Just three months after the demise of Jesters Comedy Club, owner David Trew returns with a brand new comedy night bang in the centre of town. Steve Wright looks back and forward with Mr Trew.

"I always felt that Jesters needed to be better located. In its early days in the mid-90s, our location almost did us a favour, but inevitably times change. Stokes Croft’s ‘edgy’, urban feel doesn’t really suit the middle-class demographic that stand-up comedy attracts, and we were always competing with that. The recent riots were no help, of course, and the negative press about Tesco opening up in our old venue just confused people who thought we’d disappeared.”

David Trew, founder and director of the recently departed Jesters Comedy Club, is musing on the latter’s 16-year occupancy of Bristol’s Stokes Croft. And he’s doing so from a very different address: College Square in the centre of town, surrounded by a historic school and cathedral, and the site of David’s new comedy venture. Yes, just three months after Jesters’ demise, RIPROAR Comedy starts this month. After a launch night on 15 October, the new comedy night will continue every Saturday night thereafter, with additional Friday nights a possibility for 2012.

Sited in The Cresswell Centre, a brand new performance venue on the Bristol Cathedral School site, RIPROAR will follow, in some ways, its Jesters antecedent – three comics a night, food and drink served on the premises – but will also differ in certain key ways. “It’ll be the Jesters ideology transposed into a city-centre venue, with some great added bonuses,” Dave explains. Such as? “A full theatrical lighting rig, a quicker and more efficient food service (with food by Bristol’s Soil Association-accredited Lettuce and Lovage, www.lettucelovage.co.uk), a massive underground car park two minutes’ walk away, raked seating at the back for that enclosed feel. Not to mention being situated in one of the most beautiful parts of the city centre, away from Bristol’s ‘Booze Britain’ high streets…”

Jesters (and its parent brand Metropolis, under which name, since 2008, David put on music gigs alongside the weekly comedy) closed in July after 16 years’ trading. What brought about the end? “Metropolis was created for our live music ambitions and Jesters operated as a brand within that brand. Both the music and comedy gigs needed to make money, but music never really did, despite our employing one of the most confident music promoters in the UK, who worked very hard, but failed to generate sufficient profit from music gigs to meet our costs.”

A difficult first year for Metropolis was followed by further problems, as the company was now trading with a debt millstone around its neck. “In the days of easier money (pre-recession), banks would have given us credit to trade ourselves out of that position. Without this possibility, though, nerves took hold amongst certain shareholders who went down the legal route to force the business to close. This was ultimately what killed Metropolis, and took Jesters with it, despite comedy being the only thing that ever made any money.”

All very stressful at the time: looking back from today’s perspective, though, David’s glad it happened. “I now feel like Jesters was of its day. In 1995, it was the best thing I’d ever done, and to see it prosper as it did was wonderful. But times change, and you need to change with them. The last year of Metropolis featured boardroom bust-ups, shareholder disagreements, and neighbours on our back about the music. I’m glad to be away from all of that. To be out on my own again with a new project has completely revitalised me.”

David promises an evening of ‘focused comedy’ at the new venue. “The sight lines are great, the seating will allow for everyone to feel more engaged than they were at the cavernous old Jesters premises. The bar and food service are both within arm’s reach, too.”

He knows, though, he’s not starting in the most propitious era for new entertainment businesses. “Since 2008 the licensed trade has been decimated – standard business models for the licensed trade no longer work. The days when renting expensive, top-dollar premises was enough to ensure survival are long gone. Just take a look at some of the high-profile casualties around Bristol alone and you’ll see that. Perhaps the market was oversubscribed, but I believe the real reason is that people just don’t go out as much any more. 10-15 years ago people were hanging out of the bars along Whiteladies Road all week. These days that doesn’t even happen at the weekend. To survive you have to work even harder. So I’m both nervous and very excited.”

RIPROAR COMEDY OPENS WITH A LAUNCH PARTY ON SAT 15 OCT, FEATURING COMEDIANS ERICH MCELROY, TOM ALLEN AND GEOFF NORCOTT.

RIPROAR COMEDY COLLEGE SQ, BRISTOL, BS1 5TS. FFI: 0117 914 0910 OR WWW.RIPROARCOMEDY.CO.UK

Copyright Steve Wright 2011