The venue itself was great; although the music played between acts left a lot to be desired. There is only so much Kylie and Take That a person can handle and with a playlist of only four or five songs, I reached my ceiling fairly quickly! But in terms of our purpose, it was perfect; the view of the stage from all seats was good, the sound system was of a good enough quality that every word was easily heard and it had a nice intimate atmosphere.
I must admit, there was a small moment of seat envy when the people with the best places, immediately next to the stage, talked incessantly throughout the entire evening. It was not quite clear whether it was that they were talking loudly enough that we could hear them from our table quite some distance away or if their voices were being picked up by the microphone and we were hearing from the speaker next to us, but either way having their muttering as a background noise was annoying, and quite apart from being an irritation to other audience members, it is hugely disrespectful to the acts themselves!
Regardless, the evening was very enjoyable. I have never quite decided which is better, to catch a preview whilst the material is still fresh or to be at the end of a run when it is has been polished and added to, but anyway both sets were really funny.
Andrew Lawrence was very funny - as I expected he would be! He has a very loose delivery, with a relaxed, nonchalant attitude and of course some excellent material. The things he was doing on TV and radio over last year whilst funny were often quite safe and mediocre, so it is good to see him pushing beyond this a little and becoming slightly edgier. He is currently recording a new series of “What to do”, so I am very much looking forward to that… and hoping the episodes are longer this time!
By contrast, I found Lloyd Langford to be quite mainstream. I read a few reviews of his work complaining about how he pushed boundaries too far, often taking people into territory they were not comfortable with. I personally like to be challenged in that way (I have mentioned it before, so won’t repeat myself…. although I do – often – suffice it to say that I think it is a better experience if I actually stop for a moment to think about why I find something funny rather than just laughing idly with the rest of the audience) so I was slightly disappointed in him; not that he wasn’t funny, just not in the way I was anticipating. It also bothered me at the time that through his entire pre-amble he seemed to make the assumption that the whole audience were local, making “in-jokes” and referring to nearby places. With hindsight, though, I do think my friend and I were possibly the only people in the audience who had travelled from England for the show, so maybe it is unfair to hold that against him.
All told, both were very funny; I would certainly make the trip again for them! In fact, I would even brave the drive myself rather than being Miss Wimpy and making my friend have to take me!
There are still another three shows before the festival finishes on 30th July, so check out the Swansea Comedy Festival website for more information.
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