ABSTRACT
The Comedy Store was forced to close after only a few months, but it reopened in a different venue five nights a week, and new groups at new venues were also opening up. Most important was probably Jongleurs near Clapham Junction which presented what was more obviously variety, interspersing the stand-up comedians with acrobats, fire-eaters and rock bands. By 1986, London boasted some fifty venues, and after Alexei Sayle and Tony Allen had pioneered stand-up at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1980, it too had become a significant venue. The 1990s and after saw more women stand-up comedians, including Jo Brand, the Geordie Sarah Millican and the Scottish lesbian, Rhona Cameron, as well as men like the deadpan Jimmy Carr and the black, gay Stephen K. Amos. A trained actor who turned to stand-up, Russell Brand created a witty, outrageous and often offensive act, which might have excited Antonin Artaud.
