The Room Above & The White Bear: Grand Re-opening!

The Room Above & The White Bear: Grand Re-opening!

Posted on: 24 Oct 2022

A long-standing fixture of the Bristol theatre & comedy scene, The Room Above is a fringe comedy venue situated above The White Bear, at the top of St Michael’s Hill.

 

With The White Bear recently changing hands, and undergoing a period of renovation, the Room Above has been renovated and renewed with it – in celebration, the twin venues had an evening of comedy to launch their new lease on life.

 

Entering the pub for the first time since the handover, the difference is immediate. Whilst much of the décor remains the same, big flourishes and little details bring the space to life: a row of liberated train seats – complete with those classic, delightfully gaudy seat patterns – sit aside a wall of Big Mouth Billy Bass (an animatronic singing fish). Around the corner a collage of colourful manga covers jostles shoulders with a similar collage of psychadelic pop-culture art – really enhancing the DIY kitsch-punk vibe of the space.

 

 

The pub was lively, as it likely will be regularly – with a staggering £2.90 pint and proximity to the uni, this is sure to be a student favourite. The main attraction, of course, awaited upstairs - the grand-reopening comedy gig, a few hours of mixed comedic stylings from both local and national talent.

 

 

The grand re-opening gig was an eclectic mix of stand-up and sketch comedy that kicked off the Room Above as it means to go on – a wholehearted commitment to a varied mix of new and established comedians, all of which boasting their own strong, unique sense of personality and style: Hosts and clubrunners Harry Allmark & Alex Stevens preceded acerbic Bath talent Holly Leggett, and headliner Ben Pope.

 

 

After Pope charmed the crowd with his scatterbrained, enthusiastic machine-gun comedy, the night transitioned into the sketch portion – the house sketch troupe, Got Legs, took to the stage to perform their acclaimed Edinburgh Fringe show for the final time.

 

Like any sketch show, some sketches played better than others, but none fell flat – no surprise considering the energy (and joy) each performer clearly brought to every sketch.

 

 

For the most part, premises were original and surprising – the jokes were satisfyingly tough to predict, and there was a good ratio of sketches that devolved into delightfully absurd complexity (see: an unorthodox sleep soundscape devolves into a genre crime thriller fuelled by marital strife), and those that hit hard and fast with their single joke (a hot potato on dating show too hot to handle).

 

Overall it was a funny, welcoming night – there was a sense of community engendered by the space, and the comedians who were inhabiting it.

The Room Above is a valuable comedic space – with the addition of the newly vibrant White Bear underneath, and the tireless scouting eyes of Allmark and Stevens for Bristol’s biggest and freshest comedy talents, this is definitely a venue to put at the top of your to do list.

 

You can see what’s coming up at The Room Above here.

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Patrick Bate

Patrick is a filmmaker with so much Bristol in his blood the white blood cells are graffiti'd. Educated at the Northern Film School in Leeds, he’s returned home to be a Videographer and Reviewer for 365Bristol and BARBI. When he’s not messing about with cameras, he enjoys playing guitar, spending far too much time on tabletop RPGs, and being an awful snob about cider. Have a look at his work here, or get in touch at patrickb@365bristol.com.