FESTIVAL DIARY DAY 12 - No reviews please...

Hello comedy fans, and I apologise in advance for the lack of detail in today's Festival Diary. The only show I had on my schedule for yesterday was the work-in-progress double header from James Acaster and David Trent at the Belmont Hotel, and the first thing I was told when I got there was that their management had requested no press/reviews please, thank you very much.

Not such a problem for the blog I thought - I can happily witter on for ages without actually referring to any show specifics, but I had also been requested to to review this one for the Mercury. Hmmm, not sure what they'll be putting in instead, but I've offered my rather gushing review of John Kearns from yesterday as a replacement in case they need to fill the space.

Quirky observations - James Acaster

As for the show itself, I've agreed not to mention any specifics or make any judgements that are likely to affect how people view these two shows, since they are at such an early stage of development. Suffice to say both comics had some good material, presented in very different styles - Acaster with typically quirky observational material which takes tiny offbeat ideas and runs with them to a slightly obsessive degree, and Trent with his brand of inventive low-fi multimedia shenanigans, which caused a surge of interest in the comic at last year's Edinburgh Fringe.

Obviously both shows were a bit rough around the edges (Trent's being noticeably rougher than Acaster's at this point), but there's a long way to go 'til August and I have no doubts that both have found the experience of performing their new material to an under-capacity room at the Belmont useful, in terms of what is working well and which parts need fine-tuning.

Multimedia shenanigans - David Trent

What was genuinely interesting (and I feel I'm OK to talk about this because it's not part of the show itself) was Trent's reaction to the parts of his show that didn't fly with the audience. His continual unscripted assertions that it was going terribly, and that one particular man in the audience really hated him and wanted to hurt him after the show, was meant to be a bit of off-the-cuff joking around - part of his 'stage persona'.  Sadly the audience didn't always seem to take it that way, creating a sometimes awkward tension in the room - not what you need if you're trying to focus on impressing people with your new material.

Anyway, as I mentioned, Trent's finished show from last year 'Spontaneous Comedian' was an absolute smash at Edinburgh and he's performing it at the Crumblin' Cookie on Saturday, so I would highly recommend seeing it. Acaster is also at the Cookie on Saturday with last year's Edinburgh show, which also sounds jolly good - read the Chortle review here.

And that's it from me today! Tonight I shall be forcefully chucking ethics out of the window and whoring my opinions in exchange for free chicken at The Y Theatre, as I attend Nando's Present's Chris Ramsey and Friends, in which the likeable Geordie takes to the stage along with fellow funnymen Josh Widdicombe, Jason Cooke and Chris Stokes, and the audience gradually stinks the joint out by munching away on peri-peri chicken. Until tomorrow...