Three Reviews, a Four-Point-Three Average, and a Story Still Being Written
Covent Garden Comedy Point has three reviews and a 4.3-star average. Three reviews. In London comedy terms, this makes it the newest, smallest, most obscure, or most recently opened venue in the entire directory a point of comedy provision so new to the review economy that its entire reputation rests on the opinions of three separate individuals who, on three separate occasions, attended a comedy event at this venue and thought it worth recording their experience.
The Mathematics of Three Reviews
A 4.3 average from three reviews means, mathematically, that the scores were something like five, four, and four or possibly five, five, and three. No single one of these three people gave it one or two stars, which is encouraging. No single person loved it enough to award five stars and then convince two friends to also award five stars, which keeps it from being a perfect score sustained entirely by enthusiasm rather than evidence. The 4.3 average is, in its modest way, an honest one: good but not exceptional, worth visiting but with room for improvement.
In a city where three reviews would not qualify as a data point for most statistical purposes, Covent Garden Comedy Point is operating as a pure unknown. The review count is too small to confirm anything about the quality of the programming, the venue, or the comedy. It is large enough to confirm only that Covent Garden Comedy Point exists, that three people went there, and that those three people, collectively, thought it was pretty good.
The Covent Garden Context
Operating in Covent Garden with three reviews while surrounded by venues with hundreds or thousands means Covent Garden Comedy Point is either brand new, operating under the radar by choice, or marketing so poorly that it has somehow remained invisible in one of London’s most-visited entertainment districts. Any of these explanations is possible. The first is the most charitable, the second is the most interesting, and the third is the most common explanation for a venue in a high-footfall area with an implausibly low review count.
The 4.3 average, such as it is, places it below most of the established Covent Garden comedy venues the Comedy Carnival at 4.9, the Top Secret at 4.9, the JK at 4.9 but above the threshold that typically indicates systematic problems. It is a venue in the early stages of establishing whether it has anything to offer to an already well-served comedy neighbourhood, and the answer from three respondents is: probably yes, but more evidence is required.
The Case for Going
There is something appealing about being early to something. The Comedy Store in 1979, the Angel Comedy Club in its first year, the Top Secret before its first thousand reviews every great venue starts somewhere, and Covent Garden Comedy Point is at that somewhere right now. Going when the review count is three and the average is 4.3 means you might be contributing the fourth review, or the tenth, or the hundredth. It means you might be among the first to discover something significant, or among the first to conclude that it is not quite ready yet and leave a politely honest assessment of its current limitations.
The Verdict
Covent Garden Comedy Point is London’s most unknown comedy venue in one of London’s most known entertainment districts. Three reviews, 4.3 stars, and a story that has barely begun. Go. Form your own view. Add your review to the three that already exist. Every great institution started as a mystery.
Auf Wiedersehen, amigo!
Alan Nafzger was born in Lubbock, Texas, the son Swiss immigrants. He grew up on a dairy in Windthorst, north central Texas. He earned degrees from Midwestern State University (B.A. 1985) and Texas State University (M.A. 1987). University College Dublin (Ph.D. 1991). Dr. Nafzger has entertained and educated young people in Texas colleges for 37 years. Nafzger is best known for his dark novels and experimental screenwriting. His best know scripts to date are Lenin’s Body, produced in Russia by A-Media and Sea and Sky produced in The Philippines in the Tagalog language. In 1986, Nafzger wrote the iconic feminist western novel, Gina of Quitaque. He currently lives in Holloway, North London. Contact: editor@prat.uk
