Back in March comedian Joey Page was eagerly anticipating the recording of his first comedy special, for comedy streaming service NextUp.

Little did he know that on recording day, Boris Johnson would make an announcement that would underline just how ‘special’ it would be:.

“Now is the time for everyone to stop non-essential contact with others and to stop all unnecessary travel… And you should avoid pubs, clubs, theatres and other such social venues.” 
– Boris Johnson (transcription of speech delivered on 16th March 2020)

So, what do you do when you’re about to fulfill a career dream, it’s just a few hours before show time and the Prime Minister of the UK actively tells your audience to stay at home?  Well, if you’re Joey, you embrace the chaos and plough on regardless.   The Special that was supposed to be a reprise of Joey’s Edinburgh Fringe show morphed on the fly to acknowledge the strangeness of the situation and captured a special moment in UK history along the way.  Recorded on the first day of lockdown, in pleasing symmetry its release (24th March 2020) also coincides with lockdown measures beginning to lift.

Catch it now at https://nextupcomedy.com/joeypage - there’s unlikely to be another comedy special quite like this one.