Ellis James is a natural stand-up comedian. Calm, free and easy on stage, he dominates the space without overbearing the crowd. At least a smile was found in every corner of the auditorium following every joke and some moved the crowd to shameless whoops of laughter.
The atmosphere in the Pleasance Baby Grand was palpable throughout the performance and is testament James' style that each spectator was constantly engaged. His nonchalant and likeable delivery suited the material, as nothing probed near the hit or miss realms of offense or shock. He held our attention for the whole hour with stories about Welsh GNVQ's and tea towels; It wasn’t exactly pushing the boundaries of stand up comedy but each joke landed nicely.
Predominantly a story-teller, he narrates how he wants to switch to observational comedy. Some of the observational material needs a little work but the laughs came thick and fast. Some stories were hard to believe and had rather sensationalised punch lines and this a criticism that can be applied to a lot of the material in the show. He carried them off to secure rapturous laughter though he might not with a more discerning, hard-nosed crowd.
James is a stand up comedian to look out for in Fringes to come, possessing all the technique of a stand up great; now he just needs to tweak his material to match.
