Shaggers

Shaggers’ premise is simple: a couple of comedians make sex-related jokes. For the right kind of person, in the right kind of (probably well-lubricated) mood, it promises raunchy, unpretentious entertainment. It’s the kind of show that brings out the heckler in everyone: indeed, it’s almost unfair to review the performance I saw. One utterly soused audience-member, whom I will call Kiara, felt inspired to interject after almost every line. In the event this proved to be a blessing in disguise, as ripostes to Kiara’s occasionally decipherable comments earned some of the loudest laughs of the show.

Most of the sets include some solid jokes and a couple that fell flat, as you’d expect from a group presumably testing out jokes for their own shows.

They comedians are a diverse bunch. It was good to see Nancy Clench (“Scotland’s Biggest Drag Queen — Literally”) on the generally homogenous comedy scene. His set includes an unexpected segment on apter words for fisting, which has already made me look at Pringles differently. Steve N. Allen, who’s worked in radio, begins with a hilarious demonstration of “ that voice” and continues with a Demetri Martin-esque use of diagrams: there are a couple of long set-ups, but it pays off in the end. Katrina Vrana dispenses advice in some of her jokes. Women like sex just as much as men, she says, but they do not want to see pictures of disembodied cocks.

Most of the sets include some solid jokes and a couple that fell flat, as you’d expect from a group presumably testing out jokes for their own shows. But Shaggers is free, and it’s not a bad way to start the night.