FESTIVAL DIARY DAY 5 - Rhys Mathewson and Simon Donald

After the explosion of life and laughter over the weekend, the city centre was strangely quiet last night. If it wasn't for all the DLCF banners and posters dotted around the place, one might've been surprised to learn that there was a comedy festival happening at all.
But happening it was, albeit on a smaller scale than over the weekend. I had two shows on my schedule and hoped to make it to a couple more afterwards, but due to a slight logistical f**k-up on my part I had to head home early to avoid being locked out of my house all night (so apologies to those performing in the late shows at the Looking Glass that I never made it to).

Value for money - Rhys Mathewson

First up was Rhys Mathewson at The Criterion. Despite only being in his early twenties, Rhys is already a massive star in his native New Zealand, and his act is delivered with the confidence of a veteran performer. The premise of this show, entitled The Best 6 Pounds You Will Ever Spend, is that Rhys wants to make sure he's giving you value for money in a tough economic climate. To that end, a home-made board is placed at the front of the stage, onto which an audience member is invited to stick a pound sign, every time Rhys makes a joke that is deemed worthy of paying a pound for. It's an interesting idea, which makes you think about how hard the comedian works for your money, and how little we have to hand over to see a show when there are so many competing against each other for ticket sales. It's also a good way for Rhys to gauge how well his jokes are going down (as if the laughter in the room wasn't enough) Of course it's a potentially risky move, since you're relying on the guy with the pound signs to enjoy your set, otherwise you will depressingly be deemed not worthy of his six pounds. Thankfully Rhys' set was worth every penny. Filled with smart one-liners, 'loveable slacker' observations and keenly-realised anecdotes, the hour was consistently funny. I'm pretty sure this is the first time he has played Leicester though, mainly because at one point he actually had to ask if everyone was enjoying the show - welcome to Leicester Mr Mathewson, the audiences here don't give out the really big laughs cheaply. But the show was clearly a success - as well as strong material about absurd KFC burgers, love, religion and snapping his 'banjo string' (and we're not talking about a musical instrument here), he made good use of his shaggy-dog appearance and considerable bulk to entertain us, leaping around the stage to illustrate the different methods of skipping, and his amusing collection of dance moves. At one point he even managed to draw laughter by simply drinking from a glass of water, and then again later on by taking another sip and referring to it as a 'callback'. This is clearly a man who cannot help being funny, and as such was well worth the six pounds.

Educational - Simon Donald

Then it was off to the Exchange Bar to enrol in Simon Donald's School of Swearing, in which the Viz co-creator turned stand-up proved that learning can be fun, as long as the lessons are littered with four-letter words. Dressed up in gown and mortar board, he delivered a lecture-style show, which managed to balance the obviously frequent use of curse-words with just the right amount of interesting historical fact, amusing anecdotes and well-observed character voices, as well as personal opinions on the use of language and grammar. To begin with, the show was heavy on fact and light on jokes, and I started to hope that he wasn't just going to be relying solely on punctuating the lesson with foul language for laughs. Thankfully not. As the show went on, it became more interactive, varied and funny. A master stroke was his Celebrity Swears game, in which audience members were invited to pick a celebrity and we were treated to a short clip of them telling us their favourite profanity. This was funny in itself, but there was something utterly magical about seeing the chosen word appear on the screen in huge letters, as Donald repeated it in a dry, schoolmasterly fashion, and this consistently drew big laughs. Two audience members were invited to sit a short written exam at the end of the show, in which they had to fill in the blanks to complete various sweary phrases. Top marks went to a certain Rhys Mathewson who, fresh from his show at The Criterion, had turned up on the front row and took great pleasure in managing to get the word 'Cockwomble' into two shows in the same evening - quite an achievement I think you'll agree. Despite all the childish fun with rude words, this was a genuinely informative show, which traced the origins of many of our favourite words, gave handy tips for their effective use, and made some intelligent points about the evolution of language and the seemingly arbitrary way in which levels of offence are designated by those in power, as opposed to those most likely to be doing the swearing.

I'll be back tomorrow with another installment of the festival diary, and it should be a good one too, as tonight I'm seeing two stars of Stewart Lee's new Alternative Comedy Experience show on Comedy Central - Paul Foot at the Cookie Jar, and Bridget Christie at Curve - can't wait! See you tomorrow...