Summary
Comedian Dom Joly has called Cheltenham home for the last seven years – and it could be said that there are few bigger champions of the town. The 58-year-old takes as many opportunities as he can to celebrate local businesses, frequently taking to social media to share round-ups of his favourite places in Cheltenham , from cafes and breweries to barbers.
Details
And now, in a new interview with GloucestershireLive, Dom has spoken of his “genuine love” for the town and said there is nowhere else in the country he would rather live. The comic is currently on a UK-wide tour marking 25 years of his hidden camera prank show, Trigger Happy TV, which aired on Channel 4 from 2000-2003. He says the tour is going “brilliantly”, and promises it is “genuinely really, really funny”.
And yet, it is perhaps not his biggest passion project. Despite having a packed tour schedule for the next eight months, Dom is still making time for his monthly Speakeazy show in Cheltenham, which he describes as “the best thing I’ve ever done”.
Dom created Speakeazy around 18 months ago, and describes it as: ” A grass-roots club atmosphere in which he curates a curious combination of music, comedy and chat for a gloriously eclectic night out.” It takes place at the Steam and Whistle pub next to Cheltenham train station on a Thursday every month, with tickets priced at £35.
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Speaking about the inspiration for Speakeazy, Dom said: “I just really wanted an evening in Cheltenham that was not available for me, an evening that I would like to go to. I really love doing stuff in Cheltenham. The more things that happen in Cheltenham, the better.
“I went around all over Cheltenham looking for a venue, and then someone told me about this pub, which used to be Cheltenham’s roughest pub, by the railway station, and it had been taken over and the new owners had made it incredible. “It’s got a really nice, weird, off-beat vibe. And I want to give people something different and that feels interesting.
I don’t think there’s anything like it. “The whole point of Speakeazy is just to trust my taste, and I’m curating an evening for you. I’m getting comedians I think you’ll really like, I’m getting musicians I think you’ll really like.
I’m getting odd, off-beat acts I think you’ll enjoy, and the occasional guest who is really interesting. “The feedback is always really lovely. We get people come from Wales, from Brighton, someone even came down from Scotland for it, which I was amazed by.
Report source: Gloucestershire Live
