It can be daunting turning up to a gig to discover you are the only woman on the bill, especially when you are just starting out in comedy. It was this underrepresentation that gave us the drive for Girlpower Night. Loved by acts and audiences alike, the all-female line-up of a Girlpower Night is the most wonderfully supportive and atmospheric show you could hope to come across. If you’re just starting out in comedy, the Girlpower Nights are an ideal place to find your confidence and a great place to start networking. Our monthly Girlpower Nights were a tradition we even managed to keep up during lockdown on G&B Online’s Zoom shows and can now be found at The Albany, Great Portland Street on the last Tuesday of every month.

Our Growing Old Disgracefully shows are for acts and audiences who prefer their comedy to be PG (Pre-Google). These nights are for acts 40 and over (we’re less strict with the audience demographic) and who have material that just requires too much explaining for Millennials. If you’ve ever made a mix-tape or managed to survive lead paint on your toys, this is the perfect night for you.

Our LGBT nights are about as much fun as you can have without a Mardi Gras float and four acres of parkland. The night’s line-up is a fabulous array of all kinds of acts from all across the LGBTQ spectrum. If this is your tribe or the vibe you love, this is the night you want to get yourself along to. Casual dress is permitted, but the effort is preferred…feather boas can be provided for those deemed underdressed.

Character acts can be one of the most difficult types of comedy to work on. If the audience doesn’t buy in to your character quickly you can be in trouble. This is why we have our Music & Character Comedy Night, so acts can relax and work on their sets without the pressure of having to compete with the more mainstteam vibe of a night’s line-up. Over the years these truly original nights have understandably developed quite a following. There’s a real sense of wonderful craziness driven by the anticipation of what’s coming next.

If your taste tends towards the darker, edgier comedy, then our Dark Delights is your kinda night. Dark comedy is a difficult one to master. The skill isn’t about crossing the line so much as it is pushing the line that bit further, and with the consent of the audience. Not for those who love a good pun or whose idea of risque humour is a sweary knock, knock joke. These are not the nights you’d take your mum to. Even the magic at these nights is dark and twisted.

The Abandoning The Comfort Zone nights were something we came up with for our G&B Online shows. They were for acts to try their hand at something completely different and outside their normal performance comfort zones. Political comics tried character sets, character acts tried pun sets, musical comedians did observational sets etc. Its point was for acts to dust off the lockdown blues and be as brave and experimental as possible with no fear of failure because everyone was equally out of their comfort zones. These nights ended up being so much fun and utterly inspiring, with several acts now branching out with their newfound comedic style, that they simply had to go into our live show repertoire. We’re so excited to have these shows finally come to the stage and take their place among our regular themed nights. Our first, live Abandoning The Comfort Zone show launches at The Star of Kings on April 4th.

The first Monday of every month at The Star of Kings, 16 acts compete for the trophy and the prize money in G&B’s New Act Competition. As well as the trophy, the cash and a free video of their winning performance, the winner also gets a paid guest spot on the following month’s competition where they get to do a longer set.

Performing to packed rooms every month, the standard of these nights has been incredible and the winners well deserved. First and second place each month also go through to our annual All Stars heats. The All Stars heats start in February with the final in March. This is the competition with the big prize money and title of G&B All Star.

G&B also has several other, occasional nights like our Variety Nights which are our cabaret shows featuring everything from music to comedy, magic to burlesque, jugglers to hypnotists. Our Have I Got Gags For You is our political comedy night with a wonderful line-up of sharp thinking, hard core ranting political comedy. And let’s not forget our annual Eurovision night, the campest, most outrageous night of the G&B year.