The Free Beer Show

The Free Beer Show is a privately run and financed comedy club that started at the Edinburgh Festival in 2002. They give you a free beer or a glass of wine upon entry and you watch a cabaret style line-up of stand-up comedians that changes every night.

Venues

In 2002, 2003 & 2004 the club ran at the Gilded Balloon Teviot venue and in 2005 it moved to the Underbelly venue group. As well as running at the Fringe they also have a weekly Monday night show at the Cellar Bar in Oxford where the club's owner, Paddy Luscombe, is based. They also appear at university events and have occasional shows in London.

Acts

According to their own publicity the club has had 100's of comedians perform over the years with highlights including Russell Brand, Simon Amstell, Jimmy Carr, Reginald D Hunter, Phil Nichol, Wil Anderson, Ray Peacock, Flight of the Conchords, Paul Provenza, Demetri Martin, Dwight Slade, David Crowe (comedian), Richard Herring, Stephen K Amos, Norman Lovett, Stewart Lee and Lucy Porter.

Reviews

Google searching shows a mixed reaction in the press to the club. Their local reviews of their Oxford night are all very positive with regular features in the Oxford Times. Interestingly Fringe reviewers "ThreeWeeks" have given the club both 4 and 1 star reviews in different years. Fringereport.com still holds a glowing review from their first year. A brief controversy seems to happened in 2005 when resident compere Ray Peacock was reported (The Times,The Stage & Scotsman.com) to have stamped on the head of a hecklerFact|date=April 2007. No record exists of any prosecution (which you'd expect from such behaviour) so one could reasonably speculate that the claims have been blown out of proportion or were a publicity stunt from the club themselves. Indeed their publicity material regularly desribes them as 'the most debaucherous comedy club in the UK'.