfit’s never seen the sun, only the limelight!) the show itself is funny, camp and clever. The cast is incredibly good, and the combo of cabaret, drag, and music hall is perfectly suited to the venue. By the end, judging by the cackles, screams and whoops from the audience, and our smiling faces, we all thoroughly enjoyed rummaging through Frank’s Closet.

La Clique London started its Christmas/New Year residency at Camden’s Roundhouse a couple of weeks ago. The show got rave reviews for its original London season earlier this year at the Hippodrome. Some of this season’s performers are the same, some are new (to me), but the show is as fresh, exciting and entertaining as ever.

The first act was tight, taut and terrific with a great mix of different acts. It began with an address from The Queen (impersonator Gerry Connolly, who totally looks and sounds the part – “moist generous” of Her Maj to show up). Then there was trailer-trash trapeze, complete with Guns ‘n’ Roses soundtrack, from the athletic Wau Wau Sisters; Freddie Mercury-inspired juggling with Mario Queen of the Circus; and a whole lotta hula from Marawa.

Act Two kicked off with the gloriously chaotic Meow Meow, who took audience participation to new lengths, and indeed heights, by co-opting five fellas to carry her around the stage. Then Sweden’s Carl-Einar Häckner clowned around, and Sam Alvarez got erotic and aerial with some very big chains.

I’d seen Ursula Martinez’s saucy burlesque striptease before but La Clique has now incorporated her “disappearing hankie” into the rest of the show to great effect, if the audience’s screams of delight (horror?!) were any indication. The Skating Willers are a stand out – I can truly say I’ve never seen the like and from my seat in the second row, I almost feared a roller skate in the face as their thrilling act was performed.

I originally saw La Clique’s show about a year back. Since then, I’ve been a lot of variety and cabaret in London but this is still hands down the best show in town. Go.

The O2 is a large arena for anyone to fill, let alone a stand-up comedian with a very simple show.

And Michael McIntyre’s brand of comedy is certainly simple. Describing his comedy style on the BBC, Michael said:

“I don’t really do jokes, I just talk. I tend to laugh at them myself because I find them funny. I don’t do gags, just observational comedy. I just collect all these stories and try them out.”

(Which probably means there’s hours of work behind making Michael McIntyre’s show seem like just one sweet bloke telling fun stories on an empty stage…)

At The O2, he certainly seemed a little less relaxed than when we’ve seen him on previous London stages (the Hammersmith Apollo, for example), but his comedy was as delightfully silly as always.

We loved the discussions between the different herbs lying ignored in the cupboard in favour of salt and pepper; the total destruction of the wine-drinkers facade; and the stories about his middle-class kids.

But we wondered if the warmth of his show was slightly lost in the huge arena. Who can blame him when the guffaws of laughter and enthusiastic applause going on around us can’t possibly have reached his ears on a stage so far away.

But as our guest pointed out on his first time to The O2, what an exciting venue to see some London’s upcoming sports events…

And if you want to catch Michael McIntyre in Greenwich later in the year, he’s back at The O2 on the following dates:

• 29 October
• 2-3 November
• 17 November

For a full list of tour dates, check out www.michaelmcintyre.co.uk.

Oliver! Oliver! Never before has a boy wanted more…

I’ve had this song stuck in my head since seeing the Theatre Royal production of Oliver! last week. Directed by Rupert Goold and choreographed by Matthew Bourne this musical production of Dickens’ classic novel is an all-singing, all-dancing spectacular.

I considered myself at home as the familiar tunes were performed in front of amazing sets in Covent Garden’s beautiful old Theatre Royal Drury Lane. Whoever said you shouldn’t work with kids or animals should “eat their head”, as the kids were the stars of the show – first appearing as orphans, then as Fagin’s urchins and other London street strays. And Bullseye – Bill Sikes’ dog, played by a real live dog – was a big hit with the audience.

Oom Pah Pah, Oom Pah Pah, that’s not to say the adults didn’t belt out a few good ‘uns (literally, in the case of Sykes, ahem). Omid Djalili as Fagin was fickle, funny and just the right side of fiendish. And Nancy sang up a storm.

Proving you’ve gotta pick a pocket or two – I particularly liked the Act 1 scene where Oliver is sold to work in a Funeral Parlour and the undertaker and his wife were styled to look like Riffraff and Magenta – bit of a timewarp, but it worked.

This is a great production that’s suitable for young and old. I’m sure you’d do anything to see it for yourself and, luckily, all you have to do is buy a wonderful theatre ticket.

We caught up with comedians The Jokerists, also known as Rose Watt, Holly Burns and Del Des Anges to find out about their fringe show.

Tell us about your show

Rose: It’s what happens when no one says no to a stupid idea.
Holly: It’s called Comecidal Lolocaust.
Rose: We do twenty minutes of stand-up each.
Holly: Very egalitarian.
Rose: My bit is about my life since moving to London. With songs.
Del: I’m the childish disgusting one. The one your parents warned you about.
Holly: And I basically geek out over science to an alarming degree, with occasional singing and dancing.
Rose: Also there’s cake. FREE CAKE*.
Del: Come and laugh at our faces. Camden Head, tea time.
Holly: Ahem. That would be The Camden Head 4.15pm, 9-11 August. REMEMBER THE CAKE.

What are your favourite comedy venues in London?

Holly: Yes, do tell. I need recommendations for when I move to London.
Rose: There’s a new material night called Old Rope that I love because I’m a comedy nerd and like watching try-out stuff grow into actual routines.
Del: And I didn’t die on my arse at Lion’s Den, so that’s good.

The Camden Fringe runs throughout August. All tickets are £7.50. Check out the full list of Camden Fringe events.

*subject to availability.

Vinopolis stages a comedy night called Laughter Lounge the last Friday of every month so my mate Jo and I went along to check it out. As neither of us had done a Vinopolis wine tour before and share a deep, rather uneducated passion for drinking (wine in particular) we thought we would sign up for the Grapevine tour as well.

Our Grapevine tour kicked off with a 20 minute lecture which was brilliant. We learned how to look, smell, slurp and identify the complexities, balance and age of wine. Then we were let loose on the labyrinth of regional wine rooms. Armed with tasting vouchers we put our new wine powers to the test.

The highlight was definitely the initial lecture, after which we sampled some lovely wines from Lebanon and Greece that we would never have bought from an off-license. The tour is an educational experience rather than an opportunity to get sozzled. That said, the final gin cocktail definitely put a spring in our step in preparation for the Vinopolis Laughter Lounge.

Located in another part of Vinopolis’s wonderful cavernous stone areas, the Laughter Lounge is a large room with a stage, bar and seats.

The evening was held together by MC Dan Atkinson whose self depreciating, political gags really did make everyone laugh out loud. Other acts included Matt Blaize and the brilliantly camp Topping and Butch whose fabulous, stupidly revealing rubber costumes and cheeky ‘Never Mind, Never Mind’ cabaret songs stole the show.

Although the seats are arranged auditorium style, it’s a pretty relaxed atmosphere that encourages everyone to make as many trips to the bar as possible. Which makes perfect sense, as it is a Friday night and Vinopolis is London’s shrine to wine.