Chortle Award for Best Comedy Venue in the South 2012!

Komedia has done it once again. We’re delighted to have once again picked up the Chortle Award for Best Comedy Venue in the South in 2012. That makes it an extraordinary nine times in the last 11 years! A big thank you to all who voted!

Chortle Award for Best Compère

Let’s hear it for Stephen Grant, who has just been voted the Best Compère at the Chortle Comedy Awards for 2011, the first person to win it twice (having also won it in 2008). And not only that, Komedia Brighton also picked up the Best Venue in the South award…. Hurrah!

Chortle Award for Best Comedy Venue in the South

Komedia is delighted to have once again picked up the Chortle Award for Best Comedy Venue in the South. That makes it an astonishing seven times in the last 8 years (including 2009)!

Komedia made it into The Guardian’s top 10 comedy venues in the UK.

Excellent venue with a big room and a great atmosphere, hosting innovative mixed bills, headliners and new material every day. The Krater Comedy Club is the mainstay at weekends.

One time Variety star Count Arthur Strong has won the prestigious GOLD Sony Radio Academy Award for Comedy 2009 for his Radio 4 show Count Arthur Strong’s Radio Show! Managed by Komedia Entertainment and produced by Radio 2’s Mark Radcliffe, Count Arthur Strong’s Radio Show! is recorded at the award-winning Brighton and Bath Komedia venues, in front of a live studio audience.

The award, presented last night at a gala evening presided over by Radio 2’s Chris Evans at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel, was given in recognition to the show’s ‘traditional format made contemporary and edgy by strong writing and great performances.’ The judges concluded that each episode ‘simply makes you laugh out loud.’

Comedian Steve Delaney created Count Arthur Strong in the ’80s as a drama student. He revived the character in the late nineties for the Edinburgh Fringe and then promptly retired from all other performing roles with the realisation that Arthur was his destiny. Count Arthur Strong’s Radio Show! hit the airways of BBC Radio 4 in late December 2005 to huge critical acclaim – a fourth series has just been aired and a fifth is due to be recorded at both Komedia Brighton and Komedia Bath in the Autumn.

The weekly show focuses on a typically confused and muddled ‘day in the life’ of the Count – be it solving a mystery concerning a missing cauliflower or a book signing at a local butcher’s shop. An expert in everything from the world of entertainment to the origins of the species, everyday life with Arthur is an enlightening and entertaining experience. Arthur is joined in the series by his radio reparatory company which includes Brighton performers Alastair Kerr and Dave Mounfield.

Count Arthur Strong’s Radio Show! has become a cornerstone of BBC Radio 4 and 7 comedy output since the first shows were piloted at Komedia Brighton in 2001. The show has many famous plaudits with Steve Coogan, Jennifer Saunders and Martin Clunes all being huge fans. He is particularly appreciated within the music industry, with Elbow recently stating they have written a song based on the character and The Who admitting they listen to the comedy series on the tour bus. The writers of Hancock’s revered radio successes and creators Steptoe and Son, Galton and Simpson also recently joined the fan club citing Count Arthur Strong as the best current comedy on TV or radio.

Chortle Awards

Komedia is delighted to have once again picked up the Chortle Award for Best Comedy Venue in the South. That makes it an astonishing seven times and counting!

Follow Me – the story of the final moments of Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hung in England – told from both Hangman Albert Pierrepoint and the condemned Ruth Ellis, was awarded an Argus Angel by the local daily newspaper.  The award recognises Artistic Excellence in both the Fringe and Festival programmes.

Latest 7/Latest Homes Brighton Festival Awards
Beth Fitzgerald walked away with the award for Best Actress for her performance as Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hung in England, in Guy Masterson’s incredible Follow Me.

Chortle Awards
Komedia broke records in February 2008 as the venue walked away with the Chortle Award for Best Comedy Venue in the South for an incredible sixth time.

Chortle Awards
Komedia’s Krater Comedy Club co-founder and regular compere beat strong competition to walk away with the Chortle Award for Best Compere – in the whole of the UK!

