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Latest items? Unedited? Fringe Report Uncut
The Comedy Club
Verdict: Stand-up comedy
London - Storm - 27 June 05 - 20:30 (22:00)
The Comedy Club presents one of a set of Monday fortnightly gigs, tonight featuring John Ryan, Rudi Lickwood, and compere Kevin McCarthy.
Anyone not liking swearing might put in the Muffles for Kevin McCarthy - his act is fuck-heavy. Kevin McCarthy looks aimiably podgy, middle-aged, balding with grey hair, glasses, grey beard, black short-sleeved shirt, light green chinos, blue trainers, grey beard, East London/Kent voice (usually saying 'fuck/ing/ed') - like an off-duty Father Christmas from Eastenders.
It's a night of national stereotying, and a pair in the audience from Miami and Lebanon get labelled as drug-dealers. They don't seem to mind, or at least they don't leave. A couple of Italians laugh at their turn of receiving generalisations, and leave at the interval. There are some deft jokes about empty chairs in the audience. It's good-natured and self-deprecatory stuff, and Kevin McCarthy's friendly charm integrates the audience in an un-threatening way.
John Ryan lowers the fuck-count dramatically - it's an expletive-free zone. He's rotund-ish with centrally-mounted paunch, short reddish tufty hair - like a plump Tin-Tin; grey short-sleeved shirt outside dark blue flannel trousers; there's a big chunky watch on his left wrist; small round black eyes peep out from his face like hot holes in the snow; his voice is gentle East London - Hackney, he says; his mode is friendly(ish) attack.
John Ryan's act tonight is mainly class- and country-based. Piss is taken out of a 'posh' boy in the front, a South African is teased; he does a lot of accents, plays with national stereotypes, mentions his Irish background. He's confident, and ditches the mic to talk direct to the audience. The set covers Americans crashing at roundabouts, Saddam Hussein, the thieving habits of South Londoners, British & American trains, alien space ships landing in Britain, characteristics of people from Middlesborough, Prime Minister Blair, Lebanon, Israel. He pitches a risky joke to the Lebanese audience-member about Hezbollah gardeners, and slithers out artfully from underneath as it crash-lands. He does an audience-participation sketch with Christine from South Africa inspecting the testicles of Mike from London (using fruit). It's affectionate (with a hint of threat) comedy from an engaging and hyper-intelligent performer.
Kevin McCarthy opens the second half with a couple of good wanking jokes including 'She's worth a J Arthur, I could Artex my outside toilet' and gets Patrick up on stage, a reporter from the Ilford Recorder who's already borne a salvo of Ilford-related type-casting. Together they do a joke involving a bread-roll, a tea towel, and a fake penis.
Rudi Lickwood has a thin moustache on his top lip; very short haircut; track-suit bottom, big white-striped sleeveless flak-jacket over black vest; gold necklace; bracelet on right arm, watch on left; big voice; South London accent; holds a water-bottle, which progressively takes over the act.
Rudi Lickwood moves in on the pair from South Africa. Looks like they're going to have to answer for Apartheid when they were expecting an evening of comedy, but he pulls the punch. Tonight's set includes weed, abdominisers, farting, girls who don't fart, women who want to fart, farting noises, farts that are more than farts, traffic wardens in South London, life as a luxury cruise-ship entertainer ('Toilet paper was 6-ply - it was like wiping my arse with a duvet'), homosexuality, easyJet, British West Indian Airways (Beewee), his Jamaican blood, that he's 42 and a grandparent, parents are South American with Ghanaian ancestry, happy slapping, political correctness, mobile phones, racism, 'my child's nativity play - it was shit' - it's a wide-ranging set. At first he's holding a water bottle, then starts to take small sips from it; gradually more often, until it's pretty much punctuating the end of each joke. Perhaps it's nervousness, but unfortunately it distracts attention from what he's saying. It's intriguing material, and Rudi Lickwood's engaging rapport is a delight.
It's a light and generally friendly night of comedy, probably pitched at a mainstream/tourist audience because it takes place in a venue in Leicester Square. John Ryan comments in his act about AltCom - 'It used to be called Alternative Comedy. Now it's called Bollocks'. But much of tonight's show is firmly rooted in the traits of AltCom (rather than telling jokes) - picking on the audience and working up the act from them; and observations from life.
Cast Credits: Rudi Lickwood. John Ryan. MC - Kevin McCarthy.
Company Credits: Box Office - Richard Franklin. Comic Voice Management (Corporate and Cruising) - Matthew Willets. Producer - Ian Franklin. Press - Carl Hill. Company - The Comedy Club.
END
John Park
reviewed 27 June 05 / Storm Club, Leicester Square
Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2012
www.fringereport.com
