David Ephgrave enters the room in an endearing manner, commanding the audience’s attention with music and his upbeat persona. If his name sounds familiar, it might be because he is the rear end of the comedy duo, Doggett and Ephgrave - a duo whose talent he promptly assures the audience of: “We’re not shit- If you remember nothing else from this morning, remember that, write it down!” he hurriedly explained.
Ephgrave is an undoubtedly likeable guy and this can be seen in his set
The hour-long standup performance is accompanied by a corny KeyNote presentation - complete with nostalgic early 2000s-style transitions, blurry graphics, and even a bit of photoshop. The images correspond with the jokes as he transitions smoothly from subliminal trust issues with his wife, to the practicality of the bumbag (“poor man’s cummerbund”), to fast food frustrations and shared-toilet catastrophes - think Hurricane Katie.
Ephgrave hails from Stevenage, where you can find him waiting on the High Street on Google Maps - he despairingly jokes, “trust me to be immortalized in a shit locaiton.” He recalls several anecdotes and warnings of public ignorance, from upsetting experiences with the local racist taxi driver to misused bike traffic signals appearing concerningly like Nazi salutes. While most of his material - and his best material - could be considered family-friendly, there are sexual references scattered throughout the show and a bit of humor seems to be lost on the audience in some of the grittier and gorier bum-and-toilet talk.
As well as a comedian Ephgrave is an actor, musician, and blogger: a self-described “pauper.” Ephgrave does a surprisingly good job of weaving these other talents into his show in an interesting way. In the hour-long set, he incorporates a few hilarious mimings, impressions, and even shows off his vocal talents by managing to hold a tough note for a whopping fourteen seconds. If that wasn’t enough, he even brought props to the show, to further accompany the slideshow he’s made.
He talks rapidly and chattily, making fun of his own stutters and stumbles. When a woman in the audience’s struggle opening a bag of crisps distracts the room, he takes the opportunity to re-grasp our attention by joking with her and helping her open the bag before the rustling noise in the room reminds the midday crowd that they haven’t had lunch yet. Overall, Ephgrave is an undoubtedly likeable guy and this can be seen in his set – while the material isn’t groundbreaking or stitch-provoking, it will keep you smiling and giggling more than your usual noontime break.
