The Blessington Carriage – Aaron Jay, Daniel Blacow, Helen Prior, Tom Ratcliffe, Matt Hollins, Lou Ridgeway and Wilson

Tonight I was in Derby at the Blessington Carriage for the Funhouse comedy night. This was a busy show with plenty of people, two cute dogs and 3 students all present. Two of the students were called Bo and worked in cafes, which gave Spiky Mike plenty to chat to them about, as well as the admin guy and a lady who ran a different cafe called The Perfect Cuppa. It wasn’t long before we were ready for our opening act.

Aaron Jay

Jay got a lot right. He was good at working with the audience, his set had a decent construction and he ended with a callback that wrapped things up nicely. The material was all good, too, with house and dog possibly being the stand outs. There were a few pull back and reveals and on occasion I could guess where he was going, but these are minor things. With more stage time I’m sure he’ll build on what is already solid and improve these little things. Jay got the night off to a fun and upbeat start.

Daniel Blacow

I last saw Blacow doing a gong show in this room and although he hadn’t won, he’d done well enough to impress Mike and had been progressed to a ten spot. It’s nice when you see promising acts getting on like this. Blacow has an engaging delivery and as he had remembered the names of audience members, he was able to tie things in to the room, which worked very well indeed. It was great to see him getting laughter for dealing so well when one of the dogs present started barking during his set.

Helen Prior

Prior made an immediate impression on the audience and between her delivery, rolling rrrrrs and turn of phrase, she sold her material very well. The room liked her a lot. It was great to see her also bringing the audience into her performance. This was an enjoyable and different performance from an act whom I think I’m going to be seeing plenty of in the future.

Helen was kind enough to give me a signed copy of her book, which can be found here: Helen Prior – book (hilariousbird.co.uk)

Tom Ratcliffe

We resumed after the intermission with Ratcliffe, who dealt well with an immediate shout out from a namesake in the audience. With good performance skills, an expressive face and good writing, there was absolutely nothing to dislike in this set. Even the Pinter joke, which went over a few people’s heads, was still impressive. The topper on men was great, the routine about Laika was both funny and novel and it was lovely to see him getting applause for an ad-lib. This was a strong performance.

Matt Hollins

It’s been a few years since I’ve seen Hollins, so it was a nice surprise to see him on the bill. I liked how in the one sentence, ‘I’m Matt….. and I’m from Leicester,’ he went from receiving cheers to groans. This was a performance that rolled along nicely, with the Waratah routine being the standout. There was a definite touch of class to Hollins and it made me think that if he’d been in front of the right people some time ago, or had just caught that lucky break, he’d be a lot further up the ladder.

Lou Ridgeway

There’s no end of good stuff in Ridgeway’s set. Growth is a rock solid routine, as is the uncertain world material. I also enjoyed Lou’s performance. At times, he reminded me slightly of Thomas Green in his style, where he’d have the odd laugh escape during a set up. That’s praise, as Green is a champion act. This was a good performance by Ridgeway.

Wilson

I last saw Wilson a few years ago in Tamworth and he’d been good then, so I was curious to see how he’d improved in the meantime. The answer was that he was extremely good. This was a performance that went down a treat. Wilson didn’t put a foot wrong. He held the room with ease, his material was universally strong, there was a wonderful logical flow to what he was saying and I think the audience wanted to hear more. Know what and the course were the obvious stand outs, but there was nothing that the audience didn’t all enjoy here. It would be nice to see Wilson getting more bookings up here.

Kelham Hall – Dan Evans, Peter Brush and Alan Hudson

Tonight I was in Kelham for the Funhouse comedy night. If my mum and dad hadn’t been on holiday, then they’d have been here, too. In fact, my mum was a bit put out, as she’s never been here and fair wanted to come. It’s a magnificent venue. It’s more or less built on the lines of a stately home and is grand in scale. The performance room is roughly the size of a cathedral, can sit 300 people, but has the highest ceiling of any room seen comedy in, which isn’t ideal for the acoustics.

