Little Lark of London

“I take a sense of pride that it’s one of the few Fringe shows where you have to kick people out for being too raucous!”

After a successful run at the 2025 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, comedian Jake Bhardwaj is bringing his show, Not Another Quiz Night, to London’s Clapham Grand for a special “Christmas Party.” The show, which is hosted by Bhardwaj and his “celebrity” guests, is an energetic mix of live music, games (with prizes!) and comedy. Recently, we had the chance to chat with Bhardwaj about Not Another Quiz Night. We discussed how he moved from working in television to live comedy and the differences between the two, how he created Not Another Quiz Night and even what audience members might expect from the upcoming Christmas special!

Starting with a bit of a general question, how did you first get started in the world of comedy?

I had always wanted to do comedy, but I didn’t think I would be able to do it. So I basically did everything to get around comedy, other than comedy itself. I started working in TV. I’ve always loved TV, but I was able to get closer to comedy by working in TV. So working on panel shows, 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown, Have I Got News For You . . . All these shows, all these comedians that I liked, and that was satisfying my itch for doing comedy. And then, on the side, I was hosting these pub quizzes and writing little jokes in between the questions. But then the combination of doing that in the day and being around all these amazing comedians and doing that in the night was like, “I just want more and more!” And then I couldn’t contain it any longer, and it became a necessity.

So writing the jokes in between pub quizzes, is that what led to Not Another Quiz Night?

I think so! The local pub quizzes gained a little bit of a following, and then I turned that into a game show-style thing over lockdown, and then decided to make that into a big live show.

What is the process like for creating a show like Not Another Quiz Night?

So I’ve got a lovely group of friends I make it with, and they all come on as various different characters. If we’ve got a question about Prince William, my friend will come on in a bald cap asking the question about Prince William. Or my friend might come on as Freddie Mercury back from the dead, or Charlie XCX. So we’ll talk about any sketch ideas that they’ve got as various characters, come up with games based on silly puns or things we’ve seen in the news. I know the things that I want in it, which are audience interactive games, sketch comedy, music and fun trivia. I just try and pick those and collate those. We do it once a month, so over the course of the month, I’m just hearing things, picking things, writing things down and then it all comes together in a big splurge.

What is it like making a different show for every performance?

It’s quite exciting, but we have certain things that we love so much that are always in every show. So Arthur from the cartoon, Arthur, is often in the show. He’s a down-and-out former child star, who hit the booze and the drugs, singing that song, “Hey, hey, what a wonderful kind of day.” He’s just so fun that we’ll always have him in. We’ll always have we’ll always certain things like that, so you can always count on that. And if we know those are peppered through the show, it makes it easier to take a risk on new stuff, because we’ve got something else happening soon enough. 

What was it like performing Not Another Quiz Night in Edinburgh for the Fringe?

It was amazing, but it was relentless. It was every single night, 11 PM till 1 AM, so two hours. And then luckily – or maybe unluckily for my own health – all the shows went really well, which meant, in turn, that you finish at 1 AM like, “That was so good! Let’s go out!” So then go out until five, and then do it again the next day. So it was good. But what’s nice is that the audience are fresh-faced, which gives you a bit of energy. By Night Twenty, if everyone in the room was delirious, it probably wouldn’t work. But the audience being fresh and ready to go helped!

Do you have any favourite memories from that run?

I remember my least favourite memory, actually! It was a load of guys who had to get escorted out because they were so f*cked. We have a game called “Papadam Frisbee,” where you see how far you can throw a papadam into the audience. And they were eating crumbs of papadams off the floor. But I take a sense of pride that it’s one of the few Fringe shows where you have to kick people out for being too raucous! And the first night we sold out, that was a great feeling of, “Oh my god. I can’t believe we’ve gone from worrying about people turning up at all to selling out!” And then we had a nice run of basically sell-out shows for the final two weeks.

You have the upcoming Not Another Quiz Night: Christmas Party coming up next month. Can you tell us a bit about that show in particular?

Well, it’s definitely the biggest room we’ve ever done! It’s over 400 people, which is pretty remarkable. It’s an opportunity to put in every fun idea that we’ve had over the last two or three years of doing this, plus Christmas ideas. And we’re trying to continue giving a platform and a space for other comedians who have got fun, strange, interesting acts to come to the fore. We did a bit of that in Edinburgh. We had a lot of like mime, music and alternative comedy acts – anything that isn’t just straight stand-up. You can come and do that, and we can ask a quiz question off the back of it. So we’ll have some special guests as well, which I think will be really nice. And it will be a real pinch me moment, considering I started doing these in pubs to five people. Going from four people to 400 people would be quite amazing! 

What is it about the show that makes it different from a typical quiz night?

Well, it’s a comedy show and it’s a variety show rather than just a pub quiz. The pub quiz is just an excuse, because pub quizzes are so varied in what you might end up talking about and discussing. You have an opportunity to put so much varied content in there in terms of the comedy, but also, if you’re not liking the comedy, you’ll like the quiz. If you don’t like the quiz, you’ll like the comedy. If you like neither, you might like the music or the games. Working in TV, we don’t really have these big Saturday night variety shows anymore, but this comes close, just not on TV – in real life!

What is it like working in TV versus live comedy? How was that change for you?

Well, the main thing is that if you have an idea, no one else has to approve it. You just do it, whereas there’s lots of layers of people who have to sign stuff off on TV. That can often be a good thing, because I can have an idea which I think is great, and it turns out it’s really shit, or it could be a bad thing. Most of the time, it’s liberating, because you can just put whatever you want on the stage. During the Olympics, where there was that pole vaulter with the big knob, we had him come out as a character. In the game, two people came up, and they had to pull out a measuring tape for how long they thought the record for the pole vaulting record was, but stood there pulling it from their crotch. It was fun! But, in retrospect, I think a TV commissioner would have said no. 

What do you hope audiences take away from Not Another Quiz Night?

Just a very good time with their friends and a sticky sensation on their hands and clothing – various liquids.

And finally, how would you describe the show in one word?

Unmissable!

Not Another Quiz Night’s Christmas Party runs on 3 December at Clapham Grand. For more information and to purchase tickets, click here.