Stitches club nights have comedy sewn up across Hampshire and West Sussex as stand-up James Alderson finds the gaps in the market

And while it’s not a claim stand-up James Alderson has made for himself, he’s certainly no slacker. The Horndean-based comic already runs regular comedy nights at Horndean College (which just celebrated their 10th anniversary), The Spring Arts Centre in Havant, Ashcroft Arts Centre in Fareham, Spinnaker Comedy Club in Gunwharf Quays, and oversees the South Coast Comedian of The Year competition, as well as travelling the UK to perform slots in others’ clubs.

But in the past year or so, he has expanded his empire to also include a network of comedy club nights, branded as Stitches. There’s 14 of them, from Goring-by-Sea in West Sussex, via East Meon, Hayling Island and Selsey, to Drayton, Wickham, Titchfield and more across the region.

‘My memories on Facebook showed me the interview I did with The News [from 2013] about wanting to make it as a stand-up comedian,’ says James.

‘Within a year I was full-time. I started this game a lot older than most people, and as time has gone on, and particularly with the Covid intervention, I've realised that being a comedian is the best job in the world, but where my role has evolved is as the MC or compere. I've learned that side of things after forcing myself to do it, to absolutely loving it.

‘Probably a quarter to a third of my gigs are me as a stand-up comic, and you're quite constrained – it's good fun, you get up there and do your stuff, but I miss that chat with the crowd now.’

James admits he would have loved to have become famous, but as his career has developed, he’s worked his niche.

‘With Covid, I realised I don't want to be going and doing gigs for people and rolling the dice on what it's going to be like – will it be set up properly, will the crowd be decent?

‘If I really thought about it, the most fun gigs I've done for other promoters have been the local, small community village hall places. The ones where you turn up and think, what's this? They've brought their own booze and it's in a 150-year-old village hall – like the Drayton Centre, or something – but everyone knows everybody, and they get ownership – it's their gig. And the crowd are just on it, ready to make the most of this night they've got every month or every two months.

‘That was my aim with Stitches, to find these gaps on the map, in between and avoiding treading on toes of other comedy club promoters.

‘When you go to places like East Meon or Hayling Island you find there's a real gap there for people to love something they can call their own.

‘I joked when I was at Selsey about how there was a lot of competition for what to do – of course you've got the Tesco up the road... For the area and the amount of people who live there, there's really not much to do, which is really rubbish.

‘And after doing Hayling I got messages from random people thanking me for bringing the island alive.

‘It gives me my fix of fun on stage too. I've just got to get up there and do the business!’

To find out more about dates and locations and book tickets, go to stitches.fun.