A comedy night in aid of Friends of the Earth, this fast-moving show was jam-packed with talent. A cleverly varied programme featured established and up-and-coming talent in a series of user-friendly mini-sets.
Co-Producer of the show, Dan Antopolski showed off his sketch group, Jigsaw, who specialise in fresh, modern one-gag scenes. Expect to see them on radio and TV soon.
Stewart Lee and Richard Herring (nice to see them on the same bill albeit in different halves) played relaxed, confident sets; Lee as the darker, more saturnine character, Herring the erudite scholar who likes to play the buffoon, gleefully selling knob gags from his stand up show, ‘Talking Cock’.
Compere and Jack Black lookie-likey, Charlie Baker, kept it all moving with a light touch. It was noticeable how few acts directly referenced the environmental theme of the night. The only global warming joke came from Ed Byrne who played with the giant Polar Bear head on stage and wittily segued into his act from there.
Baby-faced Josh Widdicombe is a likeable observational comic and Danny Bhoy, fresh from Live at the Apollo, did an intelligent set about cultural differences. Newcomer Tiffany Stevenson was darker and sharper than her winning routine on an ITV talent show. Only Vikki Stone’s comic songs, while well performed, didn’t really bring much that was new to an area well-worn by Tim Minchin and Victoria Wood.
The most political act of the night was probably comic Francesca Martinez who has cerebral palsy. There was sympathy as she was led onto the stage. Yet she quickly flipped our preconceptions about disability with her warm yet direct style.
Tony Law, a kind of Eddie-Izzard-on-acid, closed the show, a master technician of the surreal, riding wave after wave of laughter created by his non-sequiturs, strange voices and sudden conceptual leaps.
With this starry lot behind them, the polar bears might be around a little while longer.
