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Jongleurs

 
French Literature Companion: Jongleurs
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Medieval professional entertainers. In the earlier part of the Middle Ages their activities were extremely varied, and included juggling, acrobatics, and dancing, as well as music and story-telling. Later they tended to specialize more; the musicians and story-tellers rose in public esteem, whereas the others fell. The jongleurs were especially important in the 13th c., when their repertoire bridged the already narrow gap between the oral presentation of narrative material and true theatre. They memorized and performed in front of live audiences—at a seigneurial court, in a market-place, or along a pilgrimage route—not only narrative chansons de geste and fabliaux, which they may have composed themselves, but also dramatic monologues and dits. Some jongleurs were attached to seigneurial courts and were called menestrels. In the 13th and 14th c., as the feudal structures which produced many of their patrons declined, jongleurs congregated more in the cities and formed confréries to defend their interests, e.g. in Arras. Rutebeuf, Bodel, and Adam de la Halle are examples of the most famous creative jongleurs.

[Graham Runnalls]

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Wikipedia: Jongleurs
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This article is about the chain of comedy clubs, for the medieval juggler see Juggling

Jongleurs is a chain of comedy clubs in the United Kingdom, established in 1983. Jongleurs Clubs are now owned by Regent Inns plc, the owners of Walkabout, while the Jongleurs brand is still owned by founder Maria Kempinska and her business partner, John Davy. Jongleurs comedy clubs are often twinned with Bar Risa to offer a twin style late leisure destination. In October 2009, Regent Inns went into administration, resulting in the closure of clubs in Southampton, Nottingham, Bristol, Oxford and Bow (London)[1].

Contents

Ownership

Jongleurs was the largest chain of comedy clubs in the UK. Established in 1983 by Maria Kempinska MBE and developed with her partner John Davy it has been the springboard for such famous names as Eddie Izzard, Harry Enfield, Lee Evans, Jack Dee, Ben Elton, Bill Bailey, Rory Bremner, Kev Orkian, Al Murray, Jo Brand, Frank Skinner, and so many more.Young drama teacher, Maria Kempinska established the first Jongleurs club in 1983 and was joined by her business partner John Davy in 1985. They sold Jongleurs chain of eight clubs to Regent Inns in 2000 in a deal that valued the company at 30 million. Kempinska and Davy received £8.5 million and stayed on running the creative side of the clubs; as part of the deal they retained rights to the name Jongleurs, but agreed not to open up other comedy clubs in competition for at least five years. They have established Jongleurs Posh (a Christmas party), corporate and theatre divisions.

Venues

Following the recent closure of the venues listed above, along with the previous closure of the Manchester and Cardiff venues, there are currently 10 Jongleurs clubs around the UK, in Battersea (London), Birmingham, Camden (London), Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Leicester, Portsmouth, Reading and Watford.

Television programmes

There have been several television programmes which have featured Jongleurs comedy clubs, including "Cabaret at the Jongleurs" on the BBC and "Live at Jongleurs" on ITV. "Live At Jongleurs" currently features on the Paramount Comedy Channel featuring performances filmed at the Camden venue in the mid 90's. Comedians to have featured on Jongleurs TV shows include: Jo Brand, Rory Bremner, Julian Clary, Phil Cool, Steve Coogan, Jack Dee, Lee Evans, Peter Kay, and Ruby Wax.

See also

References

  1. ^ TimesOnline

External links


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French Literature Companion. The New Oxford Companion to Literature in French. Copyright © 1995, 2005 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Jongleurs".  Read more