Reviewing a comedy night is difficult when you find you don’t have a sense of humour. It is even more so when you are shy and are told, as you settle down at the front, that the comedians like to “interact” with the audience.
This was the case at the George’s regular stand-up comedy night on Friday March 3. The upstairs function was full to capacity and laid out ballroom style like a wedding reception, as one of the comedians would later remark.
The evening was compered by Andy Stedman, who told us he was the warm-up act. Most of his act was observational, mostly by picking on members of the audience and when that fell flat he swiftly passed the mic to West Midlands comic Karen Bayley.
While I think the word brassy is overused, this “brassy Brummie” took no prisoners. She was confident and controlled the crowd but her jokes were often close to the bone and not the sort of material for one’s aged aunt Muriel, unless she too is a like-minded cougar that preys on younger men.
The two acts were split by an interval and a small portion of paella – for the lucky ones. A vegetarian portion for one of our party failed to arrive and on enquiry we were told not enough food had been prepared – with no alternative offered. That’s not a good way to start the second act, which was Brixton-born Andre Vincent.
Andre’s approach is described by the online review site Chortle as “happiest bouncing off the audience in his cheeky, market trader type way”, which is true but it is a bit repetitive when the other two comedians used the same approach. It was even more so when all three picked on the same individual just because he was young. Even though Andre was the headline act he seemed more uncomfortable and nervous than Karen, who’s act came off better out of the two.
The best part of the evening for me was retiring downstairs to the bar at the George. On hearing that the vegetarian paella had failed to materialise, one of the barmen surprised the table with a plate of freshly made sandwiches. That was a really nice touch that lifted what could have been a disappointing evening.
Photo: The George Hotel
Sounds dreadful. 25 years ago I used to go to the Banana comedy club in Balham, London and was lucky enough to see many comedians who are now household names at the start of their careers. I guess this is what still prompts people to go to these evenings: a chance to see genius in the making; obviously this cannot happen every time and didn’t on this night; however it is good that places like the George try and bring something different to the town and give people a chance to try out something they would normally have to travel to Brighton or London to experience: hope it will be a better evening next time.