Since September, LKPG HA HA! has been the best (and only) stand up comedy night in Linköping. But this Thursday, at Konsert och Kongress, there was a big player in town. In fact, probably the biggest player there is: Magnus Betnér.
Magnus is currently touring with a show called ‘Livets Ord‘ on a tour which lasts from the middle of November 2009 to the end of May 2010. He is playing every noteworthy town in Sweden and many that make Linköping look like a throbbing Metropolis. (For example: Vänersborg, Eslöv, Härnösand… Ever heard of them? Ever been there? Hell, no!). Also, unlike other big names he has priced his tickets at an affordable level (around 200:-). All power to Magnus… the only trouble being that with him being in town, I was expecting a big drop off in numbers for my club night.
So how would the night pan out? Betnér at Konsert and Kongress or Martin Krantz at Café M? David vs. Goliath….
With half an hour to go, at least half the tables were full and as half seven approached all the extra chairs were taken, and latecomers were faced with the usual dilemma of standing, sitting on the floor or perching on the edge of a sofa. In other words, a full house! I started my compering by thanking the audience for choosing LKPG HA HA! over ‘Livets Ord’ and got the audience to shout ‘Vem, fan!?’ (who the fuck?) whenever anyone mentioned Magnus Betnér.
We had a decent line up too … Jesper Löfstedt, a spotty Herbert from Jönköping kicked off the evening with a strong set about the life of a 20 year old. He was followed by Stefan Söderblom from Gävle, who had a great set which covered how he manages to communicate with his kids via Facebook. LKPG HA HA!’s Kjell Nyholm stretched his comedy legs for a few minutes and then Erika Sjöwall finished off the first act with a stylish routine saying certain things that are not becoming of a lady…. I won’t go into details..
The second half saw Emil Wirebro testing out a new character, that Palle and I have been trying to get him to do for about a year… finally, he listened to us.. and the result is very funny! Then a quick set by Martin Johansson and it was time for the evening’s headline act – Martin Krantz.
Martin was on fire from the moment he stepped onstage. There is something about his comic persona that is impossible not to like. He held the audience in awe for half an hour and left the stage to the loudest applause Café M has ever heard. Back for the encore, he got out his iPhone and told us about a Facebook conversation he had had earlier with Magnus Betnér about whose audience would suffer due to the other’s presence in town (All tongue in cheek, as we wouldn’t dent his numbers). Martin asked for the lights to be raised and took the following photo of our audience. He sent it to Magnus with the message: ‘This is the audience I stole from you’
The next night, Friday, I went to Motala to watch Livet’s Ord. It is fantastic, by the way, and if it comes to your town (and you speak Swedish!) go and see it.. ….. as long as it doesn’t clash with Martin Krantz!
