November 2007: review by George Lewis
Laughter House Basingstoke returned again to The Red Lion Hotel on Thursday 29
November to another capacity crowd.This time it was compere Lenny Peters’ turn to show us round the House. Lenny worked hard to get the whole audience engaged – some needing less encouragement than others!!
The first port of call was the Hallway, where Lenny introduced us to Terry Saunders. A gentle, self-deprecating comedian, Terry hadn’t had the best journey, relying on his sat-nav to get around our cherished roundabouts but without the aid of an actual car.
In the Kitchen we met Richard Quigley, sharing his obsession with ‘Mashed po-f***ing-tato’. Clearly some sort of Northern ex-pat, Richard now resides on the Isle of Wight – a nice treat for him to try out the 21st Century for an evening.
Lurking on the Stairs was the Kiwi Mark Godenho with his striking Flying-V ukulele. Rumoured to be the love-child of George Formby and Suzi Quattro, Mark’s act is one very clearly fed by personal tragedy – most notably the loose morals of his “ex”.
After the break, we moved to the Bedroom where local darling Nessie Flange cheered everyone up by talking about her mother’s territorial disputes in Old Basing, her sister’s root canal work, and then devastating us all with the revelation of how her guinea pig died during an unfortunate childhood experiment with toy parachutes.
Eventually we found ourselves in the Attic, the last hiding place of the legendary Ronnie Rigsby (thought by some to be the alter ego of well known comedian Logan Murray). Anyone still puzzled as to why Ronnie is no longer the big draw he used to be on the Children’s Entertainment circuit soon had their curiosity satisfied – with Ronnie talking about his days in the Merchant Navy, and then experiencing some very unusual reactions to comments tossed at him by the audience. A truly class act.
All in all a heartening and liberating evening enjoyed by all, especially one audience member who admitted ‘I laughed so much - my cheeks hurt’.
