Alexei Sayle to return to stand-up

After 16 year absence

Alexei Sayle is to return to stand-up after a 16-year absence.

The comic-turned-author is starting by hosting four weekly nights at London’s Soho Theatre early next year, featuring comics he has chosen from the circuit. He also has a slot in Robin Ince’s Nine Lessons and Carols for Godless People at the Bloomsbury Theatre on December 19.

Sayle – the first compere the Comedy Store had – quit stand-up with a farewell tour in 1995 to concentrate on his writing, but has recently been visiting clubs again ‘to get a feel of what the scene is like these days’.

In a blog entry from late September, he wrote: ‘I keep going to comedy clubs with all my bits of paper in my pocket, with bits of material scribbled on them, thinking I might perform. But as soon as I get into the club I think, “Sod this, there’s no way I’m getting up there”. 

He added that he wasn’t interested in the ‘bland observational stuff that’s out there’ citing Tony Law’s line about ‘young men in T-shirts noticing things’.

Published: 15 Nov 2011

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