Because I believe it is important to be completely honest about such things, I was feeling quite cold towards the Charlie Baker aspect of this show… I will explain, as it was not completely unfounded:
I had not seen much of him on TV (although my kids were insanely excited about his presence and had more of a “Josh who?” attitude towards the show!) but in what little I had seen he felt very much like non-comedian, Jethro.
I’ll elaborate, because my hatred for that man is something else entirely… I have never found Jethro to be at all funny. My family do, I don’t know why – they obviously see something I don’t. But my dislike goes further than fraudulent claims at being amusing… there’s a story… I will try to keep it concise:
I was once at a cash machine in my hometown which has a wide road and a huge pavement alongside it. As I stepped away from the machine, focussing on putting my cash in my purse, purse in bag etc, I looked up to the sound of a horn. And it was Jethro, who having performed an illegal U-turn was headed towards me at great speed along the PAVEMENT… you know, the bit where people WALK… and he yelled at ME, calling me some highly unsavoury names for not paying attention to where I was walking… on the fucking PAVEMENT… so I hate the man. And all he stands for.
Now here’s the thing… it always feels from Jethro's ‘comedy’ that he is just relying on the hilarity of a Westcountry accent; that it doesn’t matter what he actually says because saying it in a Cornish drawl will just make it funny. And people flock to see him on this very basis… I don’t get it. At all.
And the few occasions I saw Charlie Baker on the TV it felt he was doing the same. He said something, it wasn’t particularly funny, so he repeated with his Devonshire accent and it suddenly was. And I thought “Yea, cos the world needs another fucking Jethro” and ignored everything else he had to say.
Whether he was doing that and has now moved on or if it is simply that my perception was jaded at the time I will never know but I am happy to say that now it is not the case.
Charlie Baker is a very funny guy. A little rough around the edges, he came across as incredibly nervous at first and I’ll be honest his inexperience was extremely apparent, but once he settled and got a feel for the audience he had everyone on side. It would be interesting to see him perform in his own right, rather than as warm-up to someone else, as much of what he was doing was telling us how brilliant Josh was going to be (which to be honest, most people there already knew so he could have just relaxed and done his own thing!) In fact, he was by far the most ‘warm-uppy’ support act I have ever seen… not a bad thing, of course… on a cold, gloomy Friday evening at the end of a long, hard week you really want someone to gee you along a little. And he certainly did that! But I’d have liked to hear more of his great material than the constant references to what we should expect.
I really hope he comes back to these parts next year – it will be great to watch him develop as he learns to channel his nerves more productively.
By contrast, Josh Widdicombe was, as one would expect, calm relaxed and perfectly paced with his delivery of a brilliant set. There are certain local things he referenced which had been mentioned by other comedians (I did wonder for a moment if he hadn’t been in the audience of the Seann Walsh show at the same venue a few months ago!) and there was a moment I thought his interaction with one particular audience member was going on for too long, although I think it is testament to his ability to read his audience that he realised at this point he was losing the interest of the rest of us and drew back to his material. That said, though, even that intercourse itself was entertaining and banter-fuelled rather than simply insulting and putting down the vocal interjector.
I always think you can tell a show has gone well if they finish and you find yourself in that confusion over time – “Really? They’ve only been talking for 10 minutes, surely? Oh more than an hour? You sure?” And I very much found myself in that situation at the completion of both sets.
So anyway…
As usual I will close by saying should you find either stopping by your area (so to speak) do make the effort to go see them! I know it seems I always say that- what can I say but that I am lucky to have never seen a dud live act (yet!)
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