Review – Screaming Blue Murder, Derngate, Northampton, 13th May 2011

The last SBM was cancelled, and it’s been a full month since our last comedy night! So it was a welcome return to our usual Friday fun extravaganza. A new commere too! Debra-Jane Appleby. I thought she was perhaps a little nervous to start with, but she needn’t have been as she had an endearing personality and some cracking good lines which she used nicely with the audience, so we were good and warm for the first act.

And this was Wil Hodgson. Oh dear. I’m afraid I didn’t get the joke. He has no interaction with the audience whatsoever. I can see that his routine kind of requires him not to, but the first thing that happened when he started was that an attractive young lady from the front row got up and walked out – presumably to the loo or the bar. He didn’t remark on it, even though she virtually walked within 6 inches of him. And when she returned he didn’t mention it then either. He is the only comic we have seen who wouldn’t have taken this golden opportunity to bond with the audience. His routine is all about wry observations about the characters in his home town of Chippenham. I’m afraid they weren’t very interesting. And I am alas the wrong age to understand the concept of comparing people with Care Bears. Never mind.

Second was Loretta Maine. A fantastic comic creation by character comic Pippa Evans. Loretta is a mascara running bunny boiler, who uses her guitar playing as a weapon against men and whose routine was a laugh a second. Much of her humour was incredibly sick, delightfully so. She interacted splendidly with the men in the audience, and her songs were great. Happily see her again!

Last up was Yianni (Agisilaou), an Australian comic of Greek origin, extremely funny and with a very warm personality. The kind of person you like to like. Too much good stuff in his routine to repeat here, but he has a terrific interaction with the audience; Mrs Chrisparkle was brought up in Australia, and so much of his humour struck a chord with her. Another comic we would definitely watch out for.