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Usually,
performers pick The Ivy Bush just along the street as their venue
of choice. H's Bar on the Hagley Road in Edgbaston is a cosy modern
bar and not really suitable for a stand-up show.
As
we approached H's Bar, the gathered throng was spilling out onto
the pavement, partly because it was so busy people were hanging
from the rafters and partly because of the heat.
Ryan
Gough
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| Ryan
Gough |
Our
compere for the evening was a burly-looking Brummie who compared
himself to Shrek. His giant frame had trouble squeezing onto the
stage and he repeatedly bashed his head on the mirrorball.
Despite
the humidity, Ryan made valiant attempts to whip the crowd into
shape and encourage participation. "Come on, you're not watching
the telly!"
Dan
Smith
Baby-faced
Dan bowled onto the stage, knocking over the mic. His skull-and-crossbones
T-shirt served to counter his "face like Macaulay Culkin".
Despite a mostly comatose crowd, he was totally at ease and proceeded
to poke fun at Dudley, Big Brother and Trisha guests.
Christian
Clark
Christian
began in time-honoured fashion by explaining the way he looks. His
cerebral palsy though, he continued, is great for getting parking
spaces anywhere he likes. The rest of his set went straight over
my head as I'd not seen the Van Damme film he was referring to.
In
the first interval, Ryan asked for suggestions for his joke-writing
challenge. We were supposed to come up with something about Sven-Goran
Eriksson and lightning. The eventual winner of the competition wrote
a joke about snowmen. Hmm.
Craig
Deeley
Edinburgh
Festival-bound Craig was by far the neatest dressed - he looked
like he'd neatly ironed his crisp black shirt. The uniform for the
others appeared to be T-shirt, jeans and sneakers.
He
followed the trend of being rude about where he's from (this time,
Handsworth) and then rambled through a collection of bizarre anecdotes
about family members, aeroplane trips, men in changing rooms and
being gay.
His
15 minutes were over far too quickly. I'd be interested to see where
Craig goes given more time.
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| Okse |
Okse
Half-Chinese
Okse's initial gags about his mum's ineptitude for computers struck
a chord with me. There followed several 80s references which I enjoyed
but sadly some of the audience were perhaps just five years too
old?
The
highlight of his act was the impromptu 'human beatbox' and rapping
in response to the sound guy fiddling with the audio. The startled
audience responded with applause.
After
his set, Okse shook hands with two men in the crowd who he's been
a bit cheeky to. There was no hard feeling at all, but this gesture
was rather sweet.
Andy
White
Andy
immediately looks like a comedian - all crazy patterned shirt and
gangly limbs. You could spot him a mile off among the crowd - he's
pretty tall anyway and the Jackson 5 'fro makes him even more lofty.
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| Andy
White on stage |
I practically
rolled on the floor with Andy's comments about the Mailbox. Tannoy:
"Working class people! Please leave and go to Merry Hill!"
Andy
has the knack for shooting down hecklers. One chap kept talking
and made absolutely no sense. "I'm sorry," Andy said.
"You seem to have mistaken my act for a conversation."
Things
took a turn for the worst after Andy's hilarious spiel about how
his wife's family reacted to "having a black man in the family".
It was all a bit confusing but a tussle with the soundman resulted
in a rather ugly situation and an unplugging of the mics.
Andy
wailed, "I haven't finished yet!" And we didn't want him
to finish either! Thankfully, Andy managed to carry on and the audience
were treated to his bizarre impression of Rolf Harris doing something
rude to Louis Armstrong.
New
venue?
It
appears unlikely that Hilarious will return to this particular venue
but it's a great concept: smallish bars, professional crowd and
a fiver for five acts - bargain.
And
it was great to see that Birmingham has many emerging talents in
comedy. The next Hilarious night in Birmingham will be on Wednesday
1 September 2004. Venue TBC!
Written
by Suzanne Worthington
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