South London club reopens after pandemic

South London’s Poodle Club is reopening on Friday having being shut for much of the last two years due to the pandemic.

Forthcoming weekend line-ups includes Arthur Smith, pictured at the venue, Ninia Benjamin and, Sooz Kempner.h a fe

And there will be a festival of Edinburgh previews running from June 10 to 18 featuring the likes of Paul Foot, Isy Suttie and Tony Law..

Opened in 2017 by comedy business veteran Karen O Novak and her husband Darren Ball, the Poodle Club lays claim to being London’s only female-owned purpose-built comedy club.

It aims to have an equal number of male and female comedians and to promote LGBTQ+ and non-white comics ‘to raise up voices that are sometimes lost in the traditionally straight male-dominated comedy scene’. The policy has drawn an audience that is 70 per cent female, Novak says.

Poodle Club comedy listings and tickets.

Published: 25 Apr 2022