By my reckoning, this is the fifth time that Northampton has played host to a preliminary heat of the British Comedian of the Year competition, with the eventual winner scooping the £10,001 prize (I know). Eight wannabe hopefuls battled it out with the prospect of being one of the two top-ranking of the evening to go on to the next stage. And who decides who those two will be? Why, the audience, obvs, with the aid of a QR code and a voting site. Long gone are the days of answers on the back of a postcard.
Our MC for the evening was the likeable, confident and devilishly quick-witted Deane Dixon-Foster, a dab-hand with crowd work who kept proceedings moving at a cracking pace and who I think could be One to Watch for the future. He explained we would have three acts then an interval, another three acts and another interval, followed by two more acts and the voting. Jackie at the back couldn’t quite grasp the maths, but it all fell into place as the show progressed.
Ten minutes or so isn’t long for an act to establish themselves with an audience and show the range of their artistry, but each of our eight performers acquitted themselves brilliantly, and it was probably the best overall quality of any of these competition nights I’ve seen so far. We started off with Luke Harrower, asexual in a tropical shirt, who attacked his nicely self-deprecating material like a man possessed; some great lines and a powerful start to the show. Then came Michael McKenzie, an NHS doctor by day and comedian by night, bringing his disability – he only has one leg – fully into his material with some bold and very funny content. An early contender! Before the first interval we next had Mark Row, a Milton Keynes teacher whom we’ve seen at Edinburgh in the past, with some quick-fire observations about teaching, kids, and other exasperating activities. He was on particularly good form.
After the interval we welcomed Benny Shakes, who came third at last year’s heat. Incorporating his cerebral palsy into his material, he uses his naturally slow delivery to create elegantly written jokes, frequently taking us where angels fear to tread with his material and being extremely funny in the process. Next up we had Sang Don Park, a South Korean who uses his ethnicity and appearance to create some fantastic routines. Self-confessed too podgy for K-Pop, instead he’s also a gifted beatboxer, so has an additional range of non-verbal comedy sound effects that work very well. He’s someone else who I would like to see more of in the future. The second section concluded with Sydney May, another act who used her disability (blindness) to terrific comic effect, with some occasionally challenging but always very funny material.
After the second interval we had our final two acts. Andy Gleeks, whom we saw hosting a Comedy Crate night at the Malt Shovel earlier in the year, was a last-minute replacement and knocked it out of the park, with some hilarious observations from his perspective as an Irish Catholic teaching English to the English. A totally safe pair of hands, he’s an asset to any comedy stage. Our final act was Jacob Nussey, whom we’d seen in the very same venue two years ago, work-in-progressing his Edinburgh show. His deceptively calm delivery style and wry stage authority bring a fresh innovation to the comedy scene, and he went down a storm.
Then it was time for the voting. Thanks to the glory of the Internet, it doesn’t take long to count the numbers, and our two successful artistes were (in no particular order) Andy Gleeks and Jacob Nussey, with Sang Don Park coming in a very creditable third. Good luck to Andy and Jacob as they face the next stage, and kudos to the Comedy Crate and Cheyne Walk Club for hosting such a fun evening.