An exciting new competition has opened in the heart of the city; for one week only, every night from the 24th to the 31st July, there will be a raucous gathering of stand-up comedy from the newest and brightest stars of Yorkshire, culminating in a grand final on the 2nd August. Tonight was the first round of heats and, judging by the standard, this competition is certainly not going to disappoint.
Whilst only one comedian went through to the next round - big congratulations there to Joby Mageean for his confident delivery and easygoing style - there were several who stood out as highly commendable, and with talk of a ‘wildcard’ entry I wouldn't be surprised to see more than one of them in the final next week.
Navigating through the evening was compere Amy Gledhill, whose loud and playful energy kept the momentum running from act to act. With the help of party poppers and 90's rave anthems she set up the night as it meant to go on. Featuring ten acts over two hours, there was a lot to take in - without the concluding recap from Gledhill, featuring key words such as “incestuous Darth Vader” or “homeless chicken nuggets”, it would have been difficult to keep track of which gag belonged to which set. This was an environment to try out new material, and whilst some pieces were not as successful as others there was never a feeling of awkwardness or tension.
Whilst only one comedian went through to the next round - big congratulations there to Joby Mageean for his confident delivery and easygoing style - there were several who stood out as highly commendable, and with talk of a ‘wildcard’ entry I wouldn't be surprised to see more than one of them in the final next week. As well as the winning act from Mageean, particular praise goes to Tom King’s bizarre and brilliant lecture-cum-sermon on the merits of Bovril, as well as - to continue the culinary theme - Dom Hodgson’s achievement of starting his own Twitter trend on the back of a single #steakbakeselfie in Greggs. Standing out from the solo artists was comic trio Sketchy Theatre, who encapsulated all the awkwardness of a wedding gone wrong and won the award for Highest Frequency of Offensive Words In 270 Seconds.
This event presents a fantastic opportunity to see and support the roots of original comedy in Yorkshire, and hopefully there will be many more opportunities in the future to watch these roots grow.
