There are two possible reasons why Angela Barnes and Matt Richardson are sharing a stand-up show: a) they’re friends; or b) they both attribute a lot of material to their mums.
Richardson opens the show, spending the first half hour showing off to his mates with all the outrageous stuff he’s learnt about sex, or hilarious things his mum has done. His stories don’t break any new ground but they would keep a classroom of teenage boys entertained during a rainy break time. Richardson stays just on the safe side of crude by presenting his tales and observations in a tremendously likeable manner. His natural warmth instantly puts the audience at ease and there’s a very friendly atmosphere in the room from the start.
Richardson really shines when it comes to interacting with the audience; he has an expert wit and a talent for laid back conversation. Unfortunately once this source of inspiration runs dry he seems to lack a solid supply of material to fall back on, the result being a rather low key set sparsely dotted with well thought out and clever observations. Richardson is clearly a talented guy but for the time being he should maybe stick to a tight ten minutes on the way to double Physics.
The second half of the show belongs to Angela Barnes. She’s comfortable on stage and hugely amiable, and has real substance to back it up. Barnes’s comedy is stronger than Richardson’s and it would make sense for her to take more than half of the stage time. She’s delightfully snide and her great strength is for sarcastic and sometimes slightly bitter observations and anecdotes about her hometown, her childhood and her parents, delivered with a subtle fondness.
Whilst her subject matter isn’t revolutionary, Barnes presents witty and well structured jokes in amongst a wealth of entertaining and sometimes poignant stories that leave the audience feeling they’ve spent a pleasant evening in a pub with a close friend. As such, even when one or two of the jokes fall flat it barely matters. Barnes continues confidently and it’s like it never happened.
This show is a great chance to catch two acts you’ll probably be seeing a lot more of in the near future. However, it would benefit from two changes: a) giving more of the stage time to Barnes and b) a quick cameo from their mums. It sounds like they’d bring the house down.
