Cardiff’s Lorna Prichard, now a regular BBC Radio Wales presenter, launched her night ‘Howl’ in November 2017 at the Tramshed. This Saturday, the Cardiff-based comedian launches a brand new night of comedy for Penarth itself at the Paget Rooms. Headlining is comedian Stuart Goldsmith, best known for his ‘Comedian’s Comedian’ podcast and for TV appearances that include Russell Howard’s Stand Up Central.
The comedy nights will return on a monthly basis with a Christmas special planned on the 11th December in Penarth, including support from other established stand up acts on the UK circuit, including Don Biswas and Eleri Morgan.
Lorna said: “I’m just so excited to be bringing brilliant stand up nights back to Cardiff and Penarth. I think these days we could all do with a laugh more than ever. And nothing compares to a night of live comedy. I missed it so much last year!”
The former ITV Wales reporter swapped headlines for punchlines when she quit her TV news career in March 2018 to focus on comedy full time.
She said: “I didn’t realise that before too long a pandemic would put a stop to live gigs for 18 months, but there we are. You can’t plan these things.”
Lorna’s last regular Howl comedy night happened on St David’s Day in 2020, when she organised and hosted English and Welsh language comedy gigs as a double bill at Tramshed.
During the pandemic, Lorna stayed busy presenting opera podcast Cipolwg for the Welsh National Opera, writing and performing sketches for BBC Sesh, and producing and presenting programmes for BBC Radio Wales. Her radio programme were on topics ranging from the neurological condition synaesthesia, the rise of slow fashion, and her own real life lockdown romance.
She said: “When the gigs dried up in March 2020, I figured it was a good time to focus on my love life, since I’d been too busy to think about it since I went into comedy.”
After several months, Lorna met Brazilian engineer Leo Serodio and sparks flew so fast, they were engaged within a month of matching on dating app Hinge. ‘When Lorna Met Leo’, a half hour radio comedy she wrote about her pandemic romance, went viral in February this year. The couple were featured on newspaper front pages, in magazines and on Sky News’s breakfast show. The radio programme has recently been nominated for a Celtic Media Award.
Lorna said: “I think a lot of people thought I was making the whole romance up for attention, but things are still going great with Leo. We’ve just had so much time to work through any issues because for many months, there was literally nothing else to do! We’re hoping to get married next year, if his family can all get over from Brazil for it. He’s looking forward to finally seeing me host my comedy nights this week. I just hope he finds me funny.”
The couple plan to visit Leo’s family in Rio de Janeiro in February 2022. Lorna said: “I started learning Portuguese a month ago. I’m tempted to see if there are any comedy nights while we’re out there so I can do a 10 minute spot. What could go wrong?”
Howl starts at 7.30pm on Saturday, 20 November at Paget Rooms, Penarth. For full line up and tickets, go to ticketsource.co.uk/howl
