Alex Kealy and Friends promise an hour of humour. The bad news is, Kealy’s not funny. The good news is, his friends are. Granted, the venue is small and the audience even smaller, still, there should be more laughs in an hour of stand-up. Because that’s what it is, a stand-up comedy show, no costumes, scenes or props, just a compère, three comedians and a mic.
Our compère is Rory O’Keeffe, who normally does sketch shows. The evening didn’t start off well, since O’Keeffe didn’t get any laughs out of the crowd, preferring just to ask the audience general questions before introducing the first act. Catriona Knox ran on stage speaking French and grabbed an audience member onstage to converse with, who struggled to understand a word she was saying. Knox delivers her whole set in (fairly easily understandable) French and is quite amusing but doesn’t get anyone roaring with laughter. A few chuckles could be heard though and it’s probably worth checking out her solo show.
Next on stage was Alex Kealy himself. Although likeable, Kealy doesn’t seem to have any prepared material for this set, nor does he actually deliver anything funny to the audience. He looked physically uncomfortable and lost for words, continually pausing to think about what to say next. The audience stayed uncomfortably silent. Fortunately, Matt Rees, our third and final act, came prepared with a list of sufficiently funny jokes. He has a list of topics that he lets the audience pick from and each joke gets most of us laughing. If it weren’t for him then the show would go downhill very quickly after Knox leaves the stage.
It seems strange that the man who names the show after himself doesn’t seem to have any prepared material and is just making it up as he goes along. Additionally, O’Keeffe doesn’t look like he has much experience of being a compère and he probably knows the show wasn’t good, as he thanked the audience for their patience before they leave.
