Hello! This was our July show, aka the last show of the summer before our hiatus so people can have a rest and go to Edinburgh or the seaside or whatever it is people do in August.

At the time of the show, my mental health wasn’t exceptional, and so I didn’t do my usual write-up directly afterwards. But for the sake of completeness, here’s a short write-up of the show for you real jamesofwalsh.com heads out there. You know who you are.

This was Nadine’s last show as producer, and my main pre-show memories are of sneaking around with an oversized card that said “congratulations on your retirement”, trying to get everyone to sign it. I think I managed without giving the game away, and I’m sure everyone wrote lots of heartfelt, funny, and heartfelt and funny things inside it.

She’s been amazing and it’s going to be strange producing without here, but fortunately she’s still gonna be around for the writing and performing side of things, phew.

And so to the show.

We went on first, as is usual, and in my view this was our strongest set of sketches all year. The balance between new and old felt right, Paul’s interview-style bits broke up the main sketches beautifully, and the cast were all on top form.

Because my brain wasn’t working at full capacity, the whole thing is a bit of of a blur from my perspective, but I especially enjoyed being in Ben’s sketch about a 19th Century football team discovering the joy of chanting.

First-time Next Level Sketch cast member Jacqui was also, as I recall, amazing. But then so was everyone else.

The rest of the night passed in a bit of a blur of anxiety, especially as we were running exceedingly late. By the time we came to The Awkward Silence, the fear was that we would have to shut down entirely, in a walking onto the stage half way through one of their sketches “well that’s all we’ve got time for” stylee.

But fortunately they finished before we had to do that, and everyone hurried downstairs to enjoy the twenty minutes before the pub kicked us out. My Walsh guarantee for the September show is that it’ll end in good time, and we’ll all have plenty of hot having-a-chat-afterwards action. As I think this is an important part of the whole process.

Luke Rollason was excellent, as always, and my own personal highlight, but the guest acts all rocked it. I sincerely think ours has become one of the best and certainly best-value alternative comedy nights in London. I am not saying that just cos I help organise it, I go to a lot of comedy nights and I can afford to be objective on this, m’own personal blog.

Our next show is on September 27th, guest acts are in the process of being booked, and I shall share all the details with you imminently.