Child one and I popped over to the next town to watch the fabulous Seann Walsh tonight. Now I don’t know about other parents, but I do feel it makes for a promising show when the first words spoken are a reference to performing a sexual act on your child…. I’ll come back to that one though!
Walsh was supported by
Romesh Ranganathan. As a warm-up, Romesh did a brilliant job; I was vaguely familiar with him from the
BBC New Comedy Award and it was great to hear a longer set from him. I have to say, an unexpected support act is always a great bonus – like a BOGOF offer – free laughs, and all that… much like if you were to call an escort agency and book yourself a man for the evening then two arrive… no, sorry, that’s something else entirely – a bonus comedian is nothing like having two men arrive to take you out for an evening… but something to think about for a moment or two nevertheless.
Back to point: yes, Romesh Ranganathan was very funny. I did enjoy his slow, methodical delivery and I felt his relaxed pace contrasted brilliantly with the speed and energy of Walsh making them a great pairing.
I remember writing something about him in the summer but can’t find where it was published now; I would love to refer to it directly but I have to find something different to write in case of breeching agreements and such – so I shall just leave it at that. Take a look at his website, see where he is to be and go watch him! That is what I would do if I were you – but I’m not!
So to
Seann Walsh himself. What can I say but that he was every bit as brilliant as we expected him to be! Okay, so he opened with a deeply inappropriate suggestive remark, but as you can tell by now (I hope!) I am perfectly capable of knowing the difference between something being said as part of an act and a statement of intention – and I make the assumption his statement was the former… and besides, we all know I love when my kids are embarrassed – and she certainly was!
Anyway, what more to say? The audience were particularly lively and I loved his attitude towards the more active members. It says a lot for his level of professionalism even in the rambling, lazy persona he portrays that he was able to sidetrack to joke with the audience member, yet still return to the very point he left off.
His material was great. I have read criticisms that it is material that does not work for an audience of varying ages, but I disagree completely; I don’t think there was anyone who did not get the points he was making – even if you did not understand the references directly, the delivery was such that it was still immensely funny and it really was not difficult to work out what he meant.
(don't start me on another rant about lazy reviewing, please!!)
Edgy, energetic, fluid and absolutely hilarious; exactly what you would expect if you have seen any of his television appearances. If you can’t get to see him live, he is on the first episode of the new series of Live at the Apollo this Friday at 9.30pm on BBC1. I expect it will be much of the same material, as that is mostly the way with these things.
For my local readers, the tour is back in these parts on Wednesday (not in this town, obviously! But nearby) Contact me and I’ll let you know where! Just don’t tell the child-people in case they expect me to take them again… not that I wouldn’t – but I can’t justify abandoning the hub-creature for another night out whilst he is still bed-ridden.
And, yes you have guessed it – Miss Middle has been drawing again! So here is an ickle pic…
This is a great night of relatively new talent from the Cardiff Comedy Festival. Angela Barnes and Romesh Ranganathan both participated in last year's BBC New Comedy Award, Angela as the eventual winner, Romesh as a heat runner-up and are both very funny. Angela Barnes has a great edginess to her and has a way of making you think she's already hit a mediocre punchline only to follow it up with a bigger, better one. It's almost a "BOGOF" on your laughs, so if nothing else you know you will always get value for money - and who isn't motivated by the chance to save money nowadays?
I saw Romesh Ranganathan perform shortly after the New Comedy Award and I was really hoping to have seen more of him over the year to watch him develop. He was very funny, drawing on his life experiences and referring to racial stereotypes within his family without making the guilt-by-association assumption that his mostly white audience would be inherently racist as I have seen many times before.
At just twenty, Patrick Morris is quite the comedy baby. Nevertheless, he delivers a self-assured set perfectly timed in a way that you feel even his pauses have been professionally rehearsed. One problem with this can be that the act is thrown when something interupts that flow and that was very much the case when I saw him perform, but that is something experience alone can correct and I am sure even by now he will have outgrown it.
