Reading Comedy Festival's launch bash saw an audience of invited guests, plus eager comedy fans who snapped up the limited tickets, entertained by a star-studded line up of the acts to come in the October festival schedule.

Keen to hammer home the message that Reading Goes Bananas, the comedy festival's alternative name, organisers had placed plenty of bananas on each table, although more traditional comedy night fare of bread, olives, wine and beer were also on offer.

Local breakfast show DJs Foxy and Tom compered the whole event, which took place in Reading's Town Hall's stylish Concert Hall venue.

First act up was also local - comedy poet af harrold, who performed a range of verses covering topics such as film and centipedes, some of them from his new collection, Postcards from the Hedgehog.

He was followed by Milton Jones, whose quick wit is well hidden behind his zany style, but came to the fore in lines about the disruptions he was suffering.

Next up was Mark Thomas, closing the first half with tales of his political involvement, which showed off his ability to make an audience think, while also ensuring the laughs come thick and fast enough to forget that Friday nights aren't normally a time to use their brains quite so much.

Local faces networking during the interval included Andy Murrill, editor of the Reading Evening Post, with a team from the paper. A similar team from the Reading Chronicle were in attendance, and 2-Ten FM's DJs Foxy and Tom were joined by a crowd of supporters from their station.

The Right Worshipful the Mayor of Reading Chris Maskell and his wife Dorothy had front row seats, with a number of the council around too.

Further back were few faces from the local comedy scene - John Jacklin of Big Jack's Laughter Club, Gill Smith of Coopers Arms Comedy, and Mike Facherty, all of whom are running events during the festival.

After the interval, Foxy and Tom introduced the next set of acts, first of whom was Natalie Haynes, who talked about vegetarian awards ceremonies, and made grammar gags.

Jim Jeffries was up next, and made a big thing of having been asked beforehand to tone down his material for the Mayor's sake. There wasn't much evidence of toning down, but there were plenty of laughs.

Finally, Mitch Benn and his guitar - but not, for this evening, his band - came on to close the night's entertainment with topical songs and some unfortunate acoustics from the venue that didn't help the clarity of some of the lyrics - though thankfully his funny lines come thick and fast enough to still keep the audience well entertained.

END

(c) Gill Smith 12 October 2007

Fringe Report's Reading Comedy Festival 07 coverage is organised and edited by Gill Smith.

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