It’s been quite a ride with plenty of blood, sweat and tears – mostly tears of laughter…it isn’t easy to run a club! But it’s certainly been a learning experience, and I’m grateful for all of it. <3
A little over a year ago, 2 comedy colleagues – Lars Peterstrand and Johann Brösemyr – contacted me at the same time and asked if I wanted to start up a comedy club in the Bromma/Vällingby area. I thought they were contacting me independently (it turns out they had already talked to each other), and I thought that the Universe must certainly be sending me a message. Maybe she did. I’d been toying with the idea of starting up a club for a while, encouraged by advice from the very funny and sympathetic comedian/musician Erik Berglund. Long story shorter, West Side Comedy opened its doors on May 4th, 2022.
It was a thrill collecting tickets at the door and seeing familiar faces return week after week. Our most dedicated fan, “Lunkan” sits in the front row each week and is a big supporter of comedy and music in the area. We gave him a framed, signed poster at the premiere of the Spring 23 season.
We just finished the 3rd season, and I’m proud to say that the club has gotten progressively better with each term and that it’s been a big group effort. Since the initial group, collaborators have included: Cecilia Höglund, Sophie Happy Hagman, Fredrika Karlsson, Martin Randahl Edsman, Martin Jönsson, Naghmeh Khamoosh, Sebastian From, and I’m sure going to insult someone now by forgetting them…
We’ve probably had over a hundred different comedians perform with us, and have always tried to keep it varied and diverse. As the local paper wrote, we aim to have 50/50 male/female comics and also take into account ethnicity. We want the audience to “recognize themself” as much as possible, recognizability being one of the key elements of comedy, as I’ve been told. (That’s why I love to do deep-Bob Dylan references, in order to ostracize my audience as much as possible haha).
Comedy and music are my 2 major passions, and WSC has been an important stepping stone for me. Later this summer, I’ll be taking part in the Lund Comedy Festival, which is exciting! Stay tuned here or by visiting www.glassercomedy.se for more news!
I want to thank everyone who has given me encouragement, inspiration, advice and feedback, including: everyone at WSC, Al Pitcher, Benny Rodin, Bianca Kronlöf, Colin Quinn, Dana Carvey, David Weaver, Elin Almén, Erik Berglund, Erik Lundin, Erik Magnusson, Faceboy, Fredde Granberg, Helena Lapluma, Israel Tshibangu, Jenny Cash, Jonathan Rollins, Kathryn LeRoux, Kelly Obrien, Kevin Rex, Magnus Betnér (Vällingby’s very own!), Malin Appeltofft, Malin Butler, Martin Soneby, Milad Parchami, Molly Shannon, Ola Aurell, Petrina Solange, Raj Desai, Reverend Jen, Ryan Bussell, Sarah Silverman, Tiffany Kronlöf, Tomas Bonderud, Zinat Pirzadeh, Özz Nujen, and once again, I’m insulting someone inadvertently. :p
A comedy show is not very funny without the laughs supplied by the audience, so thank you to all the supporters, especially the most faithful of them all, Lunkan. Thanks to O’Leary’s Vällingby for letting us give it a go down there in the basement and for investing in us.
Thanks to my friends and supportive wife and family for putting up with me pursuing one of my dreams (my boys came out on my last performance there, cringed and clapped!).
End of a chapter, beginning of a new one. This coming autumn, I look forward to doing more standup and hopefully music, and the “WSC hole” will be filled with a course I’m offering on Jewish music composition at Paideia folkhögskola – no joke, folks! 😀
Over and out,
N