A Laugh a Day...

A regular fix of live comedy helps you get though the winter months

Like most people I began 2010 by drawing up a list of resolutions and aims for the New Year. Targets included joining the local gym (already done), cooking more adventurous recipes (plaice - what a discovery!), riding a horse (maybe wait until the summer) and braving a roller-coaster (still yet to do it - and I'm 28).

But right up there was also a determination to see more live comedy - especially in these cold, dreary winter months. So far, so good: not only have I managed to notch up three shows (with another lined-up for the weekend) I've also managed to meet most of the performers in the bar afterwards for a drink. Result.

I was always slightly suspicious about live comedy before I started covering it for LondonTown. The thought of an evening of institutionalised laughter seemed a bit forced - a bit sad, even. Of course, I soon discovered the joke was on me as comedy fast became my favoured night-out of choice.

Last year, I visited many of London's top comedy venues and swiftly learnt that there was more to the genre than a posh Michael McIntyre flapping around on stage every Saturday night. Granted, McIntyre's undoubtedly a funny chap whose brand of observational social satire rings true with most of us. But there are some much more exciting, edgy, unpredictable comedic talents out there - that's for sure.

To name a few of my 2009 discoveries: the wonderfully dirty Scott Capurro, the cogently curious Mike Wozniak, oddball musical acts such as Mr B The Gentleman Rhymer and Wilfredo, and the deadpan delight David James, a Desmond Lynam lookalike who only took to the stage after he turned 50.

A busy festive period saw me swap laughs for mulled wine and mince pies - but 2010 began with a desire to get back on the horse. Kim Noble was perhaps not the best thoroughbred upon which to jump this fence - his compelling show Kim Noble Will Die centred around suicide, self-harm and ejaculation - but this mini-masterpiece at the Soho Theatre did provide ample entertainment and, ahem, stimulation.

Having spent an afternoon writing comedy previews for some February shows, it was certainly rather serendipitous to see two subjects of my work - the current Edinburgh Comedy Award winners Tim Key and Jonny Sweet - standing in the queue in front of me and my friends.

Our seats were in the front row (never a wise thing in comedy) and during the show my friend Liz was invited by the clearly emotionally damaged Noble to take a container of viscous, cloudy liquid from a makeshift fridge on the stage. We all knew what it was because we had it thrown - thankfully not literally - into our face with graphic images flashing across a big screen above the set.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, Liz, along with four other girls, was asked to stay back at the end by Mr Noble. Numbers were exchanged and a date has been organised - although whether this goes ahead may depend on the troubled comedian brushing up on his text message etiquette and spelling.

Still, we all went for a drink together in the bar afterwards - including both Key and Sweet - and I was even offered a free ticket to Stewart Lee's show at the Leicester Square Theatre by Noble's affable producer David. A remarkable stroke of luck: not only were tickets rather dear, Lee's comeback show only had a few days left to run and it was something I always intended to try and see.

Taken as a whole, Lee's show If You'd Prefer A Milder Comedian, Please Ask For One was excellent and thought provoking, blending satire, anger, incredulity and nostalgia all in one. In trademark Lee fashion, the seasoned stand-up had a pop a whole smorgasbord of people and things: fellow professionals Frankie Boyle and McIntyre, coffee chain loyalty cards, the butchered jingle of a major cider brand (made from 100% pears), people who move away from London or the UK for a "better quality of life", the BBC's Top Gear and, most splenetically, Richard "The Hampster" Hammond himself.

Lee's material is always very erudite and craftily constructed - he even took to explaining some of his jokes after the show got off to a rather slow start - which is in stark contrast to my next port of call. Two work colleagues and I went out for a bite to eat one night this week and decided to try out a free comedy show I had heard about through the Rioja grapevine.

The comedian in question was ex-pat New Yorker Lewis Schaffer, a man you can tell sounds like a mix between Greg Proops and Woody Allen before he's even opened his mouth. Schaffer is putting on a twice-weekly show in Soho's nigh-impossible-to-find basement bar Source Below called Lewis Schaffer Is Free Till Famous. A cynic might say that a long wait of performing without pay lies ahead - but that would be sticking the knife into a great showman and genuine nice guy.

Schaffer may not be as clever as Lee or as crazy as Noble - but he's recognisable, amiable (despite his often risqué material) and has that compere's quality of keeping the room afloat even at the most testing of times. He also looks very good in a suit. As he says: "It's free so what do you have to lose?" Thankfully for Schaffer, a divorcé with two sons, a post-performance collection can generate anything between £50 and £100 - much needed to pay the bills and keep the comedy dream alive.

My month of comedy will continue with an incomparable act this Friday in the ample shape of Edward Aczel at the Soho Theatre. The funniest thing about this 42-year-old balding businessman from Aylesbury seems to be the fact that he's not very funny - or at least, he shouldn't be.

For Aczel's show consists of him sharing his banal thoughts on how all the world's problems can be solved - using nothing more than several hastily scribbled hand-drawn graphs, a raffle, an emergency film star impression and a large amount of audience patience and goodwill. It will be intriguing, that's for sure. I just wonder if I can pick Aczel's brains over a beer afterwards without him harping on about the A413 spur-road between Amersham and Aylesbury...

One Hell of a Ham

The world's "most expensive" ham went on sale at Selfridges this month. The 7kg leg of Iberico ham, which costs around £1,800, comes with its own DNA certificate as proof of authenticity and gets its distinct flavour from a diet of acorns and roots fed to 50 select pigs in western Spain. Following slaughter, the pigs' ham was salted and cured for three years to reach its delicious melt-in-the-mouth texture. The package includes a hand-made wooden box wrapped in an apron made by a Spanish tailor. "It is actually amazing value," said a Selfridges spokesman, rather ham-fistedly.

Sales Go Through the Roof

Talking of department stores, London's retail sector enjoyed a dazzling Christmas period as December sales hit a seven-year high according to new figures. The rise comes a year after the credit crunch hit the retain sector and has been attributed to three positive trends: improving consumer confidence, higher spending and the falling value of sterling. Interestingly, however, the number of shoppers had actually declined in December when compared to previous months, probably owing to the cold weather.

Waste Not Want Not

Buying things and driving the retail sector inevitably leads to more waste - but Mayor Boris Johnston remains confident that he can oversee a reduction in the amount of rubbish London sends to landfill. A new plan has been drafted by City Hall in a bid to see local authorities boost London's recycling rates and clean up the streets ahead of the 2012 Games, saving up to £90 million per year in the process. London currently produces four million tonnes of waste a year and its recycling rates are the lowest of all European regions.

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