Dabbers Social Bingo, London’s best-loved alternative bingo hall, has been on the hunt for its 2024 new face with its annual contest ‘Comedy Caller 2024’. After a perilous journey through a bingo-based-battle, four fearless contestants won the heart of their audiences and jury alike.
Now the contestants have been whittled down from 20 to a final four. But who will prevail in the final battle to become THE bingo caller of the year?
With Dabbers Social Bingo, gone are the days of dusty old hosts mumbling “two fat ladies – 88” into the microphone. Now callers get a chance to truly work the room and are encouraged to bring their talents to the stage.
Hosted by BBC New Comedy Award finalist, Sikisa, the exciting finalist judging panel will be made up of entertainment industry professionals including: Kirsty Taylor - Latitude & Festival Republic Curator; Roland Saunders - Award winning cabaret performer, Katie Smith - Industry Events Programmer and Jerome Bernard - head of entertainment at Agency Unknown.
Audiences are invited to come down to witness the final and get a chance to cheer along as the lucky winner is announced on July 7th. And as the ultimate victor, they will win £1000 courtesy of sponsors: Malibu, plus a 12-month contract with Dabbers Social Bingo and luxurious hotel stay, as they will get the opportunity to reinvent, transform and revamp the sought-after and glorious position of Bingo Caller. The runner up will also be treated to a delicious year-long supply of Malibu!
Meet The Finalists
Freddie Main as Babs Romance MP -
BBC Upload have described Freddie as “An imaginative up and coming comedian.” Freddie is also a stand-up comic (around 100 gigs in) and clown, regularly MCing for Hooma Comedy and frequently collaborating with Hocus Pocus Theatre and Beverly Bishop. Freddie hopes to continue to use Babs as a vessel for satire, drag and comedic performance for years to come, taking advantage of her versatility to many mediums of entertainment.
A satirical drag comedy character, government minister and perpetual liar, Babs Romance MP is keen to mingle with the public and invites you to hear her manifesto through shoddy parody speeches and witty musical numbers!
The character of Babs debuted as part of a lockdown series on BBC Radio in 2021, which was later archived as part of the country’s reaction to COVID by the British Library. Since then her show Babs For Life has been performed at the Edinburgh Fringe 2023.
Kat Dellar - Kat Dellar crashed into London’s open mic comedy scene in 2023 with her offbeat observations and mischievous crowd work. She’s since been a UK Pun Championship Finalist, and won Queer Comedy Club’s Gag Race, G&B Comedy’s New Act Competition and Sam Rhodes Comedy Explosion’s Beanbag Show. Hailing from Perth, Western Australia, Kat dreams of changing hearts and minds through comedy, but in the meantime Dabbers Bingo has enabled her to achieve her immediate goal of performing in rugby shorts and thongs (ahem, flip flops).
Dick Speed - Real name James Watkins bioJames Watkins is an emerging solo artist and alternative comedian whose work centres around the use of character comedy. James began creating theatre in 2017. Preforming in venues across the country with a brand playful joyous clowning with a distinct attention to striking visual imagery. The work uses the character of the clown to explore current issues through the expression of physical comedy as well as mature and poetic language. James studied theatre and clowning at the university of Chichester and graduated in 2020. He has then since gone on to produce his own sketch and solo shows even performing at the Bournemouth emerging artists festival in 2021 with his debut show 'sad clown man'. His work is always playful silly and feel good.
Lil Wenker - Lil Wenker (real name) is a clown from Minnesota who doubled as The Baddest Man in Texas. Her debut solo show, BANGTAIL, has played a sold-out tour in the US, received several award noms, and is gearing up for a full Ed Fringe run at the Pleasance. Her previous experience includes cow-milking, touring a magic show with Yale frat boys, and attending clown school in small town France (aka Ècole Gaulier). And yet she thinks the dabbers bingo competitor is the craziest thing she’s done yet!
About Dabbers Bingo:
With Dabbers Social Bingo, gone are the days of dusty old callers mumbling "two fat ladies - 88" into the microphone, now callers get a chance to truly work the room as they are encouraged to bring their talents to the stage, be that comedy, cabaret, music, or any form of performance that the Dabbers crowd will love. Dabbers and comedy have a long-held relationship – with comic callers at the centre of the Dabbers bingo experience. Their regular nights have a plethora of comedy names – guest hosts have included Aurie Styla, Marcel Lucont, Olaf Falafel, Tony Law, Tom Houghton, Eleanor Conway, and many more. The company prides itself as having comedy and performance at the heart of everything it does, the team visit The Edinburgh Festival every year to scout for new talent that really hit the jackpot.
Competition Date
Address: 18-22 Houndsditch, London EC3 7DB
Final – competition date
7th July 2024 1pm - 5pm
Buy tickets here.
