February – Acts that have impressed me the most

This has been a slow month for seeing live comedy, due to work commitments massively getting in the way. However, I’ve seen some stunningly talented comedians.

The highlight of the month was a show in Derby where every act had a great night and the atmosphere just carried on building.

These are the acts that have impressed me the most:

Andrew Bird

Extremely well respected on the circuit, but by no means as well known as he should be.

From the night:

Headlining was Andrew Bird, who is consistently brilliant. He began by talking about the diversity on the evening’s bill and how he was adding his part to that. This was instantly hilarious and from here he gave the audience a set that comprised some excellent new material. The Prince Andrew routine was very well thought out and streets ahead of the standard jokes about Pizza Express and the like. The mattress story was short, but very punchy and both locality and racism in football were great. However, the mainstay was Bird talking about the late Ian Cognito, a comedy circuit legend. He sadly happened to die performing at a night run by Andrew and it was moving as well as very funny, to hear about his experiences with him. It’s lovely that he is being remembered. It’s always a pleasure to watch Bird. His sets have an elegant construction. There are no wasted words, the laughter points come at regular intervals and he builds things up to a big laugh. This was simply superb.

Diane Spencer

A real joy to watch.

From the night:

Spencer is one of my favourite acts, so her being on the bill was tremendous news. She began by doing a callback to Stevie’s compering and then began a set that featured no end of great material that had everyone laughing. A lot of it was sexual, but delivered in a thoroughly wholesome way, which made it work even better. There is a very powerful visual element to Diane’s performance and this added a heck of a lot to it. Whether her fingers were dancing or she was pulling up flowers or pulling a face, it all fitted in perfectly with what she was saying. This was a brilliant set.

Jack Gleadow

It’s really nice when you hear a lot of good things about an act and they turn out to be even better than what you’d heard.

From the night:

I’ve been wanting to see Gleadow for a while, but our paths hadn’t crossed until now. This is a performance that includes, dance, mime, music, props, puns, visual gags and volunteers on stage. Gleadow is a one man variety show and this was a set that never seemed to stand still for a moment. He began strongly by making an immediate visual impression and then he took this further by getting John and Adam, his first two volunteers, onto the stage for a series of great gags. He then followed this up with a brilliant performance that had everyone laughing. The bum dance was delightfully daft. This is a well crafted set that was hilarious and extremely entertaining. It’s a good job there was a break, because he would have been hard to follow. Gleadow is a tremendously funny entertainer and this set was great fun.

Honourable Mentions:

Callum Oakley, Jo Caulfield, Joshua Robertson, Nibbles, the Talking Guinea Pig, Stevie Gray,

The Blessington Carriage – Jo Coffey, Joshua Robertson, Nibbles the Talking Guinea Pig, Sean Heydon and Andrew Bird

Tonight I was in Derby for the Funhouse Comedy night at The Blessington Carriage and crikey, what a night it was! Two good up and coming acts and three top pro comedians on the same bill and all for just £4. I’ve never been to a night with such a diverse line up in act and style. The room was pretty full (including comedian Lisa Vernon) and there was a brilliant atmosphere there. Spiky Mike was in great form, chatting to a plethora of engineers and a chap who flew drones for the Derbyshire Constabulary, much to Mike’s initial disbelief.

Jo Coffey

Our opening act was Jo Coffey who was both a confident presence and a lively performer. The first part of her material consisted of jokes about why she dislikes short people and there were a lot of good gags in here, all instantly tangible. She built up a lot of momentum with these, before she changed to a different topic to joke about. It was nice to see that change because sometimes acts can be pigeon-holed and this variety helped to keep things fresh. This was a good performance and I’m sure I’ll be seeing more of her on line ups in the future.

