Review by Mike Thorpe of teamfishcake.co.uk, and Ashley Frieze.
MT: Jason 'Entertainment'
Cooke kicked the night off with his character 'Johnny Machine' as an experiment.
In my brutally honest opinion, it was a bit too weird. I like strange stuff, acts that push
the boundaries, but his bizarre masked character was just lost on the crowd. He started to
flounder a bit towards the end, and didn't really get much of a reception from the audience.
There were one or two moments where he got big laughs, but not enough. One thing though,
they'll certainly remember him Sainsbury's. Still, Jason's got plenty of other characters to
play around with, I know he's capable of bringing the house down, so maybe it just wasn't the
right night for Mr Machine.
AF: Johnny Machine - Jason Cooke doing a Dada-inspired character. Sadly this lost the
audience almost entirely (though kept their attention), which was down to two things. Firstly,
Jason didn't seem to have the conviction to take it to its absolute extremes - he occasionally
dropped into simpler gags to try to raise laughs. Secondly, not all of the ideas were big enough
for the audience. Some of the weird stuff just looked like a guy trying to be weird, rather than
being genuinely mind-bending; some of the gags were plain groaners, which didn't fit the character.
The proof of the potential of this character was when he offered to go to Sainsbury's (in character) to buy something for someone in the audience. Then they could see the comic potential - a character like that, outside the confines of a comedy club - that could really be funny. Big respect to Jason for carrying through this bizarre mission to buy cider.
MT: Seymour Mace was next.
He filled in at the last moment due to one of the other open spots pulling out, trying out some
new material. Seymour has the ability to make people laugh just by looking at them. Some cracking
new stuff, as crazy as ever. What I like about Seymour is that every time I see his act, he
always seems to have a large amount of new material. Fantastic.
AF: Toby brought on Seymour as a replacement for a missing open spot. Seymour just IS funny. There's no doubt about it - he got laughs from observing that someone on a photograph "doesn't look like that any more" and from describing a nearby noodle bar. Seymour tried out some new material which was well received and brought the audience to big laughs and applause. Despite trying to play down his ending they cheered him as he left the stage.
MT: The next act was Geoff Taylor.
I don't think I've ever seen Geoff quite so hyped up as he was last night. I think he managed
to squeeze about 30 minutes of material into a 10-15 minute set! Rapidly bouncing back and forthfrom one topic to the next, he was a bundle of energy. The crowd soon warmed to him, and he managed
to get away some wonderfully sick material.
AF: Seymour is a hard act to follow, and Geoff is a very solid act to take on that task. It took a while for him to get started with the audience. This was, in part, caused by his lack of conviction for his opening line - the Milky Bars and some of the material for which he's received criticism (to hell with the critics - do your thing!). Geoff is an intelligent comedian, who weaves a coherent picture of the crazy world he's bringing his children into, while simultaneously laughing at the dark side of it. He's very likeable on stage and can get away with a hell of a lot with his cheeky squeakiness. Last night was not the best I've seen him, though. It's important to catch theaudience's attention early on, especially late into a section, otherwise they can get restless and less certain that what you're about to say is worth keeping quiet for. Geoff struggled with the audience, after a few opening lines about decor, changing rooms, and Iraq, failed to hit them. He won through in the end, but he had to work for it.
MT: For me, the act of the night was
Dominic Woodward. From the moment
he stepped on stage he had the audience's full attention. They loved him. Confident, natural and most
importantly, funny. Nob gags and political jokes in one set. You can't beat that.
AF: After a break it was the turn of Dom Woodward. Dom was definitely the man of the match for me. Also gifted with a higher pitched voice, this man chirps and pecks at the world and coaxes an ocean of giggles from the crowd. He has some cracking gags and his on-stage persona is so much fun that you can feel the entire audience grinning from start to finish. His choice of subject matter is wide and varied and his hit-rate was pretty much 100%. Indeed, I think it was only Dom and Seymour who managed to keep the audience reacting throughout the entirety of their sets. Dom, did an extended set and it flew by. Those are The Gags.
MT: Hils Barker closed the night
with a great set. Possibly a bit short, but that didn't matter. You can tell why she's got a show on
Radio 4, fantastic comedy which appeals to people with different tastes, yet manages to avoid falling
into the trap of watering down her material. She's sharp and witty, and comes across on stage as being
a genuinely nice person. It's impossible to dislike her.
AF: Hils gets better every time I see her, and I'm always impressed by her ability to get theaudience to like her and laugh along with her cynical, yet charming, and always intelligent, view of the world. Her spoken material was very well thought out and she ended in song. Hils didn't have an easy time of it up there - part of this came down to taking her jokes a little beyond the point where the audience was laughing, part of this came from a few half-hitters and the rest may be down to the energy levels of a smaller audience in a big room at the end of a long night. There was no doubt that the audience loved her and that she's excellent on stage - in time she'll be able to make a lot more of the headline spot at Malarkey's.