Live @ The Pavilion Comedy Night, Westgate-On-Sea, Kent

Thursday 6th January 2011 saw the official launch of the inaugural 'Live @ The Pavilion' comedy night in Westgate On Sea, Thanet. Situated beside the award winning West Bay Beach, The Pavilion is a charming venue seating a four hundred plus capacity. What with the dearth of comedy venues across Thanet, The Pavilion's New Owner Lee Williams and Comedy Promoter and Host Steve Bradshaw have taken it upon themselves to create, spread and galvanise laughter across the Isle.

A mixture of local and national Amateur talent greeted a strong, raucous crowd who were in the mood to be entertained. Thankfully, the various comedians lived up to expectations, and the majority managed to successfully create an ambient atmosphere befitting the occasion.

The high ability of the performers was most epitomised by two local, young, aspiring comedians; Matt Day and Matthew Mckew. Day brought with him a twenty plus strong partisan crowd, and they howled in approval at his risqué anecdotes and political incorrectness. Despite being an incredibly difficult act to follow, Mckew managed to assert his authority upon the audience with intelligent stories and witty punchlines. His act was emphatically concluded by a joke commentating on the issue of spiking someone's drink and the problems that can occur when it crosses with a woman's menstrual cycle and an apparent pint of snakebite (lager, cider and blackcurrant). The less thought about, the better.

Throughout the evening, Bradshaw managed to effectively maintain the crowd's enthusiasm between the various acts by telling thoughtful jokes whilst simultaneously orchestrating a positive response towards the comedians. Perhaps what was most interesting about the evening was the differences in performance by the respective comedians. This was exemplified by the contrast between one liner Johnny Armstong ('bought the cat some Cream today; she's a massive Eric Clapton fan') to the racy and equally enthralling Nick Walder.

It was incredibly encouraging to be in the presence of genuine, developing comedic talent in Thanet, and full credit must go to The Pavilion for organising such a successful evening. Every first Thursday of the month will now be dedicated towards comedy at the venue, and one can only urge you to frequent it at some point in the near future in order to consistently appreciate the likes of Matthew Mckew and Matt Day.

NB: Article is rather bland due to the fact that it's written for the local newspapers and I've had to keep out a lot of controversial points. Seeing as Matthew Mckew is my friend, I've attempted to give the little penguin some publicity.