Its a hard job to get a small, mostly drunken, late night audience on your side. Rob Callaghan and Alexander Bennett, however, managed a difficult crowd well in their show Calpol Flashbacks. When allowed to deliver their material, it is not the best constructed stand-up and there are a few predictable jokes, but it is a funny and enjoyable show.The show takes the form of 15 minutes of stand-up by each performer, loosely based around the theme of embarrassing youth. Between the noisy audience and the shortness of the sets, this theme didn't get explored in great detail but was as good a reference point as any. The short length, just half an hour long, was a surprise given the hour billing the show has in the Fringe guide.Callaghan did a good job of interacting with a not always cooperative (and sometimes far too cooperative) audience. He has a sharp wit and turned some situations which could have degenerated to annoying heckling into humour. For me, however, it was Bennett's material which had the greater comic potential. In particular, a section on paintballing was very well structured and left me wishing the sets were just a bit longer.Not the strongest material but both comedians gave confident and competent performances in an environment where it so easily could have all gone wrong. It takes a brave person to put on free, late-night comedy at the Fringe and these two managed admirably.
