Greene Room gears up for a comedy feast

The Berkomedy Festival, organised by Tring-based Get Stuffed, features 26 up-and-coming gagmeisters over 13 nights starting on Monday.

The comedy newcomers will be sharing their new material with an intimate audience in The Greene Room function room in the Kings Arms on Berkhamsted High Street.

Get Stuffed is the driving force behind the annual summer Tringe Festival, which attracts big name acts honing their shows for the Edinburgh Fringe in August.

But it was a chat with a fellow comedy insider that inspired Get Stuffed boss Ben Moorhouse to add another big event to the calendar,

Ben said: “I’ve got quite a strong relationship with agents in the comedy industry -– Avalon in particular – and they said to me: ‘Why wait to be the last calling point before Edinburgh? What acts would really like is a place to test and fine tune new material before they begin their live shows.’ So I had a chat with the Kings Arms about a venue, and the Berkomedy Festival was born.”

“There are going to be quite a few lesser-known acts who are going to shake things up a bit in the industry.”

One of those booked to appear is Phil Wang, who Ben says is tipped to be “bigger than Michael McIntyre”.

Others may recognise the name Ed Aczel from previous Tringe shows – he hails from Aylesbury, works in Tring and was labelled by Jimmy Carr as “the funniest thing on the Fringe” in 2007. Visit www.berkomedyfest.co.uk for more.