Some combinations require very little explanation.
A brewery.
A room full of comedians.
Street food.
This one pretty much wrote itself.
On 22 August, CóMeme headed back to Barsham Brewery in North Norfolk for a packed evening of live comedy at the Barsham Taproom, with Hooma Comedy Club bringing together Esther Manito, James Dowdeswell, James O’Donoghue and Martin Westgate.
We brought the UFOs.
Everyone survived.
Barsham Brewery and the Taproom
If you have never been to Barsham Brewery, you’ll find it on the Barsham Estate at West Barsham, just outside Fakenham in North Norfolk.
The beer is brewed on site. The Taproom is where you get to sit down with a pint of it, and the calendar gives you plenty of reasons to stay: street food, live music and, on this occasion, a room full of comedians.
It is one of those places where you can arrive intending to have one drink and discover several hours have mysteriously disappeared.
We spend quite a lot of time here with the CóMeme horsebox. There is a lot to like about cooking dinner a short walk from the place making the beer to go with it. Get a pint, come over for something to eat, settle in. That is a perfectly good evening before anybody has even picked up a microphone.
Barsham makes room for independent food traders and performers alongside its own brewing. For us, that means the horsebox gets to be part of an evening out: the food, the beer and whatever is happening in the Taproom all belong together.
This time, Hooma supplied the comedy. A brewery full of people, four comedians and a hot press outside. We were fairly confident about dinner. The front row was on its own.
Hooma Comedy Club comes to Barsham
The comedy for the evening came courtesy of Hooma Comedy Club, part of Norfolk’s independent comedy scene and, according to Hooma themselves, Norfolk’s longest-running weekly comedy club.
Their nights mix established acts, circuit favourites and emerging comedians, and the Barsham show brought together a properly varied line-up:
- Esther Manito
- James Dowdeswell
- James O’Donoghue
- Martin Westgate
Four comedians.
One brewery.
Several hundred opportunities to regret choosing the front row.
Esther Manito
Esther Manito brought her brilliantly sharp stand-up to Barsham as part of the evening’s line-up.
Her comedy deals in the deeply normal parts of life that become significantly less normal once somebody actually says them out loud, with family, ageing and the general administrative nightmare of being a functioning adult all fair game.
Which felt appropriate.
Most of us had, after all, willingly spent a Saturday evening sitting in a brewery listening to strangers tell us things.
No complaints.
James O’Donoghue
Then there was James O’Donoghue, an actor, writer and stand-up comedian whose comedy happily wanders into the surreal.
Their 2026 show James O’Donoghue Is Normal probably gives you some idea of the territory involved.
Or absolutely no idea whatsoever.
Both seem appropriate.
O’Donoghue has been appearing around the UK comedy circuit, with a style built around surreal tangents, impressions and the sort of thoughts most people’s brains have the decency to keep private.
We approve of this general approach to life.
Martin Westgate
Martin Westgate was also on the bill, bringing the quick wit and crowd work that has made him a familiar face on the comedy circuit.
Martin has performed at comedy clubs around the country and is particularly known for his ability to work a room, which is an admirable skill when the room in question contains people who have been drinking beer brewed approximately several metres away.
A courageous profession.
James Dowdeswell, a UFO and The Pub Manifesto
And then there was James Dowdeswell.
James is a stand-up comedian, writer and professional appreciator of pubs and beer, which meant performing inside the Taproom at Barsham Brewery felt less like a booking and more like releasing him into his natural habitat.
He has appeared on programmes including Russell Howard’s Good News and Extras, but there was another reason his appearance caught our attention.
James wrote The Pub Manifesto: A Comedian Stands Up For Pubs, published by CAMRA Books.
The book is a funny but genuinely thoughtful look at British pub culture, what makes a great pub and why these places continue to matter to the communities around them.
Which is rather fitting when you are standing inside an independent Norfolk brewery surrounded by people eating, drinking, talking and laughing together.
After arriving at Barsham, James came over to the CóMeme trailer and immediately got chatting.
About the trailer.
About food.
About comedy.
About beer.
And, eventually, about UFOs.
Somewhere along the way a trade agreement was negotiated.
One CóMeme UFO in exchange for a signed copy of The Pub Manifesto.
International diplomacy remains alive and well.
James could not have been more generous with his time, and what could easily have been a quick hello turned into one of our favourite encounters since we started taking the trailer out.
It also means we now have a signed book about pubs acquired from its comedian author while standing in a brewery.
We’re counting that as a successful Saturday.
Street food at the Barsham Taproom
While Hooma handled the comedy, we handled dinner.
CóMeme is a street food trailer based in Swaffham, Norfolk, and Barsham Brewery has become one of the places where you will regularly find us serving from the hatch.
Our speciality is the UFO, our own pressed and toasted creation filled with hot fillings, cheese and an increasingly unreasonable amount of personality.
They’re difficult to explain.
Much easier to eat.
And on a comedy night at a brewery, apparently quite effective.
Barsham regularly works with independent street food traders as part of the events at its Taproom, alongside its own range of Norfolk-brewed beers.
For small businesses like ours, those nights matter.
They give independent food traders, breweries, performers and local audiences somewhere to meet without everything needing to become a giant festival or corporate event.
Sometimes all you actually need is a good venue, good people and an excuse to leave the house.
When the Barsham beer gets into the cooking
Our time at Barsham is starting to have consequences in the kitchen.
The beer has been finding its way into Ari’s sauces, specials and other experiments. Spending this much time at a brewery and leaving all of it in the glass was probably asking too much.
We’re also working on CóMeme dishes made exclusively for Barsham, built around the brewery and best eaten there with a beer. They’ll find their way onto the board as Ari gets them where she wants them. There is no point announcing dinner before she is happy with it.
That is another reason we like coming back. There is room to try things, feed people and see what deserves another outing.
Back to Barsham
You’ll regularly find the horsebox at Barsham Brewery Taproom. Some visits are about getting dinner and a pint. Others come with music, comedy or one of the brewery’s special events.
If Hooma brings another comedy night to the Taproom, keep an eye out. Preferably before everybody else buys the tickets.
We left this one with a signed book, a very good reason to keep coming back and considerably less cheese than we arrived with.
Find CóMeme at Barsham and around Norfolk
Based in Swaffham, we take the horsebox to Barsham and other events across Norfolk. Check the current dates before setting off.
You can find upcoming locations on our events page or follow @comeme_uk on Instagram.