Artistes who have appeared
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Live At Jongleurs is a series of seventy-five half-hour stand up comedy programs hosted by keyboard legend Rick Wakeman. The series was conceived from the outset to have international appeal and contains a greater proportion of talent from outside the UK than any other stand up comedy programs produced in Britain. Long shelf life was also essential from the outset and thus both local and time sensitive references are avoided. The look and format of each series are identical and shows contain no back references. They can thus be aired individually, weekly or stripped.
Each episode features three comedians drawn from the finest talent in the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and of course the UK. The The first series of fifteen shows was commissioned in 1996 by UK Gold, one of the UK’s most successful cable/satellite companies which is co-owned by Flextech and the BBC. A further four series were made from 1997 to 2000, a total of seventy five shows in all.
The series is proud to have given artistes like Graham Norton, Dom Irrera, Carl Barron, Dave Attell, Judith Lucy, Robert Schimmel and many others their first appearances on UK television.
Filmed on location at the four hundred seater Jongleurs Comedy Club, Camden, thirteen episodes from the first two series were bought by ITV, the first time shows originally commissioned for cable to have transferred to the UK’s biggest terrestrial network.
In February 2003, thirty episodes were licensed to The Paramount Comedy Channel who acquired a further 30 episodes in November 2003. Various series have also been bought by TV4 (terrestrial) and First Media (cable) in New Zealand and all five series have been shown on UK TV in Australia. A video and audio cassette of edited highlights from Series 1 was released by Polygram and a one hour "fast cut" special containing twenty two comics from the first three series was commissioned by UK Gold. In Autumn, 2001, audio clips from the series were licensed to the Virgin/Boddingtons radio campaign and two CDs/Audio cassettes – "Stand Up America" and "Stand Up Great Britain" were released by Laughing Stock Records.
Series I, II & III were directed by the late Ron Kantor, an enormously talented director of countless US stand up shows including A&E’s Comedy On The Road & Evening At The Improv; Series IV was directed by Alasdair MacMillan and Series V by original "Fast Show" director, Arch Dyson.
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