Stood in front of a new Funhouse banner, celebrating 20 years of promoting, Spiky Mike had a few hundred people to talk to, including Anthony Williams who was also present at the gig, with his sons. Mike had a lot of fun with this largely new to comedy audience and was able to tie in material to their comments. Before long, we were ready for our opening act.

Dan Evans

Evans built upon Mike’s compering, working jokes into things that his compering had discovered. I was quite impressed by just how receptive Evans was to the audience. He wasn’t shy about stepping away from the direction he was heading and working with chance events that came from the audience. This gave a very pleasant feeling of live and now to his performance. Of his material, dressed as and the topper to this were standouts, as was the beach game. This was a performance that was easily accessible to the whole audience and contained nothing that no one would enjoy.

Peter Brush

The vagaries of comedy; you can go a year without seeing an act, then you see them twice in nearly a week. If they’re as talented as Brush, then that is no bad thing at all. Tonight Brush added plenty of material that was different to the set I saw last week and that helped to keep things fresh for me. The room liked him a lot; he received consistent big laughs throughout his set and really deserved applause for large parts of it. Brush is an incredible writer and every joke was a belter.

Alan Hudson

I was particularly looking forward to seeing Hudson. Not just for myself, but also for my friend who really, really, really loves magic and I think she’d been excited all day about this. It was great watching her reactions to every trick. Hudson had a fantastic night and I’m really glad that he’s now based back in the North. He performed with his sleeves pulled up, so you could see he wasn’t making things appear or vanish up them. The tricks were all fantastic and I’ve no idea how he did any of them. The whole room was going nuts when he pulled them off. Hudson had plenty of fun with his volunteers, including Alex who had questionable skills with cling film and the lady whose ring he vanished – her mouth just dropped in surprise. The final trick, involving calculators was a real showstopper. This was a champion performance that ended the night on a massive high.

Laffa Cakes Dronfield: Peter Brush, Anna Thomas, David Eagle and Greg Philips (MC)

Tonight I was at the Hilltop Social club in Dronfield for the Laffa Cakes comedy night. This is a great gig that will hopefully grow and grow. Given that we had three great acts tonight, I can’t see any reason why it shouldn’t. Greg had a fun night compering. His easy rapport with the audience, plus his good memory for people’s names, gave him an advantage in talking to folk, even the train driver and the lady whom it turned out wasn’t actually his partner. I was very surprised to hear that one chap, Mark, had travelled all of the way from Birmingham to see one of the acts. That’s impressive.

Peter Brush

Brush is a splendid act whose cerebral style of comedy strongly appeals to me. It also appealed to a crowd of people in a social club, which was great. Without being bothered by the noise bleed from the drier in the toilet, Brush gave the room a superb set, the logical flow of which, was impeccable. He treats the audience as being smart enough to get his jokes and they most certainly do. A real highlight concerned the photos. This was fantastic.

Anna Thomas

I’d heard a lot of good stuff about Thomas, but hadn’t actually seen her perform yet, so I’d been looking forward to this. She had a belter of a gig. She’s lively, conversational and has a set that never seems to stand still. There were jokes, props, songs and a ukulele. As a result, she commanded the room with ease and I’d say the audience warmed to her in about 1 second flat. Greg was pissing himself laughing watching her and that was great to see. The material was eclectic and this works very well, especially when combined with her delivery and changes of direction. Thomas is not only a bookable act, but she’s going to make it as a pro act.

David Eagle

Eagle never put a foot wrong from his superb opening song till his closing joke. He had the audience singing, clapping along, laughing and shouting out to him. I was particularly impressed by his mental dexterity, as he not only worked in callbacks to the previous events of the night, but he also dealt with friendly shout outs. Eagle was very much living in the moment and the room joined him in that. This meant that his set felt like it was special for the audience and not just him doing a job. There were calls for more when Eagle finished his set.

