Organisers of Reading’s first alcohol free comedy night say it will be just the same, but without the tipples.

The first of a new series of comedy nights launches in Woodley this weekend, and organisers won’t be raising a glass to it if it’s successful: there won’t be a drop of alcohol served.

For many, a visit to a comedy club means getting a few beers in and enjoying some laughs through the lens of alcohol. And it’s not just the guests: Dave Allen based his act not on stand-up, but sitting down with a glass of Scotch and cigarette – possibly the most famous comedian linked with booze.

On Friday, January 31, the Oakwood Centre in Woodley will be full of the sound of laughter but not clinking glasses. And if it goes well, the alcohol-free comedy night will be the first of many.

The event is in every respect a normal comedy night organised by Laughter Craft Comedy, a familiar name across Reading. The company, run by Jonathan Elston, brings many famous names to the area and performs at a range of venues Milk bar in Reading town centre, and venues in Spencers Wood, Twyford, Goring, and Purley-on-Thames.

Among the many comics he works with are Matt Richardson, Paul Tonkinson, Fiona Allen, and Sara Pascoe, along with some up-and-coming stars of tomorrow.

Such is the quality of his comedy nights that many are sold out with waiting lists in place to meet demand.

And that includes this debut event that will bring Dry January to a close.

 

 

Who will be performing at A Dry Sense of Humour?

Laughter Craft’s A Dry Sense Of Humour comedy night will be held at the Alan Cornish Theatre in The Oakwood Centre in Woodley from 8pm on Friday, January 31.

The event will be hosted by comedian Jonathan Elston, who will bring some belly laughs between the two other acts.

Opening the show will be Cally Beaton, a podcaster and speaker as well as a comic.

She has worked as a senior vice-president for US broadcaster ViacomCBS, and had a hand in bringing South Park and SpongeBob SquarePants to our screens. And it was while working for Comedy Central channel that she started doing her own stand-up … thanks to a chance encounter with Joan Rivers.

She has since appeared on QI and The Apprentice: You’re Fired, Live At The Apollo, Countdown and Richard Osman’s House of Games.

The headliner will be Steve Wiliams, who has appeared on Russell Howard’s Good News, Tonight at the Palladium, and Stand Up Comedy Central, as well as touring extensively, opening for Russell Howard on his tours.

Metro has described him as one of the UK’s finest comedians.

Tickets have sold out, but some returns may be available.

For more details, log on to: https://wegottickets.com/event/637475

 

So why launch an alcohol-free comedy night?

Woodley man Tony Worsdall is the catalyst for organising a dry comedy night.

At the start of January 2020, he made a decision to give up alcohol himself. Just weeks before the covid pandemic saw the world go into lockdowns, it could have been looked on as a foolish decision. But Tony has made the most of it and now helps coach others wanting to go on a similar journey.

 

By his own admission, he started drinking when he was a teenager, joining friends “drinking in the fields long before Ed Sheeran made a song about it”, he says.

“It’s always been there as part of my professional and home life for the best part of 50 years, and I have never really been comfortable with that. I never had a rock-bottom moment, but there have possible been a few things I would rather forget, if I could remember them.”

Giving up wasn’t an overnight decision: it was a gradual one taken over 10 years, with much research including reading books and listening to podcasts, taking on short-term challenges, such as 30 days without a drink, before taking the plunge.

“I made this decision. It was either not drinking or carry on drinking. I’d open a bottle of wine, and it never goes back in the fridge. That level of drinking was never going to serve me well.”

Covid arrived in these shores just weeks after Tony made that decision, and he had no regrets not even as we were in lockdowns.

“In hindsight it was a very wise decision for a lot of reasons, but so many people saw their drinking go off the scale during lockdown. I didn’t even contemplate it.”

The former management consultant worked for local authorities before changing paths, and this set him in good steed for www.sobersixty.com, which offers coaching and support for people wanting to make changes to their lifestyle.

And there is a demand. Industry organisation Drinkaware UK says that three in 10 UK drinkers are now open to drinking non-alcoholic beer, wine or spirit substitutes, up from 25% in 2023 and 18% in 2018, and over three-quarters (77%) of those who do so feel it is effective as a moderation technique, while supermarkets now have whole sections devoted to non-alcoholic tipples.

“In the five years before I quit drinking, I’d been coaching and mentoring various other people, not around sobriety, but around their chosen careers. That was part of the process to decide I was going to be a sobriety coach and work with people who had decided to change their relationships with alcohol.”

Tony had been going to the Laughter Craft comedy nights held in Woodley for a couple of years. Originally launched in the Crumbs café, they regularly sold out the venue, forcing a move to the Oakwood Centre.

“It was great to see people coming out on a Wednesday night in Woodley and having a laugh,” he says. “There is not a lot to do in evening in Woodley for people of our age, so going to the comedy nights was quite good fun. There have been some really good acts there, and some good nights – they’ve always been quite raucous, and appeal to my sense of humour.

“We’ve always had great value for money.”

And it was through this that he met Jonathan, who he describes as “a bloody good comedian”. They had a conversation about Tony’s work as a sober coach and how London has a growing dry comedy scene.

There is one thing that Tony is promising about the event: it’ll just be about the jokes.

“It’s a comedy night that happens to be alcohol free. I’m not going to be standing up and preaching to anyone … it’s nothing different from another comedy night, and the comedian won’t be telling sober jokes.”

Well … unless they’ve got a dry sense of humour.