The line-up tonight includes an excellent acoustic solo set from local star Lawrie Duckworth to a small and largely inattentive audience in the downstairs bar.
It features his own idiosyncratic take on some standards, plus some even more entertaining and original compositions of his own. And all completely free!
Upstairs, the evening opens with compere Adam Beardsmore, who is bouncy and energetic, with much banter with the audience, though not a great deal of his own material.
A pattern which continues somewhat with the first act up, Tania Edwards, a laconic Londoner who gives the impression that she’s not trying very hard, mic in one hand, bottle in the other, making sardonic comments in a slightly whiny tone about her husband and her marriage.
This plus more audience banter, including a rather peevish attack on an audience member for eating crisps (though her closing story of the man who wants sex with tights on gives an agreeable frisson of weirdness).
Then it’s back to Mr Beardsmore. The grilling of the audience by this time has reached such a pitch that it feels more like group therapy than a comedy gig.
Thankfully, David Hoare does rather less of this and rather more of his trademark very witty, darkly comic and very, very short, guitar-accompanied silly songs – of which he is the undoubted master.
Nick Page headlines the evening, going without preamble into an expertly-delivered set which moves seamlessly between an unwarranted attack on dogs, bemoaning the burden of wives and kids, graphic details of aged sperm in the effort to achieve pregnancy, what happens with a twisted testicle, and lots more.
The affected jaundiced tone is pitched just right, the timing is faultless, and the result is riotous hilarity, with an audience response at a suitably high volume.
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Reviewer: John Christopher Wood | Star rating: ***
