First Ever 140 character comedy gig is coming to Twitter

Twitter Comedy Club debuts on June 8th

Demi Moore's toyboy uses it as a popularity contest, Stephen Fry is using it to integrate "crumbs" and "bally" into the modern vernacular and Barack Obama campaigned through it.

Celebrities have had all out wars over it, people have broken up and got engaged via it, it’s been used in space, it’s got people fired, and it’s got them rescued from jail via the American Embassy.

We’re talking of course about the social networking phenomenon Twitter.

Now for the first time a group of stand-ups are to make internet and comedy history by performing at the first ‘virtual’ comedy club on Twitter.

By the power of the tweet, punters can experience “live” comedy with top acts where you don't have to leave your house, the comics don't have to leave theirs, and there’s of course no charge to get in.

In a first for Twitter, on June 8th at 20.00 BST, nine comedians will spend ten minutes each twittering a comedy set over 140 character tweets and already twitter fans are getting very excited. Fans across the word are re-tweeting the news, the site already has over 4000 followers, some of whom have gone out of their way to make a promo video on YouTube.

Even the revered Stephen Fry has tweeted about it to say it “sounds larky”.

Compered by popular comic Tiernan Douieb (@TiernanDouieb), the line-up for Twitter's first ever comedy night is:

Mark Watson - @watsoncomedian
Pappy's Fun Club - @PappysFunClub
Mitch Benn - @MitchBenn
Matt Kirshen - @mattkirshen
Rob Heeney - @robheeney
Carl Donnelly - @carldonnelly
Terry Saunders - @terrysaunders
Gary Delaney - @garydelaney

The organisers are inviting fans and hecklers alike to respond to acts as they perform on stage using the @reply function. But if you get too drunk and shout at your computer before being asked to leave by your partner/friend/mum that’s your own fault; the management accepts no responsibility.

Mock the Week and Radio 4 regular Mark Watson says:

“This will be a defining moment in comedy. Soon, no-one will ever tell a joke in any format other than 140 characters. We'll all save time”

Matt Kirshen says:

“I can't wait for this gig. I'll be wearing my smartest phone.”

Tiernan Douieb says:

"The best thing about Twitter Comedy Club is that it’s just like a normal gig except comics only have 140 characters to tell jokes which is "…

To watch the night unfold, fans simply need to follow the performers or track the hash tag #twitcom.

ENDS

FAN TWEETS ABOUT TWITTER COMEDY

o Live comedy in your living room - 9 great acts, and I don't even have to leave my sofa!
o Great for penniless, time poor student types like myself
o I can see 9 great UK acts all from across the ocean!
o I can see lot more funny things written down than this sentence can offer
o What more could a twitter addict and fan of the funny ask for?
o i don't think i will be able to get up that early to watch it happen live, but i will definitely be reading over the tweets later that day. how exciting.
o That's my birthday! Told mum we're not going out to eat or anything because I have to be in for this.
o sounds like ill be up early. it will start at about 6am for me
o I'm so taking the night off work for this. I'm glad this got organised, should be fun!