Phil Kay's first appearance at Mostly Comedy in March 2012 was a definite turning point for the club, marking one of the earliest instances of us booking an already well-established name that hadn't started out with us to grow to that point. He was on top form that night, so the fact his whole set is available to watch on YouTube is, frankly, a bit of a treat.
The act of filming it was nothing special, as we've videoed pretty much every Mostly in its entirety for the ten years we've been running*. We did this initially to offer acts a copy of their set as part of their fee - and to put together short clips of edited highlights to help promote the club - but the videoing itself is a habit we've continued to this day, although we seldom make the footage available. In fact, we've only ever shown any of the material publically twice, when we played snippets of Paul Daniels and Sean Hughes' final sets at the club as a tribute after they sadly passed away.
In the case of Phil Kay, his first visit to Hitchin was a very big deal at the time - for us, anyway - and a bit of a coup. It was only the second time we managed to squeeze a hundred people into a show (which was no mean feat at The Croft, our then-home) and the atmosphere was electrifying from the moment Phil entered the building (I remember a friend saying the bar fell silent the moment he walked in). These days, he's a semi-regular at the club, and he's always been extraordinary - an act genuinely worth all the hyperbole - but that first hour-long performance was very special; every so often we receive a notification that someone else has left a comment praising the video, and that's only right. In fact it was Phil who asked up to upload his set as, in his words,"In terms of me that was an eight and a half and at times nine-out-of-ten gig and i would love to see it leaked onto the net."
So we did. Enjoy.
*Meet me around the back of the internet for some knock-off DVDS.
The act of filming it was nothing special, as we've videoed pretty much every Mostly in its entirety for the ten years we've been running*. We did this initially to offer acts a copy of their set as part of their fee - and to put together short clips of edited highlights to help promote the club - but the videoing itself is a habit we've continued to this day, although we seldom make the footage available. In fact, we've only ever shown any of the material publically twice, when we played snippets of Paul Daniels and Sean Hughes' final sets at the club as a tribute after they sadly passed away.
In the case of Phil Kay, his first visit to Hitchin was a very big deal at the time - for us, anyway - and a bit of a coup. It was only the second time we managed to squeeze a hundred people into a show (which was no mean feat at The Croft, our then-home) and the atmosphere was electrifying from the moment Phil entered the building (I remember a friend saying the bar fell silent the moment he walked in). These days, he's a semi-regular at the club, and he's always been extraordinary - an act genuinely worth all the hyperbole - but that first hour-long performance was very special; every so often we receive a notification that someone else has left a comment praising the video, and that's only right. In fact it was Phil who asked up to upload his set as, in his words,"In terms of me that was an eight and a half and at times nine-out-of-ten gig and i would love to see it leaked onto the net."
So we did. Enjoy.
*Meet me around the back of the internet for some knock-off DVDS.