London’s Most-Reviewed Comedy Venue Has 5,677 Opinions and All of Them Are Right
With 5,677 Google reviews at a 4.9-star rating, Big Belly Bar and Comedy Club has been assessed by more people than most parliamentary committees, subjected to more scrutiny than most government policies, and found by the overwhelming majority of those who assessed it to be excellent. It is the most-reviewed comedy venue in London, which is a title that sounds statistical but actually means something: more people have been through those doors, watched those shows, and thought it worth recording their experience than at any other comedy club in the capital.
South Bank Location
Big Belly Bar sits near London Bridge on the South Bank the riverfront strip that has been transforming itself from post-industrial decay into one of London’s most visited leisure destinations since the opening of the Tate Modern in 2000. The neighbourhood is now dense with restaurants, bars, galleries, the Globe Theatre, Borough Market, and the constant presence of tourists who have crossed the river from the traditional West End entertainment district and discovered that south of the Thames, the prices are slightly more forgiving and the atmosphere considerably more varied.
Into this environment, Big Belly Bar has inserted a combination of lively bar culture and professional comedy programming that has proven to be exactly what the South Bank needed. The venue pulls in both the tourist traffic from the riverside and the local crowd from the rapidly gentrifying Bermondsey and London Bridge area, creating an audience that is diverse, enthusiastic, and crucially sufficiently large to sustain a high volume of shows and a high volume of reviews.
The Comedy Programme
Big Belly Bar runs a consistent comedy programme featuring professional circuit acts in a setting that combines the social atmosphere of a popular bar with the focused attention that good stand-up comedy requires. The shows are professionally run, the acts are drawn from the working circuit, and the combination of riverside location and consistent quality has made it one of the most visited comedy venues in London by pure footfall.
The 4.9-star rating across nearly 5,700 reviews is, in statistical terms, extraordinary. Maintaining a rating that high across that volume of reviews requires not just consistent quality but consistent quality across an enormous diversity of audience types, show formats, and individual acts. The fact that Big Belly Bar has done this puts it in a category occupied by very few venues anywhere in the entertainment industry.
The Bar Operation
The Big Belly Bar aspect of the venue is not incidental. This is a genuine bar operation a popular South Bank destination for drinks, food, and the general atmosphere of the riverfront. The comedy programme is built into a venue that is already working as a bar, which means the comedy benefits from the goodwill and the appetite for a good evening that the bar generates. Conversely, the bar benefits from the comedy’s ability to draw people who might otherwise choose a different South Bank venue. It is a symbiotic relationship that the best comedy-bar hybrids in London have been trying to replicate for years.
The Verdict
Big Belly Bar and Comedy Club is one of London’s great comedy success stories: a South Bank venue that has used its location, its bar operation, and the quality of its comedy programming to build the largest review base of any comedy club in London, and maintained a near-perfect rating while doing so. If the numbers mean anything and 5,677 reviews at 4.9 stars mean rather a lot this is one of the best nights out in the capital.
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
