Corporate Social Responsiblity? Are you having a laugh?
Corporate Social Responsibility? Are you having a laugh? Well, yes and yes! Morgan PR are proud sponsors of the Corn Exchange, Newbury's premier arts venue and last night Nigel Morgan was one of the judges at You Must Be Joking - the competition for new acts at the Newbury Comedy Festival.
As a veteran comedy reviewer I have seen many comics, good and bad, and watched hundreds of hours of hilarity and have even judged this competition around seven years ago and last year was a judge with Plested & Brown for the Wisecrackers contest for junior comics, so it was good to be back in the hotseat at the Corn Exchange.
You Must Be Joking saw 10 acts reach the final and the standard was refreshingly high. Absolutely there were some who needed to perfect their acts, who told old jokes and some who had clearly been 'inspired' by comedians currently on the circuit, but this is not a review so my notes from the night stay confidential! Suffice to say we were unanimous in choosing the energetic Matt Richardson from Didcot (pictured above) who had a slew of original material that was delivered in a confident and endearing style. Not so much Sex, Drugs and Rock 'n' Roll as Houmous, cheese and Snow Patrol, to quote the young comic.
The Comedy Festival is running until 29th July and while you can catch bigger names like ventriloquist Paul Zerdin, foul-mouthed Aussie charmer Jim Jeffries and funny bone specialist Dr. Phil Hammond at the Corn Exchange, personally I do tend to head up to New Greenham Arts during the festival where less well known acts perform and are likely to be more orignal and entertaining, such as Richard Herring and Tom Wrigglesworth or Rob Deering and Kent Valentine. New Greenham Arts is also a much more intimate venue if you like your comedy up close and personal!
So how's that for having the last laugh while showing some Corporate Social Responsibility?! Seriously, if you support the elements of your community that you are interested in, the CSR will be mutually rewarding.