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| REVIEWS ARCHIVE October - November 2000 | |||
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Reviews Archive October - November 2000 Opening night at Harriet's, Greenwich, LondonTHIS was a new fortnightly comedy night in the shadow of the Millennium Dome (with almost as many visitors) but compere and host Harriet Bowden is determined that it will last longer than the Dome - without public money! First up is surreal Paul Foot, who takes us through his stories of the local area, description of award winning tv show You've Been Framed, and his butch nanna. Not to be confused with the 'nana Verity Welch keeps down her skirt, (replacing the previously used and lost chicken). She played with the small audience well. Phil Zimmerman brought the 'pigeons' to christen the venue, rather like they christen his loft. Phil wasn't happy with the size of the stage, so he played from behind the curtain! Could catch on! Ivan Steward, the Comedy Traffic Warden - on this night - was last up. After his success in Edinburgh, he was back on the trail down in the Smoke, and his amusing material worked, as always. Finally, audience member Rob got up and told pub jokes. Expect to see him live at the Dome soon (Not!) STAR RATING (out of five): *** Peter Merrett November 2000 issue Daniel Kitson Show, Comedy Cafe, London EC1 I FIRST saw Kitson finish second in the 1998 Hackney Empire New Act of The Year Final. Even then, he was regularly compering nights at the Comedy Cafe, and he has now decided to do a solo show. The Metro newspaper stated that he is already tipped for next year's Perrier Award at the Fringe, which Kitson claims is b*****ks because he says he isn't going to Edinburgh! It is quite clear though that he is starting to experiment and rehearse a show with ten months still to go. The first half was 37 minutes, while the second was nearer an hour. His regular compering stuff is naturally zany, and relies heavily on insulting members of the audience. No one is safe. Perrier-winning shows tend to have a subject they focus on. Kitson has introduced playing a game of Scrabble which runs through the show, while he does material, tries sketchs, shows pre-recorded video clips. Another solo show is planned for November, and I am sure Kitson will be tweaking his material. STAR RATING (out of five): *** Peter Merrett November 2000 issue Adlib Night, Amused Moose, London FIRST night of the Adlib Night with Gail Scott compering fun and games of a topical nature. First up was The A-Z Game, going through the alphabet and making a joke on a subject from each letter. Next was Voice Impressions followed by In The Papers. The topical victims were Impressionists at the Tory Conference, Ann Widdecombe, the petrol crisis, Jeffrey Archer, the American presidential Bush vs Gore debate and the Kennedy Clan. In the second half were Off The Wall, People in the News, West End Final, and finally My Gag Next, which was an opportunity for the comic to do bits of their own stand-up act. The participants and their best bits were: Andy Parsons attempting to say something funny about Ann Widdecombe, and Branson trying to fly around the world in a balloon despite the fact he owns an airline. Paul Rogan's impressions of Slobodan Milosovic, who has stashed all his money in poverty stricken Russia, where there is nothing to spend money on. John Ryan about Virgin Trains and the waiting list for lottery prizes if it was being funded by the NHS. Shaun Pye on the odds of his sisters 'fear of flying' counsellor dying in a plane crash. MC Gail Scott held the evening together, and the attention of men in the audience was helped by the fact she dressed as a schoolgirl. Some of the stuff adlib worked and other stuff didn't but the 'pass the baton' format allowed the evening to have a fast pace. It's a cross between 'Whose Line Is it' and 'Have I got News' with some rounds that didn't work likely to be dropped STAR RATING (out of five): *** Peter Merrett November 2000 issue Mirth Control IV, at Catcher In The Rye, London THERE was free entry and a lot of local regulars in the crowd. Also local Scott Pragnall is the resident host, although he informed the crowd that he missed the previous Sunday to do a gig in Milton Keynes, possibly the location where he bought garish shirt. Pragnall plays long on that people complain to Anne Robinson on the BBC show Watchdog for stupid reasons, but, afterwards, goes inspiringly wild over hardly anything at all. I'd say he's an up and coming comedian. Clyde West is a comedy veteran of 38 who used to sell jokes via the small ads of the stage. West is a bit of a comedy hack, with a lot a cliched material. I don't know if he would sell any gags he used on this night. The audience was slow to pick up on some of his humour, describing his hometown Stratford in East London and that he was happy to be present and loved comedy. I was disapointed he didn't do his stuff on children's TV programmes from the 70s. I loved the red suit, though. Headline act Anthony King is one