REVIEW: Helm and Alderton shine at the Y Theatre

Saturday 14th April 2012: Fresh from their triumph at being named Best Promoter at this year's Comedy Festival awards, Bottle Rocket Comedy presented their first line-up of the new season at the Y Theatre last night, and I think it's fair (albeit massively clichéd) to say it was a game of two halves.

To begin with, the audience were reasonably reluctant to get involved and compère Ed Gamble may have struggled if it weren't for Ann from Fleckney, who proved to be a constant goldmine of  'isn't she posh and bonkers?' laughs during the evening, although her willingness to talk at length to the compère did begin to grate with some audience members after a while.

First act Pat Cahill delivered some very inventive material from a brain that is clearly adept at sideways thinking, and some of his darker material, whilst not to everyone's taste, drew pockets of heavy laughter from certain areas of the room.

Next up was Roisin Conaty, whose 'chatty girl down the pub' persona and fairly standard observational material never really got the audience going. She seemed at times painfully aware of this on stage, making references to her sweating and occasional stuttering, and failing to engage the audience in any particularly successful banter. Nonetheless, some of her observations were very well received and she ended her set strongly with the 'porn tape' anecdote, leaving the stage to warm applause.

It seemed clear that the audience had come mainly to see the final two acts. First on after the interval was Nick Helm, who was as disturbingly brilliant as always. He simply doesn't let the crowd be placid, and forces them to take part by shouting very loud threats at them until they do his bidding. This proved to be a winning tactic, as his unique combination of bitterness, bad one-liners delivered with gusto, enforced singalongs and uncomfortably intimate audience interaction had the crowd regularly hooting uncontrollably.

And finally there was headliner Terry Alderton, who was.... erm.... um...
It's difficult to find words that can fully express the bizarre mixture of voices, sounds, facial expressions and movements that is Terry Alderton. His set was like a fever dream, flitting unpredictably and non-sequentially from wordless opera to reverse midget-walking, through talking shoes and Formula One noises, 'pilled-up' dancing and self-deflation. Baffling and edgy, Alderton is clearly a massive talent - a master of physical comedy, expressions and accents, and able to self-criticise and ad-lib during the set without losing the momentum of the show. Some will be put off by the sheer randomness of his act, but those who like to embrace the chaos will want to see him again and again.

The next Bottle Rocket event at The Y is on Saturday 28th April, headlined by Jarred Christmas - for details and tickets, go to this bit of the web: http://brcomedy.com/events/