Tonight I was in Derby for the Rock Central comedy night. This was a new venue to me and I like it. The place has no end of potential, with its low ceiling, good layout, big stage and a very promising audience. When it comes to festivals, this room will be a treasure. Owing to the rotten weather numbers weren’t what they will be, so in a shrewd move, Anthony had put little reserved notices on the tables to concentrate the audience at the front and this worked wonders.
Anthony Williams (MC)
It’s always a joy to see Anthony at work. He is a great compere and there’s always plenty of new material in his openings. Northern Lights was very timely and deserved more than it received. The gym routine is a real keeper and tied in well to the presence of the sports science chap. As ever, Anthony kept things moving and the gig ran to schedule.
Kate Martin
I’d only seen KM once before, but I’d really enjoyed seeing her and so was really looking forward to seeing her again. She was just as good as I was expecting, too. KM tied a lot of what she was saying into the members of a table at the front of the room, but not to the point of focussing the gig on them. Instead it added a very nice air of the here and now to what she was saying. It was nice to see her thinking on her feet with the various interactions and it did make me wonder if she did much compering. I really appreciated the little actions with the mic when she wished to emphasise a point and the acting out of the hostel routine was spot on. There were some great lines in this set, the second date in particular was great. There were a few swears in this set and none of them really felt that necessary and I can’t help but wonder if the time used to say them might be used a bit more productively, as KM didn’t need them to add any emphasis to what she was saying, but this is a minor point. Her closing routine about the cheerful chap down in that there London was great, and like everything else, very well performed. This was a great set from an up and coming act.
Annabel Devey
New to me, there was plenty to like in Devey’s set, but also a couple of things that I think might be improved on. Her opening was ‘How are we all doing?’ followed by ‘tell you a bit about myself.’ These were easily the least creative and interesting parts of her set and really did a disservice to her considering just how good the rest of her performance was. Another small improvement would be concerning Stafford – switching it out for somewhere relevant to the gig would help it land a bit more. Minor things, admittedly, but when you see someone with talent it always seems a shame when a few simple things just aren’t as good as they could be. Devey is a talented writer and there was a lot of good stuff here. The Whatsapp message was excellent and her timing on the topper was perfect. Devey’s low energy and dry delivery held the room nicely. I liked what I saw and think I’ll be seeing more of her.
Jamie Douglas
I’ve seen JD a few times and like what he has to offer – intelligent writing will never go out of fashion. He also has a good local knowledge and was able to name check the correct locations in his jokes. Ripley is a small town not too far from Derby and having a clever joke about it was great. It was also nice to see him getting applause for German and I really thought he’d get more for Florence, as this is a belter of a gag. There were still a few erms that interrupted the smoothness of his delivery, but this didn’t stop Jamie from getting a lot of laughs.
The Raymond and Mr Timpkins Revue
This duo have been taking the roof off at gigs from before I was reviewing and even before they began they were treating the room to some lovely visuals as they set things up wearing flat caps and overalls ala Morecambe and Wise. This visually fascinating element continued all of the way through their performance, with there always being something interesting occurring on the stage. Their act is incredibly creative, incredibly well timed and goes down incredibly well with audiences. I could see people doubled over laughing and I daresay they’ll be remembered for a long time to come in that room.