I haven't seen or heard of before, but surely will again. On the lookalike factor he reminds me of a mix between Alastair McGowan and Sean Meo. His delivery also had me comparing him to Meo, composed and relaxed as he strode through his stuff. This venue is a newish addition to the comedy circuit, and free entry has worked because locals have turned out on a regular basis, but I think it could do with more seating. STAR RATING (out of five): *** Peter Merrett November 2000 issue Dave Gorman - Are you Dave Gorman?, The Comedy Theatre, London COMEDY meets travelogue in this genre-defining show, which sometimes takes the form of an inventive lecture. In his global quest to find and record meetings with his namesakes, the comedy moves from the attention to the minutiae of people's lives. Obsessive facts abound with the project being carefully recorded and statistical information provided on the distances travelled and the graphical representations that dictate the journeys. In a sense, he can be compared to Peter Cook's E.L.Wisty comic creation, a character that excels in recounting his 'interesting facts'. The uncanny events, which unravel during the travels, surprise and add a mysterious quality to this apparently meaningless project. It may have some significance after all: for instance, on the very night of the performance two people linked with the evening shared the same birthday, and there was an actual Dave Gorman in the audience. Surely Doris Stokes would have something to say about that. So whether you are Dave Gorman or not, go to see this show: It will be a journey well worth the effort. STAR RATING (out of five): ***** Ivan de Mello November 2000 issue Graham Norton: Lively, De Montford Hall, Leicester YOU might expect a top comedian as openly-gay as Graham Norton to attract a large gay following - but, at this performance, that did not seem the case. In fact the huge and packed auditorium was dominated by female faces. And many of the men present certainly gave the impression of having been dragged to the spectacle by their women. Stranger still, Norton did not appear to have amassed a wealth of strong routines. His show was a triumph of polished performance and well-honed persona over fair-to-weak material. Norton was at his best when ad-libbing in chats with audience members, and at his worst when telling long-winded and not especially funny yarns. In many ways, Graham would seem to have a delightfully warm personality. You could imagine enjoying having afternoon tea with him. Yet his act is crude, repetitive and unoriginal. Worse, he falls back time and again on trying to shock laughter out of his audience. In this, he does gay people no favours. While not talking much about his own love life, he relishes in holding up other gay men - albeit ones with bizarre and potentially-dangerous sexual practices - to public ridicule. At least half of the audience did not understand what he was talking about in the most explicit section of the show. But the greatest shame was that before the tour Norton had evidently not found sufficient time to work on his script. STAR RATING (out of five): *** Ollie Wilson October 2000 issue Ivan's Comedy Gaffe, The Wheatsheaf, London W1 ANOTHER rainy Monday night in Soho but Ivan's Gaffe was packed. It was only on closer inspection that you realised that everyone in the room was an act, with the exception of two pretty girls on the front row. So I won't attempt to review the entire bill. It read like a who's who of London's tenacious new acts. Instead this review will focus on four who stood out from the comedy crowd. Clare Ward has a Miss Brodie look about her. She's prim and proper in her style, with a long traditional dress and short, neat hair. She also sounded posh which helped her persona and suited her material - somewhat surreal gags about her (presumably private) schooling. Danny Hurst started on the comedy circuit around five years ago. But he dropped out for a year because of poor health. It was good to see him back in action and with some excellent new material. But he needs to overcome the nervousness that pervades his performance. Clifford has confidence by the bagful. He boasts a chatty, intelligent comedy style. His banter with the two girls in the front row won more laughs than his material. Finally, headliner Terry Lynch showed he is more a quality gag writer than a natural performer. But his deadpan persona just about carried his puns and comedy-surprises. STAR RATING (out of five): *** Ollie Wilson October 2000 issue New Acts at the Bedford, Bedford Arms, Balham, London A GOODISH night of entertainment from up-and-coming comics. The compere Balls created a pleasant atmosphere with his aggressive yet friendly Aussie demeanor. Jimmy Razor did well with his quick-fire intelligent gags. And Baby Jane, from Brighton, appeared a little nervous but amiable, chatting away to the smallish audience. Johnny Morris displayed characteristics of a very new act - quiet and apparently lacking in confidence. Pete Armstrong was also too quiet but