Yes we saw some fab people/bands there, didn’t we.

I remember seeing Rhona Campbell and Jo Brand, in particular. It’s fascinating, though, to see how many of those ‘newcomers’ are now such big names.

Great article – keep up the good work!

Funeral details are in the Press announcement: http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/announcements/deaths/deaths/11089743.michael_sutherland_bennett/

I didn’t know Mike well, only to occasionally chat to in the street, or years back in the pub. The last time I spoke to him was some years ago when I passed the door of his museum at Monk Bar, saw him and stopped for a chat.

I’ve had these Comedy Shack leaflets collected together for some time, kept meaning to put them online. I was prompted to do so last week partly because the Bonding Warehouse redevelopment had brought to mind the many memorable events the building had hosted, but also because I’d read that Mike had retired from the Richard III Museum.

My thanks above are too late to be read by Mike. But as this site is archived by the British Library and may perhaps preserve these records of our lives in York in its recent history, I’d like to add this –

I first talked to Mike Bennett in around 1984 in the Cross Keys on Goodramgate in York. The layout of the pub has changed since, but I remember standing near the Deangate door and that he gave me a cigarette. I don’t usually remember the first time I talked to someone. Perhaps I remember it because he was a bit older than me and knew loads of cool-looking people in bands, and so I was a bit in awe. Perhaps it was because I thought he was rather handsome and debonair. Or both. If I recall correctly, at that time he was writing music reviews for one of the local free papers.

Our early 1990s evenings, as discussed above, were brightened by the comedy club he founded. It’s thanks to Mike Bennett that I have my signed ‘declaration of love’ poster from Jeremy Hardy, as afterwards me and my friend Alison were telling Mike how brilliant we thought it had been, and he said he’d get us some signed posters (no doubt preferable to a giddy direct approach by two tipsy women).

After the Comedy Shack Mike founded the Richard III Museum in Monk Bar, and ran it for 20 years. He recently wrote about those years in an article for York Mix.

He was also one of the main contributors to The York Book, an extremely useful and interesting guide.

What I remember most, and it’s something I hope there’s a video or at least audio recording of somewhere – a comedy sketch he and a friend did, called, I think, the Intellectual Footballer, in which there were none of the usual post-match interview clichés, but instead phrases like ‘Pyrrhic victory’. I remember laughing so much.

Thoughts now with his wife and family and friends.

RIP Mike Bennett, and thanks for all you gave to York in the years you were with us.