Late Night Laughs is a simple compilation of stand-ups, tonight held together by the bizarrely attired MC Paul Sweeney. The guest performers of this show – up and coming and very promising new faces of comedy – are rotated each night, but with only a handful of the same faces appearing regularly over the course of the Fringe run.
The first of these to greet the audience was BBC New Comedy Award winner Angela Barnes, a familiar face from BBC3’s Russell Howard’s Good News. Barnes began her set asking inane questions of the audience which initially didn’t bode well. However, when she settled into her own material she proved relatable, likeable and hugely entertaining, with a very self-deprecating style that completely won over the audience, most of whom followed her stand-up with a permanent smile. Her subject matter ranged from her fashion sense, her dating struggles and walks of shame (or ‘parades of triumph’ as she called it) wearing a gold bridesmaids dress on the early morning bus. Very funny stuff.
The following act, television presenter Ellie Taylor, had an equally ingenious range of material, in which she dismembered her friend’s inane facebook picture captions and discussed the difficulty of waking her boyfriend up accidentally-on-purpose in order to continue an argument with him. Like Barnes, Taylor provides jokes that are perfectly relatable and finds cause for hilarity in the most prosaic of scenarios.
The final act was twenty year old newcomer Patrick Morris, who immediately identified the thought running collectively through the audience’s mind: ‘Yes, a few of you are wondering – what is a child doing up on stage?’ No less funny than his more senior colleagues however, Morris delighted the audience discussing his misadventures on nights out and why he now hated clubbing. There were moments where you wondered whether he’d perhaps been watching a bit too much of Michael Mcintyre, as some resembling jokes and styles cropped up in his performance. Nonetheless, this did not make it any less funny and he has plenty of time to carve out his own niche in comedy.
Overall, while not side-splittingly funny, this is certainly one of the better and most professional stand up shows at this year’s Fringe and definitely worth a try if you fancy some charming and light hearted comic relief.
