PREVIEW:

Stand-up Comedy Night, Butters Cafe, Andover

SOMETIMES all you need is the ability to have a bit of a laugh. With this in mind, a resident has hatched a plan to make comedy nights a regular feature in the Andover entertainment repertoire.

Brad Ball has been dabbling in the world of stand up comedy for four years. Inspired by the lack of opportunities locally for aspiring comics to rehearse their works, he took it upon himself to organise a stand-up night, with hopes it can become a monthly event.

Nine comedians will take the stage at Butters Cafe from 8pm on Friday August 3rd, with MC Brad entertaining the crowd throughout the evening.

The 44-year-old said: “Comedy is the crudest form of art. You are asking someone to delve inside their innermost thoughts. Then share them with an audience made up of different ages, sexes, religion, race and social background to have an involuntary physical response, all at the exact same time. And it's all on you!

“Trying to do comedy around this area is pretty tough.

“The problem is you do need the support of the Andover people, so I’m going to give this one a go and if it's successful, I’m gonna then reel it out every month.

“It brings some more diversity to Andover and I think Andover needs it.

"We have quite a few comedy acts at The Lights, so for people to keep going to them, there must be a market for people wanting to see stand-up.”

After attending the Edinburgh Festival Fringe turned into more than he bargained for, Brad developed a taste for comedy. He sad: “I walked into this room, there were three comedians just practising. A big Scottish guy came over to me, looked down and said ‘what you doing here?’ I said, are you not open. He said ‘no, they are practising’.

I told him I had always wanted to do stand up.

He grabbed hold of me and walked me up to the front of the stage.

He gathered an audience from the barmen and a couple of passers by outside and goes ‘right, you've got five minutes.’

I had no material whatsoever. I just started talking, and I started getting heckled by the comedians.

Afterwards he asked ‘how did you find that? do you want to do it again?

I said yeah, I'd love to do it again."

Brad hopes that the comedy night wont just get folks laughing, but it may inspire some wanna be stand-up so brave the stage in the future.