finished by playing guitar and performing some nice comedy songs. Supply teacher Rick Smallwood did warm, easy-going and intelligent observational material on school kids and life in general. A newer act, Anthony Miller, had some good gags, but was evidently nervous. Last but not least was Clifford who got some great laughs from the by-now-weary crowd. Not a bad evening at all. STAR RATING (out of five): *** Nik Coppin October 2000 issue Brixton Comedy Club, London THIS was a remarkable night in that it offered not one of this year's Perrier nominees - but two. Dave Gorman performed superbly. I reckon he could double up as Jez Quigley if Coronation Street ever decides that the hospital death scene should become a Dallas shower scene! Dave said he'd recently returned from a gig in Bury St Edmonds that he would not have gone to if he hadn't thought he'd been asked if he wanted to dig when they bury Noel Edmonds. You must see this man! Stephen K Amos told us he had taken comedy all over the world on our behalf, and due to the strong pound against local currency he now owns Cape Town. Amos also revealed two old ladies watched his gig in Edinburgh because they thought he was Philip from Rising Damp. He didn't get political - but he did sweat like Tony Blair. Mind you, the club was packed out, so we can forgive him for that. Danny and his yellow ballons was an additional act. He didn't speak - just played with balloons. Don't try this at home ? Well, I suppose you could. . . but you'd need a yellow shirt. The final act Lee Mack was the second recent Perrier nominee. Mack could be Charlie Chaplin or Frank Spencer depending on what hat or beret he wears. Mack's nan still loves Angel Delight, and dishing up advice on her husband being like a fish out of water. Great evening! STAR RATING (out of five): ***** Peter Merrett October 2000 issue The Laughing Horse, The Lucas Arms, Kings Cross, London IN a room which could best be described as a parlour in a stately home, MC for this evening , the lively Matt Watts, encouraged people to raise their hands in the so-called 'clapatory' position. A Danish man sitting in the back row got carried away with the prompting and tried to initiate a Mexican wave. He was alone in that. With a pitch-perfect impersonation of Cilla Black, the lovely Lesley Guiness was rudely interrupted during her act by a heckler. Lesley didn't mind though: 'I'm glad you came - pity your father did as well' was her terse reply. I'd heard whisperings that closet pigeon-enthusiast Phil Zimmerman wouldn't be mentioning pigeons in his act. He was booked to do a tight five-minute set - 30 seconds in: 'PIGEONS!', 'PIGEONS!', 'PIGEONS! This obsessive character is so fully formed he cannot help but mention 'PIGEONS!' - he is one of the true originals on the comedy circuit. Like Zimmerman, the timid , quiet suburban dweller, David F. Taylor, is also a complete character. He manages to work wonders with his understated way by lulling the audience into a hushed silence and then uproarious laughter after the tail-end of each gag. The miraculous part of the evening was invoked by the Capital Radio DJ Neil Long - before he had the chance to utter a word, the laughing horse reared its equine head and gave out a guffaw. Stunned Neil said 'Well how can you top being heckled by the laughing horse at the Laughing Horse club!' He made a sterling effort to try though, only to be upstaged by the furry puppet, Rocky the Racoon, who crawled up and down his arm generally acting like Basil Brush on speed. Brilliant Eric Petrossian is the real-life Millhouse fom the Simpsons. And what promise this guy has! There is a moment during his set where he mimics Armenian chanting - and delivers two minutes of hilarity without words ...just chanting - which leaves the room in stitches. But there's more: a brilliant impression of obscure Eastern European cartoons and a telling observation about the Nightmare on Elm Street movies that leaves the audience thoroughly satisfied. A pleasing night which left everybody's hands in the clapatory position. STAR RATING (out of five): *** Ivan de Mello October 2000 issue The 90th night of Joe's Comedy Madhouse, Stoke Newington, London N16 JOE'S COMEDY MADHOUSE diehards who have sat among an audience of five or six might find it hard to believe but this club has been getting bigger crowds since the cellar bar venue was stretched into an L-shape. Now all the boring people sit round the corner, out of sight. Even the rampantly in-form compere Hal Cruttenden had trouble getting more than a grunt out of them at first. Yet by the time he had launched into a ridiculously manic impression of a camp Alexander the Great riding towards to Persia, the whole packed room was in uproar. It took a while for the audience to warm to Ed Hill as the alarmingly avuncular Rev. Hyde. Perhaps this was down to a suspicion that he was out for converts, although nothing could be further from the truth. He soon let the usual persona of the Church of England clergy slip to reveal the psychopathic and violently-unstable