Stand-Up Comedy on the Thames Blame Your Wobbly Legs on the River
The Boat Show Comedy Club has solved a problem that nobody in British comedy knew they had: where do you put a comedy club when there is no more room on land? The answer, it turns out, is on a 1930s paddle steamer moored on the Embankment opposite the London Eye, where the combination of warm beer, professional stand-up, and the gentle movement of the Thames creates an experience that is genuinely unlike anything else available in the capital. You are, for the duration of the show, on a boat. The comedian is on a boat. Everyone is on a boat, and somehow this makes the comedy funnier.
The PS Tattershall Castle
The Boat Show Comedy Club operates from the PS Tattershall Castle a Grade II listed paddle steamer built in 1934 that spent its working life ferrying passengers across the Humber Estuary before being retired to the Thames, where it now serves as a floating bar, entertainment venue, and comedy club. The ship is moored permanently on the Victoria Embankment, directly across the water from the London Eye, in a position that offers one of the more dramatic settings of any comedy venue in the world.
The comedy room itself is below deck cosy, wood-panelled, atmospheric in the way that only a space with 90 years of history and a slight smell of river water can be. The sight lines are good, the acoustics work better than you might expect from a curved hull, and the knowledge that you are sitting in a vessel that once crossed the North Sea adds a certain frisson to the experience that no basement club can replicate.
Comedy with a View Well, Before the Show
The Boat Show Comedy Club has a pre-show bar on the upper deck, where you can stand with a drink and watch the Thames traffic, the London Eye turning slowly in the distance, and the steady procession of tourists along the South Bank. It is, by any measure, an exceptional location for a pre-comedy drink, and the Boat Show has been sensible enough to allow enough time between doors and show for this ritual to be properly enjoyed.
The comedy programme features regular circuit acts performing in the intimate below-deck venue, with the format following the standard compère-plus-acts structure that London audiences know and trust. The unusual setting does not distract from the quality of the comedy if anything, it seems to put audiences in an excellent mood before the first act has reached the stage, which is a significant advantage that no amount of interior design can replicate.
Ratings and Reputation
With 357 reviews at a 4.5-star rating, the Boat Show Comedy Club has earned a solid reputation as a distinctive and genuinely enjoyable alternative to the more conventional comedy venues of the West End. It is not the highest-rated venue in London, and it is not the cheapest, but it offers something genuinely unique: the combination of excellent riverside location, atmospheric historic setting, and professional comedy that makes for an evening with a story attached to it.
The Verdict
The Boat Show Comedy Club is one of London’s most distinctive entertainment venues, full stop. If you are looking for a comedy night that offers more than just a dark room and a microphone if you want the comedy to be part of an evening that feels genuinely memorable then a boat on the Thames, moored opposite one of the world’s most photographed landmarks, with stand-up happening below deck while the river moves quietly outside, is an experience worth seeking out. Just find your river legs before the compère finds you in the front row.
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