Joshua Robertson

Next was Joshua Robertson, who began with a solid opening and then carried on with the good work throughout his set, getting regular big laughs. His timing was particularly impressive, especially on driving test. He demonstrated that when you’re holding the room, you can afford to slow down and people will happily stay with you. It was nice to see him get applause for the topper on ‘got the job done’. There were some very nice darker elements to his material and he had a great gig.

Nibbles, the Talking Guinea Pig

We resumed after the intermission with Nibbles, the Talking Guinea Pig who had been badgering Tom Binns to get him on stage to tell jokes. Luckily this was arranged and the audience were treated to Nibbles coming to the stage in his travel crate, being held by Binns, who has got to have one of the most creative minds in the country. This performance worked on a lot of levels and people were doubled over laughing.

Sean Heydon

Heydon’s magic was spectacular. He did a couple of card tricks and both were superb. His opening one involved guessing multiple cards and the second was absolutely mind-boggling, involving a random phone call and a prediction. Whilst there wasn’t a huge comedy element in this early performance (this came mostly in his reaction to the responses from the chap on the phone) the magic was tremendous and it was great to see him on the bill.

The link to the video is; https://www.facebook.com/143022845717844/posts/2952196191467148/

Andrew Bird

The Saracen’s Head – Steve N Allen, Jake Pickford, Eamon Goodfellow and Chris McCausland

Tonight I was in Southwell for the Funhouse comedy night at The Saracen’s Head. The club was packed out, which is always great to see. With it being so close to Valentine’s Day, Spiky Mike had fun chatting to those out on a date. These included Dave, who was dressed in shorts, despite the weather and a couple who had met in a pub in Nottingham. In this case she had chatted him up and Mike’s inflection on ‘really’ was very well done, indeed. It wasn’t long before we were ready for the opening act.

Steve N Allen

Originally being from Mansfield, the local shit town, didn’t hurt Allen one bit. His local knowledge was spot on and he took advantage of this to get an early boost to his set. From here he went into material and there was a lot of good stuff. Tube map, Scotland and radio voice were all solid. I thought that there was a slight dip with recycling, but it wasn’t an issue at all. The Schofield joke was tied in nicely to the chap sat on the front row and that made it feel very natural. This was a good set that the room enjoyed and I liked it, too, but it also felt like an established set and I think Allen has more to give.

Jake Pickford

Pickford has the basis of a good set, but it isn’t fully there yet. He began well with a lookalike joke that addressed his appearance. Language was well thought out and he came very close to receiving applause. Positivity is a brilliant premise, but the reveal isn’t quite right to get the most from it – if he can crack that, then he’s going to have something special on his hands. The kids routine split the room a bit and whilst I could see the thought behind it, children carry a bit too much baggage not to make it a bit of a risk. The solar panels idea was sound, but I’m not sure how many people had heard of the location for it to fully come off. Passenger worked well to close on, which was good. Pickford has some nice ideas and with a bit of playing with them, I think he’ll do well. He doesn’t look out of place on stage and is talented at masking the reveals so that they come as a surprise. I’ll be interested in seeing him in a year or so. He’ll get there.

Eamon Goodfellow

Originally from Northern Ireland, Goodfellow has a great energy about him. He’s a likeable chap and fast on his feet mentally. You can tell from his sharp audience work that he does a lot of compering and that stood him in good stead tonight. A lot of his set consisted of room work and even when he was doing material, he was tying it in to individual members of the audience. This was all to the good and it helped him form a solid connection with everyone. The Tshirt routine was a lot of fun, Boris was decent, Mexico was great and the Northern Ireland name guessing game was enjoyable, too. This was a very engaging performance that everyone relaxed into.

Chris McCausland,

Headlining was Chris McCausland, whose set had a lovely flow to it. He’s a cracking storyteller and very, very easy to listen to. He built up a lot of momentum with a collection of superb routines. There wasn’t a single lull in this set, it was top notch from beginning to end.

