The Blessington Carriage Gong Show: Harry Chalmers-Morris, Stuart Moore, Grant Birkin, Carl Charlesworth, Niall O’Dwyer, Ed Pooley, Kyran Scott, Liesl Soards, Heeren Bhundia, Dominic Marshall, Rick Goodman, Colin Etches, Matthew Peartree and Daniel Lythe

Tonight I was in Derby at the Blessington Carriage for the Funhouse gong show. This place attracts a super audience and tonight they gave Mike plenty to work with. He talked to a lady who worked for Rolls Royce, an architect/archaeologist as he misheard her and a GP receptionist, which led into material about things being pulled from orifices. With 14 acts on the bill, the room were in for a treat.

Harry Chalmers-Morris

I last saw Chalmers-Morris five years or so where they’d done pretty well. Tonight things didn’t go too badly, but I don’t think they’ve been gigging that frequently and so lacked an edge. The voice material was all ok, but could have been more punchy. Testosterone and voice was good, as was contraceptive, but unfortunately they were gonged off before they got to go further.

Stuart Moore

On their 7^th gig, Moore had a belter of a night, doing almost everything right. He was quickly funny at the top. Had intelligent writing and his material was solid. He skirted on receiving applause a few times. Cockerpoo was great, food just as good and he sailed into the final without any trouble. Moore’s final minute was promising, but mistimed and that cost him placing higher up. This is someone who I think we’re going to be seeing a lot more of. He’d be a fool not to take this further.

Grant Birkin

Birkin has a mixed night. On the downside, the coffee maker gag was just a reworking of the old cock in the bacon slicer joke and he ran out of steam before his time was up. However, the good outweighed the bad. T shirt was very well thought out and original, the construction of his set was good, although he’s not yet got the experience for it to fully mesh.

Carl Charlesworth

Charlesworth opened with a bit of a groaner, which he sold well. Five guys was ok, but the car broke down ate up time without really going very far. Neither Charlesworth’s material nor his delivery was that polished, but there was nothing fundamentally wrong with anything he did and with more experience he’ll become far better.

Niall O’Dwyer

I saw Niall last week, where he’d been doing some new material and that had all gone pretty well. Tonight he continued the good work. He’s a very good writer and apart from swapping out Wakefield for Strangeways or Belmarsh for instant recognition, there was nothing wrong with what he did tonight. His delivery was smooth and even his new material felt polished. He made the final without any trouble and it can’t be long before he’s better known than he is.

Ed Pooley

On his second gig, I had mixed feelings about Pooley. During Mike’s compering, items extracted from holes featured strongly and being a medical professional, Pooley’s 5 minutes was actually all about this. A definite gift from the comedy gods for him. He had a good choice of words and was easy to listen to and made it into the final without breaking sweat. However, to me, it felt less like a comedy performance and more like him resaying things said at a works’ do and it did make me wonder how he’d do once he’d exhausted stuff from work as a topic. I’m probably being unfair to Pooley, as he is new and contrary to what I was expecting, he did have more diverse material for the final minute. He had a good gig and the audience definitely enjoyed him.

Kyran Scott

Scott mostly talked about army recruitment and despite there being a nice sense of logic to this, it wasn’t especially funny enough before the voting and off he went.

Liesl Soards

I saw Soards on her first ever performance and whilst the writing wasn’t what it will become, her presence and personality were impressive. Tonight she did well, but made a couple of tactical errors that possibly cost her a place in the final. Her opening comments about single people needs a punchline for each and every likely response, as having a quality joke that is quickly funny at the top would buy her more time to go into the deeper material. Being called into school was good. I liked her little hand movement on worse things in the mouth, as that helped her sell the line. The quick correction on 80s was also good. However, Liesel, had the timing of the spot wrong and this threw her pacing out, with her being set in to build her performance over a longer time span and despite this being a bouncy feel good set, she was eventually gonged.

Heeren Bhundia

I last saw Bhundia at the Golden Fleece, where he’d done pretty well. Tonight he was even better and I shouldn’t be surprised if he’s not much improved the next time I see him. He had original material to open with and driver deserved far more laughter than it received. Bhundia’s material and delivery had a nice flow to it and there was a very welcome level of polish to his performance. He made the final and delivered an entertaining final minute.

Dominic Marshall

Marshall is still fairly inexperienced and to go further all he needs is more stage time and more writing. His material and delivery are both decent enough, but will obviously improve with more experience. The room enjoyed him and he was another late gonging.

Rick Goodman

I’d only seen Goodman once before and he’d put in a fantastic performance at the Ashby super gong, so I had him down as a very strong contender tonight. There’s absolutely nothing to dislike about his performance and plenty to admire. Goodman is very creative and his performance was easily the most creative of the night. Whilst plenty of others had good writing, very strong writing in some cases, Goodman’s talents go in lots of different directions and whatever he was doing felt different and above all interesting. He has a real eye for the audience and a feel for what would work and how far the room would go with something. There were a lot of subtle elements to his performance that came together very well. His final minute involved a high risk move with an audience member that paid off with a big laugh. Goodman was the winner of the night and I expect to see a lot more of him. He’s very bookable, but personally, I enjoyed not only his comedy, but also his expertise on the technical side of things.

Colin Etches

I’d not seen Etches for a while and he began well tonight, with his forceful delivery of biblical material. This all went down pretty well and he was getting some good laughs. I thought he was going to make it to the final, but when he changed topic to talk about veganism he managed to lose just enough of the judges to be voted off.

Matthew Peartree

Peartree made it into the final, but I wasn’t that sure about his material or direction. It felt a tad one note, with working from home used as a euphemism for wanking and then other cock jokes, etc. Peartree did a fair bit of audience work, but much of it involved putting people on the spot and making them feel uncomfortable, with him asking them if they ‘worked from home’, or had had an affair. Him accusing one of the judges of having a small cock quite possibly saved him from being gonged, as it made it difficult for that judge to vote him off without looking as if he was sore about things.

Daniel Lythe

Lythe is a cracking act as well as a former winner here and so was here tonight to do a bit of a new stuff and to be seen. He has some great material and his delivery is on par with it. It was lovely to see him thinking on his feet when it came to favourite films and his room work was shrewd. He skirted on applause a few times and never looked like he wasn’t going to be a finalist. For his final minute he had a gift as the mic stand had sunk down to a low level, which he made the most of and then filled the minute with a callback and punchy jokes.