monster beneath, having the crowd in stitches. Meanwhile, it has been evident that the bright lights of the manky BBC Comedy Awards Final have done no favours to Angie McEvoy. For that gig, she dropped her usual style, which was a shame, even though she still came second. The Madhouse's dim, seedy and authentic comedy ambience prompted a welcome return to form for McEvoy. Her low-key, can-hardly-be-bothered-to-talk-to-you-lot persona stormed it, as she unwound her 'sad' tales of being aged 33, single and childless. Brilliant stuff! Steve Day, it seems, is Britain's only deaf comic, and he cleverly bases his act around communication problems. The remarkable thing is that he does not come across as being aurally challenged, his voice being near normal. He is also an excellent communicator, making much of the idea that it doesn't matter whether the audience laughs or not - because he can't hear the laughter anyway. Apart from during his dodgy and rather mysterious Sinatra impression, laugh we did. . . and lots. Headline act Shan took to the stage on the crest of a comedy wave, stoked by Cruttenden. He gave a charming and hilarious performance, timing his punchlines to perfection and delivering his set-ups with a confidence that kept the audience in his pants throughout. But the biggest laugh came he announced that a black woman in a red dress was about to appear among us. And there she was, coming round the corner - out of the part of the room hidden from most of the audience. Laugh? We almost hailed Shan as a comedy phophet! STAR RATING (out of five): **** By 'Comedy Spy' October 2000 issue Ivan's Comedy Gaffe, The Wheatsheaf, Soho, W1. WHEN acts perform at the Gaffe, they need to be as laid-back, natural and relaxed as host Ivan Steward. They should almost treat it as a run out in the reserves with only a few loyal supporters watching. The acts who did well tonight were Tom Burns, Rohan - and Marc Lacero. Ivan tends to unnecessarily build up the acts, which can place unwanted extra pressure on them. Those who didn't perform so well were Chris Riley, Ricardo Lewis and Ninia Benjamin. Ninia Benjamin was trying to impress an agent and had comedian friend Gina Yashere videoing her performance. I've seen Ninia win a heat at London's Comedy Cafe in front of a crowd of 200, but she failed to hit the spot on this occasion. The hilarious Paul Arnold I have also seen many times before. I recall a time in Stoke Newington when I was in tears at his zany efforts to silence a non-stop heckler. However, on this night he experimented with a new character - called Lord Crispin - and the audience didn't quite get it. Christa Masbrook is a German girl who's started to do some comedy, and gave a good account of herself. Tom Burns has been doing stand-up for just six months but has years of comedy writing experience, on Spitting Image to name but one credit. His observations were sharp, his presentation gentle. Rohan does clever, precise material, mainly about him and Elvis. He waited patiently in the front row for his turn and came on like a late substitute to impress the crowd. Marc Luzero finished the night off, and dealt with the (fairly well-intentioned) northern heckler with great skill. Overall, it was interesting night with some promising acts. STAR RATING (out of five): *** Peter Merrett October 2000 issue Adam Hills - Goody Two Shoes, Gilded Balloon, Edinburgh THE audience at this extra show - at midnight - was full of Australians. As Hills said, they probably hadn't made it up in time for the nine o'clock performance. He put on a highly interactive show, picking out a 'boy band' in the front row. And when a couple of members of the audience got up to leave early, Hills personally forked out £40 to pay for their taxi - so they could stay to the end. And it was worth the wait. Hills did a very funny finish with a send-up of the classic American show The A Team, complete with a medley and credits. I'm sure we'll be hearing a lot more of Adam Hills. STAR RATING (out of five): **** Peter Merrett October 2000 issue Noble and Silver, Edinburgh Fringe OTHER reviewers have likened this double-act's stunts to those of TV star Chris Morris. I saw them on the Channel 4 Edinburgh show and was not taken by their ridiculous phone calls. But seeing the live show, I realised how much better the calls fitted in with the general nonsense. They also used a portable television, big screen and photographic slides to good effect. And I was amused by the way they constantly referred to the show as shit, crap and rubbish. It was not quite my tea of cup. But I concede it was weird and off the wall - and cleverly written and well performed. So it was not a huge surprise they won the Perrier Newcomer prize. STAR RATING (out of five): **** Peter Merrett October 2000 issue Visit our sister site: Oliver's Poetry home Get your poems published for free Friends' Poetry home Oliver's Poetry Garret Interactive Blog Oliver's Poetry Garret No Frills Blog A-Z of Poetry Oliver's Poetry UK |
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