Good to see the Comedy Club back in the Sosh, after yet another Covid-induced absence.
A bit of a hiatus tonight: headline act Arthur Smith has had to cancel, due to a serious accident to an elderly family member. Comedy supremo Nick Steel has had to scrabble around to find a last-minute replacement, and locates one currently on a gig in Clevedon. Will he arrive in time? We get tracking reports as the evening progresses. Gives an air of slight tension to the show; admirably handled by Nick who fills in by retailing some of Arthur Smith’s ancient gags.
First comic on the bill is Andrew White, a young man from Salisbury with a keen line in charity shop cardigans, a sparkling (literally) example of which he is wearing. This leads to a routine about charity shops, preferably ones in wealthy towns (Bath, for instance) and his predilection for ones run by elderly women who have no idea of pricing. As he points out, charity shops are something of a niche comedy area, but he gets plenty of laughs out of it; and what it’s like to be gay in Salisbury, a town stuck somewhere in the 1970s. He has an interesting theory too, about the real culprit of the Salisbury poisonings. It involves pizza. ‘Nuff said. Nicely delivered and witty stuff.
Next up is David Hoare, who has an even more niche, possibly unique, comedy approach: which is one-liner songs. What? Yes, he plays a mean guitar, and does lots of really clever, very funny left-field songs, none of which last much more than 30 seconds, usually much less – and much fast-fire and witty audience banter, too. High-energy, beautifully timed comedy expertise that has the crowd roaring throughout.
Finally, our emergency comic Justin Panks arrives, and does not disappoint. He bounds onstage and launches full-on into class warfare, mercilessly taking the piss out of posh Bath from his avowedly working-class point of view. None of this is malicious, mind, and his take on family life, parenting, sex, the failings of young people, the problems or otherwise of genital area shaving, and much more are delivered with supreme confidence and unfailing hilarity.
A great end to what had seemed at first a problematic evening.
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Reviewer: John Christopher Wood | Star rating: ****
