Jongleurs comedy venues rebranded by new owner

The new owner of high-street comedy chain Jongleurs is to relaunch its comedy venues under a new name in the New Year.

The newly-branded Highlight comedy bars – located in the former Jongleurs locations - will host ‘Famous for Comedy’ nights as a replacement for the old Jongleurs comedy nights from 8 January, 2010.

The move comes after Jongleurs' co-founders Maria Kempinska and John Davy, regained complete control of the comedy brand when licensee Regent Inns fell into administration, vacating the sites.

The high-speed rebrand comes shortly after it emerged that the Kempinska and Davy were in talks with pubcos to open 30 new venues.  Co-owner Davy told Caterersearch in November that, “Comedy is on an absolute roll. You can’t turn on the TV without seeing another stand-up show and comedy viewers drink a lot of beer and this will differentiate their offering in the high street, as opposed to having just another bland bar.”

John Leslie, chief executive officer of Intertain (the vehicle set up to buy the defunct Regent Inns venues from the administrator) said: “By focusing on entertainment we aim to create a clear divide between Intertain venues and other operators on the high street. We want to give people new reasons to get off their sofas and into our venues.

“Entertainment also provides a platform from which we can shape a customer service experience that in itself will bring more people into our venues. Although comedy will remain our main focus, the versatility of the ‘highlight’ venues will enable us to host all genres of entertainment and implement our strategic vision.”

The former Jongleurs sites owned by Intertain, which will relaunch as Highlight bars, are located in Portsmouth, Battersea, Camden, Watford, Reading, Leicester, Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow and Edinburgh.

Meanwhile, Jongleurs has acquired its first two new venues– a working men’s club in Hammersmith and the 500-capacity Tabernacle in Notting Hill. It is in talks with a major leisure group to roll out a new chain of clubs and also plans to form a joint venture to roll out up to 20 clubs nationwide.

Jongleurs founder to relaunch the comedy club chain >> 

Regent Inns' white knight signs licence for Jongleurs comedy clubs >>

Regent Inns goes into administration >>


By Rosie Birkett

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