Hello and a very warm welcome. My name is Richard Gill and I attend a lot of live comedy shows – you may have heard my legendary laugh! In 2017, I turned fifty years old – my home town is Carlisle but I have lived and worked in London for the last twenty eight years. This blog is based on my experiences of watching comedians perform live on stage.
I have always been a paying member of an audience. I am not a performer or reviewer but I am passionate about comedy. I have seen a very wide range of comedians over the years from variety acts of the seventies and the emergence of the new wave of comedians in the eighties to the great story tellers, pun masters and arena-filling comedians of the twenty first century.
My first book ‘A Rich Comic Life’ featuring over 600 comedians that I have seen live over the last four decades was due to be published in 2020. It was intended that the book would be a major index of comedians along with any personal anecdotes, reminisces and stories whilst watching them perform live. It was hoped that the book would be an invaluable resource into the history of modern live comedy. After three years completing the manuscript and after serious thought and advice from publishers, self-publishers, proof readers and editors, my decision is that there will be sadly no book published. I am disappointed not to have a book but it is simply not financially viable due to the size of the manuscript. So, instead, undeterred I have decided to incorporate the book into the blog. There are some absolute gems in the book that will appear over the next few months in the blog. Apologies to blog subscribers if you receive a lot of email traffic whilst the updates to the blog take place but it will be worth it in the end and ‘A Rich Comic Life’ blog will be bigger and better than ever.
I hope the blog is a useful and funny insight into the world of comedy and if you like it, please spread the word. You can read the blogs at any time in one of three ways: a) by clicking on the name of the comedian scrolling across the bottom of this page or b) by clicking on the Comedians Index in the Menu at the top of this page and then clicking the name of the comedian or c) by clicking on the Blogs button in the Menu at the top of this page and then finding and reading the blog. There is another page dedicated to the comedy acts that I have not had chance to see together with a Testimonials page (from comedians, family and friends), an Interview page where I have been interviewed about the blog, even a Monthly Comedy Quiz, a Comedians Index, a Conclusion featuring three comedy essays and an Epilogue.
If you have any feedback then please leave a comment in the Blog section below the blog entry or alternatively, if you want to leave a testimonial (as many already have), please email me direct at richardwgill@googlemail.com and I will add your comment to the Testimonials page. Finally, If you want to follow me, please enter your email address at the bottom of this page and click on the Subscribe button.
The blog is free to read. If you like what you read, please consider donating to the Comedy Support Act Ltd and the Help Save Live Comedy project. The Comedy Support Act Ltd a benevolent charity set up by professional comedians for professional comedians. The charity aims to provide emergency funds and assistance to professional comedians who find themselves in financial hardship through serious illness or accident. Help Save Live Comedy is a Crowdfunder project designed to save comedy venues in danger of going out of business. Never has there been a more difficult time for the comedy industry due to the Coronavirus outbreak of 2020 and I hope that my blog reflects my love and respect of live stand up-comedy. It would be an extremely sad day to see the genre completely disappear as stand-up comedy is one of the most positive things in life and it gives confidence and joy to those taking part and watching. For further information on The Comedian Support Act Ltd, please click: http://www.comedysupportact.org.uk/ and to donate to the charity, please click: https://www.paypal.com/gb/fundraiser/charity/3232207. To donate to the Help Save Live Comedy project, please click: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/helpsavelivecomedy.
Thank you so much for all your continued support and enjoy the read…
FEATURED COMEDIANS: