Lloyd Griffith and Matt Rees delivered a wonderful hour of comedy and, surprisingly, excellent vocals on behalf of Griffith. Chortling away, the audience were treated to their top notch banter and excellently delivered gags.
Griffith in particular was absolutely outstanding. His material was a mix of personal stories and audience interaction, making light of his ‘trucker’ physique and woe-begotten footballer dreams. Don’t feel sorry for Griffith, though; he has a voice that would delight choirs of angels and make flowers grow in winter. Generally a very funny man, he’s the kind of guy you would want as the hilarious one in your friend group. He easily manipulated and adapted to the audience exactly as he needed to, making sure we all laughed and gasped on cue. The stunned silence at his shockingly good voice was perhaps my favourite, and most unexpected, part.
Matt Rees was pretty good too, although his comedy was perhaps a little cruder and not quite as intelligent in content as Griffith’s. On the whole, he was very funny particularly when telling personal stories about his hometown, because who doesn’t enjoy a quiet jibe at Wales? I did cringe a bit at some of his material though, it did push my boundary of what’s socially acceptable to talk about. That’s fair to say of most comedy of course, but I feel it verged on purely crude rather than witty. I did spend a good chunk of his half hour slot laughing and that was having seen him once before already. Impressive.
As far as free comedy goes this Fringe, Griff Rees Jokes is a gem that shouldn’t go unseen. Both comedians are, in short, hilarious – exactly how comedians should be. Griffith’s jaw-dropping voice was an added bonus that no one was expecting, a wonderful extra sparkle to their show.
