Stand-Up Comedy Lubricated by Cocktails in the Heart of Soho
The Rum Monkey Soho occupies an interesting niche in the London comedy landscape: the comedy-bar hybrid. This is not a venue where the comedy is an afterthought added to justify the bar licence, nor is it a pure comedy club that happens to have a bar. It is a venue that takes both its cocktail programme and its comedy programming seriously, and the result 335 reviews at a 4.8-star rating suggests that the combination works considerably better than the concept might suggest on paper.
The Comedy-Bar Hybrid Model
London has been wrestling with the comedy-bar hybrid for decades. The model is appealing in theory you get the footfall and the revenue from a bar operation with the programming value and the destination appeal of a comedy venue but it is difficult to execute well. The risk is that the bar side of the operation undermines the comedy: that the noise, the coming and going of customers, the ambient social atmosphere of a busy bar, erodes the focused attention that stand-up comedy requires to work properly.
The Rum Monkey Soho has apparently navigated this tension successfully. The reviews praise both the cocktail quality and the comedy, without suggesting that one comes at the expense of the other. The configuration of the space, the timing of the shows, and the management of the room during the comedy programme appear to have found the balance point where you can have a serious rum cocktail and also laugh at something a stranger is saying in front of a microphone.
The Rum Programme
The Rum Monkey’s bar operation is not incidental to the experience. The cocktail menu draws extensively on rum in its many forms agricole, aged, white, spiced and the kitchen produces food that is designed to support a long evening rather than just bridge the gap between arrival and showtime. In a neighbourhood where every bar is competing for attention, the Rum Monkey has built an identity that makes it worth visiting even on nights without comedy which, commercially speaking, is exactly the right approach.
The Comedy Programme
The comedy at the Rum Monkey Soho follows the standard circuit format, with shows built around experienced professional acts from the London and national circuit. The intimacy of the venue smaller than the dedicated comedy clubs nearby creates a different atmosphere from the larger rooms: the relationship between comedian and audience is closer, the crowd work is more personal, and the shared experience of watching live comedy in a small, warm, cocktail-scented room in Soho has a particular quality that the bigger venues cannot replicate.
The Verdict
The Rum Monkey Soho is a genuinely enjoyable evening in one of London’s most characterful neighbourhoods. It combines a serious cocktail bar with a genuine comedy programme and executes both well enough to maintain a 4.8-star rating across 335 reviews. If you want comedy with better drinks than a dedicated comedy club can offer, or if you want a cocktail bar with significantly better entertainment than ambient music, the Rum Monkey has solved your problem.
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
