Tag Archives: Benny Shakes

Review – The Comedy Crate present the British Comedian of the Year, Northampton Heat, Cheyne Walk Club, Northampton, 29th October 2026

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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.

Review – The Comedy Crate presents British Comedian of the Year Northampton Heat, Cheyne Walk Club, Northampton, 18th September 2025

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The British Comedian of the Year contest is always an exciting event and it’s a privilege that one of the heats is held in Northampton, courtesy of those nice people at The Comedy Crate. This year in the hallowed chambers of the Cheyne Walk Club, nine hopefuls girded their loins with the prospect of being one of two acts chosen by the audience to progress to the next round.

Introduced by the upbeat and ebullient Ian Hayes, the nine acts were broken into chunks of three, with an interval between acts three and four, and between six and seven. After the final act had performed there was an online vote (oooh) and everyone could choose their two favourites.

First off was Sam Coade, who hit the ground running with some excellent routines and some quite off-beat and daring material. It’s impressive how he can carry a silence without concern – something many comedians rarely risk trying – and it worked well to build an understanding of his material. I loved the ambulance driver routine, and his throwaway icebreaker with the audience member on stage was audaciously hilarious.

Rob Coleman followed; we’d seen him once before at the Leicester Comedy Festival in 2018, and his material is still very much in the same vein – using his older looks, grumpy disposition and mad professor hair as a vehicle for convincing us he’s a sex symbol. It’s the comedy of irony, and you either like it or you don’t.

Before the first interval came Benny Shakes; and I’m sure that’s not his real surname. An imposing stage presence, he uses the fact that he has cerebral palsy to excellent comic effect, with an effective delivery, strong punchlines and some very nice callbacks. Very likeable and funny, he brought the first section of the night to a very happy conclusion.

Act number four was Dudley’s own Danny Clives, an unassuming, self-effacing stage presence and someone who uses a “one of life’s losers” persona, which is always risky but Danny nails it, with excellent timing and some clever material. He went down very well with the audience.

Next was Ryan Kenny, with probably the most surreal act of the night. Comic, poet and an element of clown thrown in, his set is very well crafted and executed, and very original, where he basically performs his material twice because he wasn’t happy with it the first time. There’s a lot of talent here; in my opinion, he just needs to make it funnier somehow. But it’s very inventive and entertaining, nonetheless.

Sarah Johnson came next, with some delightfully ribald material and some very funny observations about family life. I felt that she never quite hit her stride, but her description of menopausal symptoms and side effects gave rise to probably the best line of the night.

Our final cluster started with Norwegian Henning Nilsen, with some good material on what it’s like to be a Scandi abroad, why Norway is better than Sweden, and what would have happened if the Vikings had won. He has a solid delivery and confident style, and I think in time he will become a force to be reckoned with.

Our penultimate act, and someone we’ve seen a couple of times, was Peter Brush, another exponent of the “life loser” persona, but with expert, controlled delivery, and material that always ends with a powerful and very funny punchline. Perhaps his stories take a little too long to get to those punchlines, but they’re always worth the wait.

And finishing us off, so to speak, was Rik Goodman, who cuts a rather mysterious and aloof figure on stage, and who quietly builds his material up over the course of the act. Very nicely and subtly self-deprecating, and with very confident delivery, his content did seem rather fixated on penis size, which I think is something most of us can only take so far. Rather like with Mr Coleman earlier, this is something that either works for you or doesn’t.

Then came the voting! An easy to operate app simply asked for the audience’s top two acts – you didn’t have to nominate them in first or second place. And the results came through very quickly. In third place was Benny Shakes, and there was a tie for first place between Sam Coade and Danny Clives. Personally, I only voted for one of those three, but I feel it’s a very fair result; and good luck to Sam and Danny when they go on to fight again in the later stages of the competition!