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Industry | Comedy club |
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Website | www |
Jongleurs is a chain of comedy clubs in the United Kingdom, running since 1983. The business is now owned by Kev Orkian.
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Maria Kempinska established and opened the first Jongleurs club in 1983 in Battersea, London. In 1985 Kempinska met her business partner John Davy and they went on to create a number of comedy clubs around the UK in the following years. By 2000, there were eight Jongleurs venues across the UK. Regent Inns plc, the owners of Walkabout, bought the clubs. Kempinska and Davy retained certain rights to the brand name, as well as creative control over booking acts. [1]
With Regent Inns in financial trouble, the Cardiff venue was closed in January 2009 [2] and in October that year, Regent Inns went into prepacked administration, allowing for a management buy-out which resulted in the formation of Intertain UK. As a result of this administration, Jongleurs venues in Southampton, Nottingham, Bristol, Oxford and Bow (London) all closed. [3] The sites in Oxford and Nottingham were later reopened by rival chain The Glee Club. As a result of the management buy out, Intertain UK decided to end its relationship with Jongleurs and all the remaining clubs were rebranded as Highlight in January 2010. [4]
Kempinska and Davy set about building a new chain of Jongleurs clubs. Hammersmith opened a month after the Regent Inns collapse and Bournemouth, Notting Hill and Clacton followed shortly after. Momo Leisure secured a franchise and opened a new club in Nottingham in 2010. [5] In September 2010 they opened a new venue at Novus Leisure club Sway in Covent Garden and three more in Tiger Tiger venues. Nightclub operators Luminar licensed the brand to 12 of their venues around the country in 2011. Later in the year, Luminar was put into administration and although all the clubs hosting Jongleurs nights avoided the first closures, [6] the venues in Swansea, Basildon, Birmingham, Newcastle upon Tyne and Norwich were all closed by February 2012.
Kev Orkian [7] purchased the Jongleurs brand in May 2020 during the pandemic. He also founded entertainment brands Howlin' Comedy Club Ltd, Howlin' Entertainment Ltd & British Pantomime Academy. Orkian has set out to redevelop the Jongleurs brand and bring the quality of what it stood for when it first opened.
Walkabout is an Australian themed pub and restaurant chain in the United Kingdom, owned by Stonegate Pubs since December 2016.
The Glee Club is a chain of independent live stand-up comedy and live music venues in the UK. The first Glee Club was opened by Mark Tughan in Birmingham's Chinese Quarter in 1994, the first dedicated comedy club to open in the United Kingdom outside London.
The toilet circuit is the network of small music venues in the United Kingdom which rising indie, rock and metal bands often visit to gain support and promote themselves. The name may refer to the size and often the cleanliness of the venue, or a lack of dressing rooms leading to the band being required to change in the toilets.
All Bar One is a pub chain consisting of 56 bars in the United Kingdom, owned and operated by Mitchells and Butlers plc which was part of the Six Continents group until 2003.
The Barfly was a chain of live music venues in the United Kingdom originally started by Nick Moore, Jeremy Ledlin and Be Rozzo on Valentine's Day 1997. Club nights and events tended to feature rock, alternative and independent music.
Scream was a student-oriented pub chain in the United Kingdom owned by the Stonegate Pub Company. The chain began in October 1995.
Tenpin Ltd, is one of the largest ten-pin bowling brands in the United Kingdom, consisting of 51 bowling centres ranging from 12 to 36 lanes, which often have on-site bars serving food and drinks. They are principally located on retail and leisure parks alongside family leisure brands
The Sitcom Trials is a stage and TV show devised, produced, and presented by Kev F. Sutherland. Beginning in Bristol in 1999, it showcases new sitcoms and comedy items in a head-to-head format. The audience then vote for the one they like best and only see the ending of the winner.
Cleethorpes Pier is a pleasure pier in the town of Cleethorpes, North East Lincolnshire, England. Opened in 1873 on August Bank Holiday, it originally cost £8,000 and was financed by the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway.
Regent Inns was the British parent company of Walkabout, Jongleurs/Bar Risa and Old Orleans chains. It went into administration in October 2009. The part-time executive chairman was Bob Ivell.
Rekom UK is a private company with an estate of 46 nightclubs and has the largest square footage of nightclub capacity in the United Kingdom.
The O2 Academy Bristol is a music venue located on Frogmore Street in Bristol, England. It is run by the Academy Music Group. On 1 January 2009 sponsorship was taken over from Carling by telecommunications company O2 and the venue's name changed from the Carling Academy to the O2 Academy. The academy which hosts club nights and gigs was opened in 2001, and was the third Academy venue in the UK.
Oceana, also known as The Ocean, was a chain of nightclubs in the United Kingdom owned and managed by Deltic Group. The last club in Southampton closed in June 2021. This decision was made by Rekom after review of the struggling chain during the Covid-19 pandemic. There were also venues in Plymouth, Brighton, Bristol, Cardiff, Kingston, Watford, Leeds and Nottingham, however these have been converted to Pryzm nightclubs, another Deltic chain. There were also venues in Milton Keynes, Birmingham and Swansea, however they have since closed. The Swansea branch closed its doors for the last time in the early hours of 31 May 2014. Oceana has effectively since then been renamed to PRYZM as most of the former Oceana clubs have been reopened under the name PRYZM, which is also managed and owned by Rekom UK.
First Leisure Corporation plc was a leisure operator in the United Kingdom active between 1981 and 2004.
Canad Inns is a chain of hotels headquartered in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
The O2 Academy Leeds (formerly known as the Town and Country Club) is a music venue situated in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is run by the Academy Music Group, which has other music venues around the UK. The Academy was nominated for the TPi Awards 2010 for the country's favourite venue.
Just the Tonic is a comedy club with branches in Nottingham and Leicester, which also takes acts to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The club opened in Nottingham in 1994, followed by a Leicester branch in 2012.
The Theatre Royal, Hanley was a theatre in Stoke-on-Trent, England with a long history.
The 2022–23 Premier League Cup was the ninth edition of the competition. The defending champions were West Bromwich Albion, who defeated Wolverhampton Wanderers on penalties in the previous final. This season saw the return of a Under-21 age limit, reduced from Under-23 the previous season, with clubs permitted to use five over-age outfield players and an over-age goalkeeper in order to help with the transition.