Stand-up Satire and Spoken Word
3rd Thursday of the month at Kings, King Street, Norwich. In 2008, things seemed bleak, bleak enough to warrant opening a night simply to complain. That night was the Cutting Room, Norwich’s First Satirical Nightclub, and it featured a host of the finest home grown Norwich writers, comedians, poets, musicians and even some certifiable legends from elsewhere, like At
tila the Stockbroker. The Cutting Room had a two year tenure once a month in the rather decadent surroundings of the basement bar at the Workshop on the Earlham Road, and culminated in a book, Tales From The Cutting Room by regular host Paul Knight which described the often depressing process of attempting to find any kind of meaning in the tsunami of political effluence that was the 2010 General Election. It was reviewed by noted anarchist periodical The Cunningham Amendment as “Everyday problems of setting up a satire club in downtown Norwich. Scores revolutionary points hand over fist. Laugh out loud”. Following the “election” of a Conservative/Liberal Coalition the author was so disillusioned he vowed never again to meddle in politics, and eventually decided there was little else worth doing than dancing in the wreckage of civilisation as we know it at Peachy. In 2010/11 The Cutting Room collaborated with Tom Read’s Normal Service Will Be Resumed Shortly promotion to produce a 16 night run of comedy events for the Norwich Fringe Festival featuring shows by Peepshow’s Isy Suttie, Wil Hodgson and occult comedian Andrew O’Neill as well as shows by up and coming local acts and a live action ghost hunt around Norwich’s Tombland, which was harder to produce by far than any show they had hitherto attempted, featuring, as it did, video links, live sound art, special effects (of a sort), actual demonic possession and a cast of literally lots. A film of Friday Night Dead was produced, but has been deemed too disturbing for general release. Many of those involved were deeply affected. Following the Fringe, Tom and Paul collaborated with comedians Hilary Koe and Jake Wyatt to produce a series of events as The Dysfunction Room Comedy Club featuring headliners like City Life Comedian of the Year 2006/7 Vince Atta, Scottish Comedian of the Year 2008 Scott Agnew, Julian Daniel, The Tina Marinas, Mme. Charlotte-Ann Arcati, Carrie Anne Guthrie, Tony Cowards, Peter Buckley Hill, Frank Sanazi and Bethany Black. The Dysfunction Room also hit the festivals, performing en masse at the 2012 and ‘13 Gypsy in the Field festivals. Now in 2013, the Cutting Room is on its way back, forced out of retirement by pompous career politicians, grinning religious fanatics, and a jabbering crowd of meaningless celebrities, pro hunting lobbyists and other assorted maniacs. To complain. This is the news. Welcome to the Cutting Room.
