mostly david ephgrave

So much has happened since my last post in March that this blog risks sounding like an itinerary. The main news is that Hitchin Mostly Comedy will return in the summer at a new venue, the Queen Mother Theatre . The road to this decision was convoluted, though enough fell into place en route to leave me optimistic about this new start. The catalyst was a survey I ran via our mailing list a few months back, in which I asked, "If the club returned in the current climate, with tickets still around £15 (and with similar line-ups), would you still attend?"; the response to which, in simple terms, was a resounding yes. Nearly 250 mailing list subscribers responded in a single week, with around a hundred also taking the option to leave some feedback. And only two people were abusive, which counts as a win when you consider they posted their comments online anonymously. Imagine how many more insults we would have received if the comedy club was a woman. Particularly if she was Diane ...

The other day I was flummoxed by a question while completing an online survey for Primark. That sounds very ominous. Perhaps the staff are dishing out sexual favours. If so, this question may be intended as a honey trap to ensnare any would-be culprits. I can’t think of anything a sales assistant in Primark could do to make my shopping experience great , other than ejecting me from the premises. That’s not to say that Primark doesn’t have a place on the High Street (that place being inside Primark). The stakes here are far too high. The average Primark customer isn’t looking for a ‘great’ or ‘special’ in-store experience; they’re just after a cheap pair of pants or a t-shirt. We're not talking about Disneyland.