Friday was one of those evenings where nothing quite went to plan. I arrived at Firebug to see Doc Brown at 7:30, but he didn't turn up til gone 8. Luckily Jonathan Elston was on hand to keep the crowd entertained with some heavily self-deprecating material about the many reasons why he's still single. A few great lines in there, mixed in with some pretty lowest common denominator stuff (particularly the football/sex puns), and some fairly productive audience interaction. Also interesting to see the winner of last year's best new act Matt Richardson sitting at the back, laughing loudly at all the jokes that the audience didn't respond to. Always fascinating to see what comedians themselves find funny, as opposed to the general public.
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| Thought-provoking - Doc Brown |
Anyway, eventually on came Doc Brown, who describes himself as a 'failed rapper'. Well, hip-hop's loss is comedy's gain, as he produced a thoroughly entertaining and at times thought-provoking hour of stand-up and comedy rap songs. Most of the aspects of hip-hop culture were thoroughly lampooned, including the need to maintain a constant mask of bravado; male sexual bragging and misogyny, avoiding the attention of the police and the perils of getting over-excited on the dancefloor. He also addressed some higher social issues, including a particularly astute section on being mixed-race and the differing levels of acceptance he receives from different groups. This was balanced out with some silliness, including a routine on the thoroughly 'un-ghetto' topics as Julie Andrews' favourite things and kids' pantomimes. Interestingly at one point he admitted he wouldn't want to do stand-up every day, because it would mean he never gets to see his family or friends - luckily for him he is talented and accessible enough to have gained a decent amount of recognition and regular TV work, and thus can afford the luxury of not needing to gig every night.
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| Heckled - Andrew O'Neill |
I then had a bit of spare time before my next scheduled gig at the Looking Glass, so I popped into Just the Tonic to see who had turned up for their Five Pound Friday show, and pleasantly surprised I was. For a mere fiver they had Mark Little, Bob Slayer, Andrew O'Neill and Rob Rouse - an impressive line-up by anyone's standards. Obviously it was a busy Friday night and the drink was flowing, so naturally sections of the room were in a somewhat boisterous mood. I arrived just in time to see Andrew O'Neill spend most of his time on stage absolutely murdering a persistent heckler in the front row, who was continually making unintelligent references to O'Neill's less than conventional appearance. The comic unloaded a tirade of devastating put-downs to the delight of the audience, but eventually lost his patience and had the gentleman removed, advising the club owner to raise the entry fee in order to 'price out' such undesirables. He than had time to do about ten minutes of actual material, all of which which was really rather good and left me wanting to see him again. Then came Rob Rouse, who chose to ignore the generally noisy atmosphere in the room and plough straight into some typically well-observed and very entertaining material on little boys and where their fingers have been. I had to leave just as he was detailing the more invasive, less talked-about aspects of his wife's pregnancy, to dash across town for my final appointment of the evening...
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| Convincing chav - Devvo |
The overcrowded basement of the Looking Glass did not provide the ideal conditions for enjoyment of the scarily well-observed 'chav' character act Devvo. It was overwhelmingly hot and sweaty; the room was packed to bursting point with many people standing at the back (including myself) or sitting on the floor in the aisles; and as you might expect for a late Friday night gig on Braunstone Gate, the crowd were largely drunk and very talkative, chatting amongst themselves and frequently shouting at the performer. The rowdiness of the room was not a problem for Devvo, as his act relied heavily on moving forward into the audience to interact with them anyway (eventually ditching the microphone due to feedback issues), although by the end he had more or less written off the back of the room and was performing mic-less to the front three rows. The material was largely juvenile - observations about weed-smoking and the best way to harass strangers for money, interspersed with rap songs about 'buzzing' and wanting ladies to 'get their rat out'. As such, the character is a highly effective lampoon of how people perceive so-called chavs - and his fans, mostly of university age, were lapping it up, singing along to their favourite songs from YouTube and taking great pleasure in interacting with their favourite internet sensation. Maybe it was my illness and the conditions in the room, or maybe just the fact I'm a 34-year old who works and hasn't smoked weed since his mid-twenties, but I struggled to really get into it with all the other distractions in the room. In amongst all the chaos there were some good moments though, particularly his unique take on bees and wasps, and his commitment to the character in such difficult conditions was admirable - I considered exiting early to rest my legs and get some much-needed cool air, but managed to see it through to the end. Suffice to say I'd like to see him again, perhaps in a less crowded room when I'm in more of a fit state to concentrate!
And that's yer lot, for now. 8 days of comedy mayhem down, 9 more to go! There is an absolutely huge selection of quality acts to choose from tonight, including one-hour shows from Jarred Christmas, Pat Cahill, Liam Mullone, Holly Walsh, Henning Wehn, Charlie Chuck, Nick Helm, Charlie Baker, Simon Munnery and Ian Crawford to mention but a few. There's also Bottle Rocket's strong line-up at the Y Theatre, another great value selection at Just the Tonic, or a big selection of new acts competing against the gong at Kayal. Aren't we a lucky bunch? See you tomorrow...
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