Three for Free is a fun and friendly showcase of new acts, featuring Alex Kealy and Patrick Morris, plus a special guest every day.
First up on this occasion is Kealy, whose set doesn’t illicit a continuous string of laughter from the audience. However, the jokes that do get a good response are hugely funny. He’s a very interesting person to listen to as well, so a lack of devastatingly funny material doesn’t seem like much of a problem – when the audience isn’t laughing they’re still hanging on his every word.
The second act is their special guest of the day, Tim Schneider, who bursts onstage with confidence and has the crowd chuckling when he’s barely said anything beyond ‘Hello.’ A lot of the content of his set is very much in teenage boy territory, but his approach to the subjects of girlfriends and male anatomy is quite clever and he’s just about strong enough to carry it off. He has a good rapport with the audience and, as with Kealy, any material that falls flat doesn’t create an awkward atmosphere. He moves along smoothly and a few seconds later it’s like it never happened.
Finally Patrick Morris takes to the stage. It’s a bit disorientating because up to this point he’s been compering and all of a sudden he’s passing the baton to Kealy, who introduces him and leaves after a quick few seconds. Ideally they’d have an extra person to compere but if that’s not possible they should maybe consider simply having each act introduce the next comedian. At the moment the short bursts of compering are almost redundant anyway – in fact, having seen Morris twice so far and not been overly impressed, it seems a strange choice to have him on last. As it happens, he’s the most impressive of the three. His material isn’t overly innovative but he’s bold, rather sarcastic and refreshingly silly.
This show is far from perfect but it’s enjoyable and energetic from start to finish. If that doesn’t tempt you, please be aware that you might get a free Jaffa cake.
