Tonight I was in Derby at the Blessington Carriage for the Funhouse gong show. It was a pleasure to see so many people there and I think everyone had a great night, including the dog sat with his owners on the front row. Mike had fun chatting to the audience, with there being a surprising number of law students and the like present. The star audience member was either the chap starting his own travel business, or the one who worked for a debt collection company. With his red and black clothing, Spiky Mike didn’t half remind me of Bully’s Special Prize Board on Bullseye.
This was a remarkable gong show in that out of the 12 acts, only one didn’t make the final – he forgot his material and quit – and I don’t think I saw a single red card all night.
Tristan Nowell
Opening was Nowell, who had an original take on Tinder that was pleasant to see. He also had a nice level of self-awareness that helped him to sell his material. This was allied to a dry delivery that complimented his writing. Trains and deficit were both strong and it was great to see him getting applause as well as laughter. There was some good writing here.
Gary Peterson
Returning to gigging after an absence, Peterson’s energy helped his performance and he rolled well when the dog sat on the front row made a sudden noise, working this into his routine. Bread and the cost of living went down very well, although side trolley isn’t yet the finished article.
Henry Caves
Caves opened nicely talking about being ginger and did well to keep control when he opened the topic up with the audience, but then he suddenly went blank and despite the whole room urging him on, he couldn’t recall his next bit and quit the show. This was a shame, as it was all going fine until then.
Hazel Donovan
There were some nice touches to Donovan’s performance, but ultimately I believe she would be much stronger following a bit of a rethink about her material. On the positive, she has stage presence, a clear delivery and her material featured bang up to date reference points. However, on the downside, a lot of the set ups were very long, which cost her momentum, ate into the funny, but above all, gave the room time to guess the reveals and the punchlines were unfortunately all pretty straightforward. This was a real shame, as there was so much to like otherwise. Donovan didn’t do badly and got laughs, but with a different approach to her material, she’d be in another league to what she is now.
Kirsty Hudson
We resumed after the intermission with Hudson who had an original train of thought concerning material. Instead of saying how shit her town was, she went in the opposite direction and this was nicely novel. Hudson received applause for beggars, 1 in 3 was a great one liner joke and although crisps isn’t as good as what it will become with a bit more thought, it went down very well. I enjoyed Hudson’s timing, as she seemed to have that nailed. This was an act whom the audience bought into and who might have pushed for a top three position on a different night.
Ravi Saini
On only his second ever gig, Saini had a tremendous night. He has charisma and a relaxed stage presence, which draws the audience into what he is saying. His riffing on names felt very natural and it’s no surprise he received big laughs. The callback on GCSE’s was very well done. It wouldn’t have hurt him to have taken in more of the room when he was talking, as he didn’t look to the right that often, but that’s a minor point and in such a new act, far from a problem. Saini was second tonight in the face of stiff competition and it would be wonderful to see him carry on gigging.
Rebecca Hurd
This was Hurd’s third ever gig and she did well. She’s a touch sweary, but has an engaging delivery and stage persona. These helped her to make the most of her material, which at the moment isn’t fully formed. Given more time writing, she’ll do fine.
Ian Whitcombe
Whitcombe was looking like a contender tonight and came within the top three. In common with Peskett he gave the room his established 5 set and whilst this went down a treat, it might have benefited him more to have done some newer stuff, as he’s obliviously got this nailed and Mike has seen it a few times already. Either way, this was a solid performance.
Daniel Lythe
This was a stonkingly good performance where Lythe never put a foot wrong. Structure, writing, accessibility and delivery were all absolutely spot on. There was any number of fantastic lines in this set, with the radio joke being one of the strongest I’ve heard this year and I hear a lot of jokes. Statistically, after so many acts have been voted through, the judges usually wake up and realise that someone has to be voted off and as the last act in the middle section with 4 previous acts in that part going through, I was expecting whoever was on now to be punished for that, but much to Lythe’s credit he not only went through like a shot, but won the entire night by quite a margin. This was a cracking performance.
Liam Feldman
Feldman opened by talking about audience participation and this went down well. It was very easy for people at a gig to buy into. For the anoraks in the audience, 40 cal might have caused a few raised eyebrows when 50 cal is more familiar, but apart from that, there was a lot of good writing here. His delivery isn’t yet there, but with more gigging that’ll help him further in selling his material.
Andy Lloyd
Lloyd had a good gig, but perhaps suffered from going on so late in the night without having a similar force of delivery to what Peskett has. The callbacks to previous parts of the night worked well and mortgages was good, but owing to the number of acts and all but one doing the full five, I think a few people will struggle to remember much about him. This would have been different if he’d been on sooner.
Ian Peskett
Everything I said about Whitcombe using his established 5 set applies to Peskett, too, with the exception of the new pause on gratification, which is fantastic. This was a great performance, but for career progression, he would probably have been better off going for a newer set. It was still enjoyable to see, though.
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