The Golden Fleece: Diane Spencer, Alex Martini, Callum Oakley, Robert White and Stevie Gray (MC)

Tonight I was in Loughborough at The Golden Fleece for the Funhouse comedy night. This is a reasonably sized place, where the comedy takes place in the main room of the pub. The audience are friendly, all seem to know each other, aren’t that experienced with gig etiquette and like to have a drink, so it’s a nice room, but one with the potential to become a bit lively. However, we had a compere who was more than up to the challenge of getting them in shape.

Stevie Gray (MC)

Out of my last four birthdays, I’ve spent three of them at gigs with Stevie Gray and that’s no bad way to spend a birthday, if you ask me. He took to the stage and through energy, likeability, experience and above all, skill, he transformed the groups of people sat at their tables into an audience. He discovered who people were and got their stories out into the open, which gave the acts plenty of information to use if needed. It was great to see him making this into a gig.

Stevie is appearing at the Leicester Comedy Festival:

https://comedy-festival.co.uk/event/stevie-gray-arctic-monkeys-midlife-crisis/

Diane Spencer

Diane is appearing at the Leicester Comedy Festival:

https://comedy-festival.co.uk/event/diane-spencer-show-9/

Alex Martini

Martini’s big personality filled the room right from the beginning of his set. He’s a fast speaker and when this is combined with his loud booming voice it gave him the ability to roll over anyone who might have tried to talk whilst he was performing. He has some good material and that went down well, although I did get the impression that he’s used to doing more than ten and a longer set would perhaps have suited him more. This was a good performance.

Callum Oakley

It’s been ages since I’ve last seen Callum and in that time he’s continued to build up a good reputation. He has the sort of quiet low key stage presence that immediately gives you the confidence that he is worth listening to and the room took to him straight away. His timing was excellent and on a technical level, something that I could really appreciate. He knew just how long a pause to leave before landing the reveals. There was a lot of great material being delivered. The nightclub entry in particular was a superb joke. I would very much have liked to have seen him doing more.

Robert White

I was a bit concerned that the audience had reached a tipping point before White went on, but as it happened, he dominated the room. He received his first big laugh inside a minute and never looked back from there. He was a real audience pleaser as he mixed the names of people into his songs. The running gag about last night’s gig was very nicely done. There was a lot of skill on display during this set and it was lovely to see him demolish someone silly enough to shout out. When White finished there was applause, cheers and a few people giving him a standing ovation.

The Lyric Rooms: Steve Bugeja, Khalid Winter, Jack Gleadow and Jo Caulfield

Tonight I was in Ashby at The Lyric Rooms for the Funhouse comedy night. Despite this being the second show in two nights here the venue was still packed out with people. Spiky Mike had a fun time compering, speaking to a chap who sold robots, a concrete engineer and someone who wanted to become a doctor. This is a very nice audience and it wasn’t long before they were ready for our opening act.

Steve Bugeja

Bugeja got the night off to a great start. He began riffing about the food there before moving on to talk about being an alpha male (he had a very well timed smile on the word alpha), lads, stag nights and lap dancing clubs. This all went down well, although he did come close to being upstaged by both Ken and John in the audience when he spoke to them. Bugeja has an endearing outsider looking in perspective when discussing things such as lads. His material on Japan flowed more naturally and his closing routine about the festival was superb.

Khalid Winter

I’ve seen Winter a few times and it’s always nice to see an act progressing like he is. Khalid’s material on his degree is good and the line about lifts was great. The rocky relationship was a wonderfully subtle line that I particularly enjoyed, although it was higher that received the applause. Winter started well and got stronger the longer he was on. Although he’s not the finished article, he’s well on his way.

Jack Gleadow

Jo Caulfield

Headlining was Jo Caulfield, who has a real mark of quality about her. Caulfield’s story telling ability is superb. Not only was all she said impeccably logical, but it was also very funny. The audience lapped her up, giving lots of nods of recognition to her vivid descriptions of life. The party was outstanding and she finished the night on a high.