This piece originally appeared in The Demon newspaper. It's quite odd to look back on a review of a comedy group I subsequently joined.

Dan Nicholas’ Conversation Garden Live is a comedy show made up of an eclectic mixture of sketch, stand up and audience interaction. This comedic variety show is reminiscent of Lee & Herring vehicles like Fist of Fun, with host Dan Nicholas playing the straight man to the high energy performances of his co-performers Jack Britton and Lewys Holt.

The name of the show comes from the time Dan’s spent smoking in the garden of his flat, insisting that his flatmates Jack and Lewys keep him company. The live show was advertised by a series of sketches on Youtube which revolved around the eponymous garden, and a new sketch was filmed as part of the show.

Upstairs at The Western is a new theatre venue in Leicester and is located, you guessed it – upstairs at The Western pub. It’s a very intimate performance space which was perfect for Conversation Garden as the “anti chat show” format of the show involved the performers getting to know the audience very well. Dan Nicholas introduced the show by describing it as “like no other chat show you’ve ever seen, we won’t be interviewing some celebrities about their new book, we’ll be interviewing you, the audience”. And even just to look at it it was like no other chat show you’d ever seen, with ‘the set’ being made up of battered antique furniture and the old bath tub from the videos. In between hilarious sketches such as Jack’s analysis of Hamlet and Lewys’ Art Attack esque craft corner, a member of the audience was invited up to the tune of Jack and Lewys’ acapella rendition of Mocking Bird. Dan would then proceed to find out a bit about them before asking a question from a bucket of questions submitted by the audience before the show.

If you haven’t seen the videos there are now sixteen up on Youtube and for updates about future Conversation Garden Live shows you can like ‘Dan Nicholas’ Conversation Garden’ on Facebook.