Whiffler comedy night at the Norwich Castle gardens.Picture: James Bass

The Lord Mayor’s Celebrations were kicked off with a laid-back evening of comedy in the gardens of Norwich Castle.

To send a link to this page to a friend, simply enter their email address below.

The message will include the name and email address you gave us when you signed up.

Email address

  Send link

To send a link to this page to a friend, you must be logged in.

The outdoor Whiffler Theatre hosted the comedy night, with around 100 people relieved to see the skies clear for a dry and enjoyable evening.

Otiz Cannelloni, Ben Norris and Mike Gunn were the headline acts for the evening, organised by Norwich City Council as part of this weekend’s Lord Mayor’s Celebrations.

Cannelloni acted as host for the evening and admitted it was the first time he had done such a gig outside, as Norris found to the audience’s amusement during his set when he was interrupted by three geese flying overhead.

The evening’s host soon got the audience on-side by poking fun at people from Suffolk before telling of how his mum had got him into the comedy game by telling him at the dinner table: “there’s some children in Germany who haven’t got any sense of humour at all you know.”

With the audience suitably warmed up, Londoner Ben Norris soon continued the laughs with some fun banter with one gentlemen who got up to go to the toilet, telling of his phobia of his identical-twin daughters and suggesting all Police Coomunity Support Officers were replaced by Hollywood hardman actor Ray Winstone.

However, it was his surprisingly good rap mocking religion which drew the biggest applause of the evening.

Self-confessed pessimist Mike Gunn then completed an enjoyable evening after the interval with his dark humour, in the rather quaint and unusual setting of Norwich Castle’s gardens.