This has been a superb month for live comedy. I’ve seen some astounding pro acts, but just as importantly some fantastic up and comers, some of which are either semi-pro, or just turned pro.
As always, acts that I could name every month, like S Bailey have been excluded to give others a chance to shine.
Acts that have impressed me the most:
Josh Elton
Everything came together very nicely and this is someone whom I think will not only make it as a pro, but will thrive, too.
From the night:
Josh was new to me and I think I’ll be seeing a lot of him in the future. He’s a confident presence and has the ability to go much further. His material was solid and there was a lovely sense of performance to his delivery. It was wonderful to see him tying material into individual audience members and using the correct local references, despite being based in S Wales. This made what he was saying feel very much of the here and now. His timing on moved in was absolutely spot on. This was a very impressive performance.
Kate Martin
A real addition to this bill and to many others, too.
From the night:
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.
Mad Ron
Totally fantastic and now based in Leicester and so can now get to more gigs.
From the night:
It’s always a pleasure to see Mad Ron and the audience agreed. He’s a superb act on every level. There was nothing at all to find fault with in what he did. His construction, material, delivery, timing and even the way in which he subtly played with the audience’s expectations were absolutely top notch. He has a great choice of words and it’s always lovely to see an act treat an audience as intelligent and to use references that they have to do that tiny bit of thinking about before they laugh. The message and reply were standout moments on what was a superb night of comedy. I’ve never seen Mad Ron have a bad gig and I doubt if I ever will.
Pat Draper
A wonderful level of mental dexterity and stagecraft.
From the night:
It was a pleasure to see Draper. He’s a solid act, totally reliable and you know that whenever he’s on a bill, he’s going to be good. Tonight, it was business as usual for him. He was immediately funny and had the audience eating out of his hand. There was an admirable sense of stage craft to what Pat was doing. He’d been listening all night, knew who was who, what they did and so was able to make callbacks and these all landed incredibly hard. He is quick witted and was able to incorporate a lot of extra things into his set, such as the lady who needed the toilet. It was nice to see his professionalism in realising he’d been sidetracked and so didn’t have the time to do the second poem of the night and not letting his set overrun as a result. This was a joy of a performance.
Honourable Mentions:
Benny Shakes (MC), Jack King, Jamie Douglas,
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