Hyde Park Book Club

Hyde Park Book Club.

Transcript

00:00So I'm Jack Simpson, I'm the co-founder of Hyde Park Book Club. We've been going nearly 10 years,

00:05it's 10 years this October and we're a kind of multi-art space, community space, we've got coffee

00:10every morning, food during the day and it's just a really good place for nice people to hang out

00:15really. How about you, what do you do and what are you interested in, what are you looking forward to?

00:21My name is Isabel Allen, I am one of the events programmers here at Book Club and I am really

00:29looking forward to our Edinburgh Preview Festival, which is a group of comedy preview shows that are

00:41happening in July before lots of touring comedians go over to the Fringe.

00:47Comedy in Leeds, I think you've had a really good hand in that, you've got Joakim Walters winning his award

00:52and I don't know, you've got some great people haven't you?

00:55Yeah, I think as well it's for a small Leeds venue, we get comedians that have been on either the Apollo,

01:05comedians that have sold out Fringe shows, that are on the TV as well as just doing tours and stuff,

01:13so it feels like we really have honed in on bringing comedy to Leeds and it feels like we're very much

01:23becoming a hub for that, as well as comedy within the city as well and that's alongside all of our music and art

01:33and literature that we bring to the scene and it feels like we've got a really nice multi-art space.

01:40Yeah, I think you've done a great job of that with all the comedy and I think that's one of the things that I really

01:45love about this, whether it's Fergus Quirrell and Jasmine Meyer on the jazz side, all the people that we have,

01:51the kind of writers that are part of Leeds Lit Fest and then the kind of comedy that you do, the DJs at Benny Books,

01:57I think it's that kind of creating a space for people that are from different art forms and also I guess different walks of life,

02:06like I want this place, I think we all want this place to be the kind of place that everybody feels welcome,

02:12like so we have different age groups here, people from different walks of life, a lot of people from the unis

02:17but then a lot of people, you know, I'm from Leeds myself and a lot of people that are just from Leeds,

02:22yeah we just try and create a real communal space where people can get together who are into music and art and comedy and culture

02:29but also just want to have a coffee and meet the friends.