Evening out: Ha Ha Restaurant and Covent Garden Comedy Club

Well, this entry is pretty late!  We went out on 30 August but then we moved house the next day and it has been two long weeks without proper Internet access.  I also kind of lost my camera in all the mess!  So our actual 10-year dating anniversary was the night we went to the Gourmet Burger Kitchen but the next night we were alone (at last!) as Chris and Michael went to see the St Helens vs Hull Rugby League final at Wembley. 

Stephen loves comedy so we decided that a comedy evening was required.

We started off the evening with dinner at Ha Ha Bar and Grill at 6 Villiers Street in WC2N.  Villiers Street is the street that runs between Embankment and Charing Cross Stations. 

The meal was superb and the service was excellent.  They have a special where you get 25% off your main meals if you show them your stamp to the Covent Garden Comedy Club.  We hadn't stamped in yet but the waitress checked our ticket and gave us the discount anyway.  For starters, two main courses, wine for Stephen and water for me the bill came to £34.  The bill definitely came to less than we were expecting.

We decided to go for a walk after our meal to digest our food.  I took Stephen on a little walk North-East to show him the house where JM Barrie wrote Peter Pan.  This is actual my company's head office and Stephen had never seen it before.  It is really amazing, because Peter Pan was one of my favourite childhood stories (and certainly my favourite pantomime) and it is just amazing to stand in the very room that belonged to James Barrie.  Anyway, on this evening the building was closed but we still got to see the outside.

Barrie's room was at the very top, far corner of the picture.  At the near side, the purple plaque shows that this is a place of interest and it reads:

London Country Council
Robert Adam
Thomas Hood
John Galsworthy
Sir James Barrie
and other eminent artists
and writers lived here

Next we took a walk down into the Victoria Embankment Gardens to see where the old York Water Gate is. I think this is an amazing piece of London history. The river used to flow right up to this gate so the wealthy inhabitants of the mansions could have direct access to the river Thames. With the construction of the Thames Embankment, however, the river bank moved 150 yards out and the York Water Gate now stands inside the Victoria Embankment Gardens.

Finally, it was time to go to Covent Garden Comedy Club for our comedy evening.  Of course, the comedy club is nowhere near Covent Garden and is in fact located in Heaven nightclub in the Arches precinct (located next to Charing Cross Station). 

The first artist we saw was Kiwi comedian Al Pitcher.  He was absolutely hilarious.  I am sure it is a Southern Hemisphere thing, but Stephen and I just 'got' him and we laughed our heads off.

Next up was Andy Parsons of Mock The Week fame.  Andy just wasn't as funny as Al and I do believe he is much better at improvising than at stand-up comedy.  His material was very political which goes down a lot better when he is doing improvisation.  I did enjoy his performance and as always, I appreciated his political satire, but he wasn't as side-splittingly funny as Al.

At this point, I have to mention the MC Rich Wilson.  Gosh he was funny.  That brilliant self-deprecating humour, but not overly done.

The final act was Pierre Hollins.  Being an old woman, I was really tired by now and almost skipped Pierre's set to go home early.  Thank goodness I didn't!  His set was brilliant!  The man is absolutely irreverent and I would definitely seek him out and go watch him again.

All in all it was a super evening.  We paid £13.50 each to get into the comedy club but then they gave us a loyalty card and our next visits will only be £10.00 each.  There is something therapeutic about just going out for an evening and laughing and we'll definitely be doing something like this again soon.