Tonight I was in Nottingham for the Ian Whitcombe comedy night. There aren’t many gigs in a cave, but there should be. This has a really nice vibe to it. Parking is a bit of a pain, especially when you take the one way system into account, but you can’t have everything. Numbers were surprisingly good considering that there was an England game on upstairs and it was nice to see so many familiar faces there, such as Brent, Kerry, Ian Peskett and Neil. In addition, there was a former cruiser weight world champ sat on the front row and various students in the audience.
Henry Michael (MC)
I’d not seen HM compere before, so wasn’t sure what to expect. However, he’s a well respected act and so I was confident that he’d be sound and I wasn’t wrong. He looked relaxed and confident and was adept in swapping to material when he didn’t get much back from the audience. His references were up to date and reflected the news from the last day or so, which was refreshing. This was intelligent compering that got the job done.
Stevie Gray
It’s always a pleasure seeing Stevie, he’s someone who is incredibly likeable and can generate a lot of atmosphere within a short space of time. Tonight he made full use of the room, popping off the stage and this made it all feel very intimate. Stevie hit the room with loads of energy and there was a natural flow to his performance. The exotic towns was a great way of bringing the room into his set and the one legged pirate dance went down fantastically. Getting his volunteer’s friends to film it for the socials was a lovely touch and it would be nice to see one of these clips go viral. This was a fun, funny and feel good performance.
Phil Jerky
Jerky is a talented up and coming act whom I might not see for half a year, so it’s always interesting when I get to see how much he’s improved in that time and there was plenty of stuff new to me in his set to enjoy. The CP/Parkinson’s rivalry was a real winner and it was good to see CP featuring further in his set during a later callback. The Peter Jackson joke was ok, but I think there’s a better line to be had. Make a wish was solid and annoyed had great timing and construction. This was a great performance.
Ian Crawford
Crawford really brings something different to a gig. The cutlery health and safety presentation is unique and Crawford’s understated and dry delivery is in perfect harmony with his material. The writing here is very strong, but to me, it is the delivery that sells it so well, making the most from every line. I’d love to know if Ian has ever been booked by accident to do a health and safety talk at work, as that would be a joy to see, as he’d play that absolutely straight, too. Bears and Rod Hull were both excellent, but I did think that the energy dipped a bit on the songs, as these weren’t quite up to the standard of the rest of the set, but that’s a minor thing, as they still went down well. I enjoyed this very much.
Gavin Webster
It had been years since I last saw Webster at a FaF promotions gig, so it was nice to see him again. He has absolutely bags of experience and used it to sell his performance. He’d deliver a stream of words, almost in conversation and then throw out a joke at the end. These got big laughs. This was a performance that the room liked.
nottscomedyreview 