CRITIC
The same compare was there - Kai Barron - and I feel like I should apologise for my review of him last time. I thought he was supposed to be a comedian, and an unfunny one at that. However, last night, we learned that he's a drama teacher and not a comedian. This explains a lot!
Anyway, let's move on to the actual acts.
John Mann was very funny. Apparently I've seen him before, as my other half told me, but I couldn't remember! He had a board on stage with him, covered in numbered cards. He asked the audience to shout out numbers and he talked about whatever was written on the card. He was trying this out to see if it worked, and if he needed to develop anything for his upcoming shows. Some bits were funny and some bits weren't, but I liked the structure of this, as it meant everything was a surprise. So even if we went to see him night after night after night, it would be a different show each time depending on which cards the audience chose. Some of the jokes were one liners and others were stories, but they were all told with great confidence. John Mann is a very funny guy.
He was followed by Louie Green, and I enjoyed his set very much. I like comedians that can just talk about their life but see the funny in everything. He talked about becoming a dad and what it was like for him during lockdown when he had to take care of his 92 year old grandmother. He was extremely relateable and his set was over far too quickly for my liking. (Some of the set he performed last night can be found here Me vs My Gran During Lockdown)
And the headliner, Gareth Richards, was someone I'd never heard of, even though the advert shows that he's been on a bunch of BBC channels, and has supported Frank Skinner, and has been on Russell Howard. So, before we booked the tickets, we did a little search of him, and found this video where he sings a song called Disappointing Towel.
It was okay, kind of funny, could have been funnier, but maybe it wasn't fair to judge him based on one song. He might have had a great back catalogue of comedy songs, like Victoria Wood. Nope. Rather than a disappointing towel, this was a disappointing set by an unfunny comedian. He spent a good portion of his set burbling on about his life, but unlike Louie, he wasn't finding funny things in his life to talk about, or at least putting a funny spin on anything. He talked to the audience, picking out people near the front - which is to be expected (and that's why I like to sit near the back!) - but he chose a couple and made them both extremely uncomfortable, and not in a funny way. While he was talking, I was wondering when the comedy was going to start, but it never did.
Prior to his set, he'd spent some time connecting his (pretty cool) musical instrument to the speaker system ...
We will just have a brief interlude to appreciate this musical instrument. It's called a Qchord and looks something like this -
... so I assumed his set would be full of comedy songs. But it wasn't. He talked for too long about his unfunny life, then made members of the audience really uncomfortable, then then said that the song he was about to play would be the end of his set. It was Disappointing Towel. I hadn't found the song that funny or clever the first time I heard it. Hearing it live did not change my opinion.
I could have listened to John and Louie for a lot longer, and cancelled Gareth completely. He was an extremely disappointing (towel) end to a really good night.
READER
Page 154 of The Twelve Topsy-Turvy, Very Messy Days of Christmas by James Patterson and Tad Safran.
Read The True Story of Good King Wenceslas or What Really Happened - A Christmas Extravaganza by Edna Baker
Listened to CD5 of I Wanna Be Yours by John Cooper Clarke.
WRITE EVERY DAY
FITNESS
15 minutes of hooping.
CRAFT
GOOD HABITS
Teeth.
Mail.
50 squats.
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