Angel Comedy Club @ The Bill Murray — Restaurant in London

A group of friends and I had a terribly disappointing experience at this bar. PROS: The comedy show was pretty good. CONS: The drinks were absolutely awful, the venue itself is crammed and old. *We could have overlooked the cons and had a lovely evening, however, one of the staff members, a stout woman in her 40s with short blonde hair, was so incredibly and uneccessarily rude to our group, it ruined the entire evening.

We had arrived to the venue about 5 minutes before the show started, and immedietley went to check in for the comdey show. We asked the very nice door man if we had time to grab drinks and quickly use the toilet before sitting down, and he said no problem and no need to rush. We were waiting for our last friend in the toilet not even 5 minutes later, when the female staff member approached and told us in a very rude tone that if we didn't take our seats immedietley we could not go to the show. She also stated that since we had decided to "take our sweet time" coming into the venue, that she was no longer able to sit us together.

We explained to her nicely that we would have sat down upon arrival, but the other door man had told us we had time to get drinks and use the toilet, and we were just waiting on our last friend who was in the toilet. Her response was so absolutely rude and strange, we were shocked. She starts by going "I know there is one of you missing, I have eyes and can count!" Then she insinuates that the door man had never said that, and we were lying. She then stands there awkwardly in between my boyfriend and I while we are waiting for our friend to return. She then continues to berate us as she escorted us all to our seats. So bizarre and unnessecarily rude, but most of all disappointing because we loved the comedians but sadly won't be returning. (The 2nd star is only because of the comedians).

UPDATE BASED ON REPLY FROM BUSINESS ESTABLISHMENT: It's clear the same manager who treated us poorly also wrote the below reply.

Absolutely no one in our group used offensive language; had anyone called the staff such a derogatory term, we would've rightfully been removed immediately, which obviously didn’t happen.

Additionally, we shared nothing but a friendly interaction with your doorman, but that goes without saying given we asked if we should take our seats. Even if he had been mistaken, there was no need for any rude behavior when letting us know the show was about to start.

Your attempt to rewrite reality and tell blatant lies only reinforces the original point of my review: the behavior of this particular staff member was bizarrely rude, unnecessarily aggressive, and now evidently dishonest.

There are much better, comedy...

🚇 Angel 🍺 £6.30 Pravha

The Bill Murray is located in between Essex Road and Regents Canal in the backstreets of Angel Islington. The nearest Tube is Angel, it’s a ten minute walk to get here.

This Victorian pub started life as The Ram and Teasel, built in 1862. The pub has had a few different monikers over recent years, The Ram Bar, The Mucky Pup and after a period of closure The Bill Murray.

The pub is now a comedy venue run by The @angelcomedy Club who took over in 2016. They put on around 40 shows a week including free stand up comedy shows throughout the week. Some of the UK’s top comedians like Tim Key, Stewart Lee, Aisling Bea and Joe Lycett have graced the stage here.

There are two rooms, an intimate Comedy room on the right and a bar area on the left. The bar area is compact and has an angled and weathered servery. On the wall to the right of the servery is a who’s who of comedians that have performed here. To the left is a mural of the late great Robin Williams and an exposed brickwork fireplace. There are a couple of seats, but in the main it’s standing room only. At the side of the venue is a partially covered beer garden with seating and an old Whitbread sign from yesteryear.

The beer line up was all keg and had bit of something for everyone. I decided on a Pravha, my pint was pleasant, price point just above average.

I visited just after 5pm and was here for a beer only. The bar was quiet except the ripples of laughter coming from the comedy room next door. Great to see that this pub has been repurposed for social gatherings rather than another residential conversion.

ℹ️ Info correct on...

This was a weird experience but WELL WORTH IT. there are two 40 minute comedy slots with the 10 minute break between them. the comedians who run the show are a bit lame to be honest but one of the two 40 minute slots was very very good ( Jordan Brooks ). now I can't promise anyone good will be there when you go however you never know which up and coming comedian you might come across and you will see them in their early stages so will have a unique insight into their​ comedy.

The room itself is tiny and there are seats for a max of about 40 people. When me and my wife went there were about 12 people, 4 of which seem to work with the comedian by intentionally laughing to try and jeer the crowds into a laughy feeling. Partially why it feels weird but also understandable. The comedians don't pick on the crowd too much and nothing too personal and it's a very warm atmosphere, so don't worry about it being a small crowd. They even dim the lights so the focus is on the (hopefully excellent) comedian rather than you. All in all, brilliant night out and very unique...