Hasan Al Habib Archives - The Real Chrisparkle

The Northampton Comedy Festival continues courtesy of those nice people at the Comedy Crate with another Work in Progress show, featuring Nathan Caton and Hasan Al-Habib in the cosy and intimate setting of The Lab. The venue only seats 35, so it’s a comfortable way of getting a really good comedy vibe without massive queues for the bar or loos at the interval. Win win.

Our first hour was spent in the company of Hasan Al-Habib, who’s preparing his Edinburgh show Stuck in the Middle (East) with You, on at the Pleasance Courtyard from 5 to 30 August. It’s a very funny title, and Hasan is a very funny man; warm, engaging and setting up an instant rapport with the crowd. Sporting an Iraq football World Cup t-shirt, his material for his new show has a surprisingly dark side, as it centres on his own domestic situation – in his words, family trauma.

After his parents’ divorce, Hasan’s homelife was dominated by his mother and his overbearing (also vicious) aunt. This is the story of how a cruel, uncontrollable influence in the household can be injurious to your health – both mental and physical. Sounds gloomy, doesn’t it? It isn’t, as Hasan has loads of comic observations en route, from his French-Iranian girlfriend to oncology, enhanced by his great gift for character voices which bring all his stories to life. He needs to polish up the funny side for the darker second part of his show, and give it a stronger conclusion, but I’m sure it’ll be in tip-top condition come August. That is, after all, the point of a work in progress show!

He’s also part of a second Edinburgh show, together with Aisha Amanduri, called 2 Muslim 2 Furious 3: Sharia? I Hardly Know Her! on daily between 6^th and 30^th August at Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, which I’m sure will also be worth checking out.

After the interval we welcomed Nathan Caton, someone we’ve seen many times before, who doesn’t have an Edinburgh show in the offing but is working up some material to take on tour next year. It’s been an astonishing thirteen years since we first saw a young Nathan at a Screaming Blue Murder where he was a breath of fresh air whom we could have watched all night. Now in his forties, he already beginning to feel old (I can tell him, there’s a long way to go yet!) Thus, a lot of his new material is based on feeling old and out of touch, including how on earth did he ever go to nightclubs, and what’s all this pronoun nonsense about? Talking of age, he has some gruellingly funny reminiscences of appearing on P&O ships, has a great solution to the problem of children using social media, and has a novel idea for appearing on Don’t Tell the Bride. He admitted there was no link between any of his ideas, he just wanted to find out what was funny and what wasn’t – but Mr C has such a deft delivery that everything comes across as funny!

A very enjoyable night of WIPs! And there’s plenty more of these to choose from on The Comedy Crate website.

Back at the Comedy Crate and my first time seeing a gig in the upstairs room at V&B in glitzy, cosmopolitan, downtown Northampton. A fun, intimate venue and top quality drinkies! What more could you ask? Well maybe some top quality comedy too, and they had that in abundance.

Our host for the evening was local lad Pete Teckman (I say lad – by the sound of it we both celebrated our 60^th birthdays during Lockdown 1.0). He gets an easy rapport with the audience, and quickly got to know Amber, Joseph and Dan in the front row, as, indeed, we all did. Comedy newbie Amber gradually learned that it’s easy to give too much personal response to the niceties of the comedian on stage; Dan, on the other hand, never really came to terms with this concept. Pete treated us to some excellent material and kept the whole thing going with confidence and nicely turned self-deprecation.

Our first act, someone we’ve seen many times and it’s always a delight, was Mary Bourke; brimming with attitude and always teetering on the edge of comedy disdain, she gave us her hilarious insights into life in Crouch End, dealing with consensual banter, winning the battle over a disabled parking space, and much more. Her timing is always immaculate; she radiates a tiny sense of danger which only adds to the comic frisson of her material. And, may I say, a beautiful use of similes – she’s a terrific wordsmith. A great way to start the night.

Next up, and new to us, was Birmingham’s own Hasan Al-Habib, a young chap with a tremendous range of entertaining voices that he uses to great effect. Most of his material centres on his Arab appearance and heritage, playing on prejudices and cultural differences, which in an inexperienced hand could go awfully wrong, but Hasan nails it perfectly with delicate precision and a keen sense of identifying the funny side in everything.

Our headliner, and someone we’ve only seen in a Zoom gig before (thanks Covid) was President Obonjo, dictator of the Lafta Republic, a brilliant comic creation and a vision in intimidating combats. He is able to both take the rise out of your “typical” African dictator – an Idi Amin crossed with a Bokassa and a bit of Mugabe chucked in for good measure – and also cast a critical eye over current British democracy for comparison. I love the idea that he is based in St Albans, that just seems so bizarre; he also picked out good-natured Jordan in the second row for special “shared race” treatment, which worked superbly. And he quickly identified front-row Dan; I doubt he’ll ever get a visa to visit Lafta.Fearless, challenging, and incredibly funny; I also love the way he occasionally lets the façade drop a little to reveal the real person behind the mask. A tremendous end to a superb night.

It’s always a delight to be able to write up a comedy night that was a winner from start to finish. More Comedy Crate gigs coming up soon, with a new act new material night at Saints Coffee on the 25^th, and a return to V&B on 5^th December, with Roger Monkhouse topping the bill.