Latest 7/Latest Homes Brighton Festival Awards
There was a LOT of shows in the May 2007 Brighton Fringe Festival, and Komedia is voted as having the best.  The Be(a)st of Taylor Mac, a poignant collection of songs and thoughts from New York’s finest performer (and ukuele maestro) Taylor Mac, moved audiences like no other show.

Latest 7/Latest Homes Brighton Festival Awards
Komedia’s astounding and enviable programme of theatre, music, cabaret and comedy in the Brighton Festival Fringe 2007 is recognised as we walk away with the most sought-after award of the evening.

Seven acts are the proud recipients of the first ever Argus Angel Awards.  These shows included band Fulborn Teversham, character comedian Count Arthur Strong, cabaret act Taylor Mac, Japanese mime artists Gamarjobat, Inspector Sands & Stamping Ground Theatre’s Hysteria, Brighton’s own Prodigal Theatre’s Queen of the Slaughter and one-man show Radio.

Edinburgh Fringe Festival
Komedia were delighted to receive a coveted Fringe First Award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2006 for its role as a co-producer on Brighton Theatre Event’s Meeting Joe Strummer – a passionate punk comedy about two Clash fans across three decades, and their devotion to the man who set an agenda for a generation.

More here

Chortle Awards
Our top notch comedy programme maintains our domination of the Chortle Awards for Best Comedy Venue in the South of England (and that is one very big region).

Brighton and Hove Business Awards
Komedia’s position at the heart of the Brighton’s Cultural Quarter is affirmed as we win the award for the top cultural destination in one of the UK’s most vibrant cities.

Sussex Business Awards
Komedia’s work across the entertainment spectrum is recognised as we are runner up in the Award encompassing the whole Creative Industries across Sussex.

Arts Council of England
Komedia’s continued commitment to entertaining all ages with our Theatre and Children’s programme is honored.

Six years ago, Komedia co-founded and produced the incredibly successful Aurora Nova season of international visual and physical theatre and dance at St. Stephen’s in Edinburgh.   Since 2001, the venue has won The Guardian Award for Best Venue 2004, and numerous Fringe Firsts, Herald Angels and more for the various shows programmed at the venue. Some of these shows and awards are listed below:

SCOTSMAN FRINGE FIRST AWARDS

• Farm in the Cave, International Theatre Studio – Sclavi - The Song of an Emigrant
• Coiscéim Dance Theatre – Knots
• Teatr Novogo Fronta – Dias De Las Noches
• Renegade Theatre – Rumble
• Teatr Piesn Kozla – Chronicles – A Lamentation
• Fabrik Potsdam for “Pandora 88″
• Akhe Group for “White Cabin”
• Provisorium Kompania – Ferdydurke
• Formalny Theatre/BalticHouseTheatre – School for Fools
• Do Teatr – Upside Down
• Gravity Physical Entertainment/Fabrik, Potsdam – Fallen
• Compagnie Au Cul du Loup – Monsoon

TOTAL THEATRE AWARDS

• International Theatre Studio, Farm in the Cave – Sclavi-The song of an Emigrant
• Inspector Sands & Stamping Ground Theatre – Hysteria
• Andrew Dawson – Absence and Presence
• Aurora Nova – Most Supportive Venue
• Fabrik Potsdam – Pandora 88
• Deja Donne – There Where We Were
• Akhe Group – White Cabin
• Nats Nus – Ful

HERALD ANGEL AWARD

• Farm in the Cave, International Theatre Studio – Sclavi-The song of an Emigrant
• Darren Johnston [array] – Ren-Sa
• Andrew Dawson – Absence and Presence
• Fabrik Potsdam – Pandora 88
• Nick Harper – excellence in music writing
• Lia Rodriguez Companhia de Dancas – Such Stuff As We Are Made Of
• Teatr Piesn Kozla – Chronicles-A Lamentation
• Renegade Theatre – Rumble
• Mizuto Abura – Cellophane Singular

HERALD ARCH ANGEL AWARD

• Derevo – for its ‘consistently impressive contribution to the Edinburgh Fringe’.
• Aurora Nova – Best Programme