A welcome return of the Comedy Club at the Sosh.
This evening’s offerings to the nicely-spaced and Covid-safe audience: first up is Bilal Zafar with a very laid-back set in which he chats amiably with the punters about his not wanting to miss his train back to London, whether London is better than Bath, how nice it is to be back on stage in front of an appreciative audience, what he’s been up to lately, getting his nose straightened, and an occasional joke thrown in. A gentle start to the evening.
Alex Kitson is decidedly not laid-back, attacking the crowd with lots fast-fire chat about what it’s like being a Jew from Devon, which some seem to find as a sort of contradiction in terms. Are Jews not supposed to be farmers? Much more along those lines; and Kitson also has a deadly accurate way with an innuendo, which is probably what got him the prize for best joke in the recent Comedy Festival.
Eva Bindeman’s set centred on how her given name is not Eva, but Margaret, and what a burden being called Margaret can be. Not a thing you would imagine forming much of a basis for a set, but Bindeman very much knows what she is doing, and in and among many great stories from her career as a nanny, finishes with a killer Margaret-related gag. Top stuff
Nick Page, the headline act, finishes the evening with a virtuoso display of professional comedy skill. This man is a peerless raconteur in what seems like a seamless monologue about his life as a comic, as a husband, as a father; and about his cod-jaundiced views about all aspects of society – but the act is peppered with myriad gags, all delivered with millisecond-perfect timing, and the laughter is non-stop throughout.
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Reviewer: John Christopher Wood | Star rating: ****