This gig cost me, as a non-member of the club, £6, which seems ridiculously cheap considering just how much I enjoyed it.

How to produce, Perform and Write an Edinburgh Fringe Comedy Show by Ian Fox (with contributions from Ashley Frieze)

This book is dynamite and I think it’s an essential purchase to anyone going to Edinburgh or involved in comedy, as it’s a cracking read in its own right. It contains advice and stories and some of the stories are hilarious.

A lot of the advice is common sense, but it’s the sort of common sense that is easy to overlook and mostly obvious in hindsight. I daresay that this book would pay for itself many times over. It was published in 2016 and whilst there may have been a few changes since then, by far the vast majority is still very relevant.

This book is champion. It’s an extremely good buy and not only will people learn a lot, they’ll also save a lot of money.

Ashby 20th Anniversary Charity Special: Ian D Montfort, Andrew Bird, Ivan Brackenbury, Geoff Norcott, Daliso Chaponda, Paul Sinha, and Steve Royle

Tonight I was in Ashby at the Lyric Rooms for the Funhouse 20^th anniversary charity special. This had the strongest line up of any gig I’ve attended. Seven headliners, all with different styles, all at the top of their game and all having to keep their sets tight, hence this was a night with no weak links or dips in the energy. Not only was this gig live, it was also being broadcast online for those who hadn’t been able to get a ticket, which was a wonderful idea and this also meant that I got to see Big Jon at the gig, along with a host of other friends.

Spiky Mike, dressed like Beetlejuice, had the time of his life tonight. Surrounded by friends, celebrating a big event, raising money for three charities and providing a superb night of entertainment – who wouldn’t look so happy? Mike kept it tight at the top, speaking just to a few people, before bringing on our first act.

Ian D Montfort

Montfort is such a convincing psychic that he opened the show with a disclaimer that James Randi would have been proud of, explaining that he is as psychic as any other medium, a statement that works wonderfully whatever you make of so called mediums. He was amazed at how many people thought it was real, talking about a review he’d received that had spectacularly missed the point. We were then given a wonderfully tongue in cheek performance that emphasised just how well thought out this character is. The Shakespearean reading was fantastic.

Andrew Bird

Bird had a great gig, opening by roasting Mike, which naturally, everyone enjoyed. He then gave the audience some rock solid material. Bird is a storyteller of magical talent and his choice of words got the most out of everything he spoke about. The closing callback gave a definite feeling of completeness to this set.

Ivan Brackenbury

Brackenbury is a gold plated act who can’t really go wrong and tonight was no exception. This was a clever performance with something for everyone in it. Even those with limited musical knowledge get the jokes, as he repeats the important lines. It was a true pleasure to see some new material in this set, which helps keep it fresh. I don’t know how often Steve Royle has seen Brackenbury, but it was great to watch him laughing his head off at a fellow artist.

Geoff Norcott

We resumed after the intermission with Norcott, whom I’ve not seen for a while. He went straight into material, which was universally strong and tangible. There was nothing that no one couldn’t get a grasp of. Dog owners, middle class, nicknames, all hit home hard.

Daliso Chaponda

Chaponda opened with a great joke about it being a charity gig and from there his material and natural charisma carried the show. It was great to see him gaining applause as well as laughter. His story about the merger interview was cracking.

Paul Sinha

There was a lot of love in the room for Sinha. Even before he’d reached the stage, you could feel that the audience had a special place for him in their hearts. I not only admire his material, which is strong, but also the fact that he trusts the intelligence of the audience to get his reference points. At no time does he talk down to them by explaining something. He’s also very aware of the audience and the energy in the room. This makes for a powerful combination. This was a great set.

Steve Royle

Closing the show was Royle, a born entertainer and he played the room like a fiddle. He built up the energy and brought the whole audience into his performance, making it feel like a community event for all. The carol singing was spectacular, but for me, it was his interactions with Mr Manky Monkey that were the real highlight. His reaction to the arm was superb.