Since February this year, Frome has been welcoming top circuit comedians to a new comedy club at the Cheese and Grain.
Every month, the club has welcomed acts who are often visiting Frome for the first time. Resident MC, Ben Thurston says,”It’s been really lovely to see the kind of comedians that, usually you would have to go to Bath or Bristol to catch, coming here to Frome and really enjoying themselves.
“Acts like Mark Olver (regular MC at Bath Komedia, Sean McLoughlin (tour support to Ricky Gervais) and Josh Howie (star of Radio 4) have come to headline our night and the audiences have really got behind them.”
Live comedy is sometimes a hit and miss affair and it was with this in mind that Ben, along with Graeme Barry, manager of the Grain Cafe Bar, have always insisted on only booking the best acts they can find.
“We don’t book anyone we haven’t seen, we don’t book anyone just because they’re available. We only book people who make us laugh and who we think the audience will love. We’ve brought stellar headliners, but also had younger, newer acts such as Riordan DJ (this year’s Chortle Student Comedian of the Year) performing shorter sets.”
The club is going from strength to strength and establishing itself as one of the regular must-see events in Frome’s crowded calendar, but Ben says that plans for the future are even more ambitious. “We want to bring bigger and better acts. We want to see even larger audiences experiencing the great line ups we’re putting together.
“One of the advantages of the Cheese and Grain as a venue is that the sky really is the limit in terms of the size of show we can put on. I go elsewhere in the country and see monthly comedy nights regularly bringing in 200 people. I think we have the potential to do that in Frome, and if we could achieve that, there really is no limit to the size of act we could book.”
Against the Grain returns with a bang, bringing the wonderful Dan Thomas to Frome’s Cheese and Grain on Friday 17th November. Dan performs in comedy clubs all over Europe with stars like Lee Evans, Russell Kane, Elis James regularly in clubs around Europe.
He also performs in his native Welsh, and is the host of the S4C stand up show Gwerthu Allan, and his new Welsh-language comedy special will air later this year. As well as a stand up, he is also an actor, recently winning the Los Angeles Film Festival award for ‘Best Actor’ for his role in horror comedy feature film “Shadow of the Missing”.
He co-wrote and created the BBC radio shows “Scot of the Antarctic” and “Jason Mohammad vs The Apocalypse” in which he also performed.
Joining Dan on the bill is Devon-based comedian Luke Honnoraty. Highly regarded as one of the best acts to emerge from the south-west in recent years, award-winning stand-up comedian Luke burst onto the circuit in 2010 as the winner of the ‘South West New Act of the Year’ on his third ever gig.
Luke has gone from strength and is now performing alongside the best names in comedy in some of the UK’s best comedy clubs. He has supported the likes of Matt Richardson, Russell Kane, Katherine Ryan and Joel Dommett. Luke is an infectiously funny, natural born comic who is the perfect addition to any comedy line up.
As always, your host is Against the Grain regular, Ben Thurston. Tickets are available now from the Cheese and Grain box office.
Against the Grain Comedy Friday 17th November 7pm doors, 7.30pm start
Tickets are £10 in advance and £12 on the door, call 01373 455 420 or book online www.cheeseandgrain.com
