It’s great, it’s eight, its Krate… r!

Tuesday, May 27th, 2008

Komedia’s very own Kronenbourg Krater Comedy Club turns eight years old this June. From humble beginnings, (called the Krater - because when the club was being planned, it was just a crater in the ground), the club is going from strength to strength, consistently selling out and featuring top acts such as Catherine Tate, Ross Noble, Reginald D Hunter and Gina Yashere.

Described as ‘THE place in Brighton to catch stand-up comedy’ by The Independent, and winner of the ‘Best Comedy Venue in the South’ for five years running by chortle.co.uk, the night kicked off back in 1999, scheduled once fortnightly on a Sunday. Compered by Brighton comedy genius Stephen Grant since the very beginning, the first show played to an audience of 40, the second to an audience of 80, which doubled again for the third. The fourth show sold out, as has every show since.

Stephen places the secret of the night’s success at the quality of the acts, “it’s such a quality night as we get the best acts on the circuit to perform. In the past we’ve had Jimmy Carr doing spots and Ricky Gervais filling in on a Sunday! It’s also down to the audience: the Brighton crowd are great and really respectful to the acts!” With over 1000 people attending the club every weekend throughout the year, it’s no surprise that Stephen became the most seen performer in Brighton in 2006 across all disciplines (theatre, music, cabaret), having played to over 40,000 punters at Krater alone.

Speaking of the punters, a lot can happen in eight years, and Krater has seen his fair share of infamous moments – from streakers to punch-ups, Hungarian hecklers to celebrity patronage (Mackenzie Crook stopped by on the first night of his honeymoon before flying out to the Caribbean, and Steve Coogan has been known to drop in from time to time!) – and that’s just the audience. Backstage antics have seen acts paid in vodka, nervous breakdowns, and one comedian’s wife meeting his girlfriend minutes before he was due onstage!

With spots by Brendan Burns, Jeff Innocent, Reginald D Hunter and Mark Watson all coming up in the next few months, it’s clear that the Kronenbourg Krater Comedy Club shows no sign of growing old gracefully, and is all the better for it!

Tags: eight, Krate

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