Review – Comedy Crate Thursday Night at the Charles Bradlaugh, Northampton, 8th February 2024

Posted on February 9, 2024 by therealchrisparkle

It’s another regular Thursday night at the Bradlaugh and a full house to boot, which always oomphs the atmosphere up a bit. For this month’s extravaganza those nice people at the Comedy Crate booked a terrific line up of comedians, two of which we’d seen before and two whose faces were as fresh as daisies (to us, anyway.)

Our host for the evening was Tom Toal, whom we last saw in the very same venue eleven months ago providing the very same service! And he’s a true master of the art. As well as getting to know key members of the audience, such as the two M&S food auditors (nice work if you can get it), reticent front row James, pirate Tariq and university lecturer Marco, he also told us about his unexpected new best friend and the joys of seeing women’s football at Charlton Athletic. A very safe pair of hands, he kept the evening moving at an excellent pace and contributed much more to our enjoyment than your average MC.

We hit the ground running on a total high with our first act, Lindsey Santoro, who never fails to delight with her bold but completely recognisable material. She’s one of those comedians who tackles those areas where angels fear to tread – why she is a failed lesbian, everything you wanted to know about breast feeding but were afraid to ask, and ending with a riotous sequence about smear tests. Her great trick is to appeal directly to the women in the audience with her choice of topics, whilst never alienating the men because it’s all so understandable and relatable. She has an immensely likeable stage presence and kicked the night off like a dream.

Our second act, and new to us, was Jack Skipper; very well-known, I understand, in TikTok circles, which is something of which I know nothing. He has a great story about being recognised from his online work whilst doing his old day job of carpet fitting – one of the best in Croydon and its environs, according to Trustpilot. He has an easy way about him and is very engaging with his entertaining material, including his plans to take revenge on his children in the future, and he’s excellent when relating the highs and lows of co-existing with his workmates. I thought that perhaps his set could have been a little more finely structured so that he ended it on a high; the last five minutes or so just slowed down to a gently ambling conclusion. But there’s a lot of great material there.

Our headliner, and also new to us, was Dan Tiernan; and if you enjoy your comedy with a laid back, relaxed, sophisticated style, Dan’s not your man. He’s dyspraxic, and not afraid to exploit it for every possible comedic opportunity. As a result, he spends most of his time on stage thumping and jumping around like a naughty ten-year-old who’s had way too much sugar before bedtime; but it does also make you think that maybe that imaginary ten-year-old isn’t really naughty – he has dyspraxia. Lurking behind that frenetic exterior is a wealth of fantastic material and some of his lines are absolute killers – I especially liked his explanation for why watching porn has ruined him. He doesn’t appeal to everyone, but if you like his style, you’ll love his act.

Plenty more Comedy Crate gigs coming up in the next few weeks – sadly, we can’t manage some of them but we’re looking forward to the next Bradlaugh night on 14^th March!

Review – Yet another online zoom comedy gig with the Comedy Crate and Atic – 14th March 2021

Posted on March 15, 2021 by therealchrisparkle

The online comedy gigs courtesy of Zoom, the Comedy Crate and the Atic keep coming on Sunday nights, and last night we enjoyed another great show with top class comics. Our host Ryan Mold kept things fast and punchy – including a quick hello to us at the beginning, where I confused him over the details of my ex-career – it’s not an easy thing to explain in a sentence or two! A lovely introduction to the show included Ryan’s speculation on how Aldi staff get recruited, and what connects Abraham Lincoln to VE Day.

Our first act was the wonderful Darren Walsh, punster supreme, who made terrific use of the technical possibilities offered by Zoom – having seen him before I’d forgotten how much he likes to frame his material with a dash of multi-media. He has such an inventive approach to punning, that sometimes you have to play back his words over in your head to quite work out which bit was the pun! I particularly enjoyed the Whitney Houston moment, the dentist material, the Brady Bunch and the CAPS ON gags. Always a joy, can’t wait to see him live and properly again soon!

Next was Nick Doody, a favourite from many Screaming Blue Murder shows, with some great new and highly topical material. Zoom can make it difficult for a comic who naturally relies on all the things happening around them during the gig, but Mr D didn’t let his enforced isolation get in the way. I really enjoyed all his stuff about leaving a zoom meeting (first time I’ve seen an online call-back work!) and the fact that he can see himself performing. He’s always great value and was excellent as usual.

Our middle act was Dinesh Nathan, new to us; a friendly chap with some clever lockdown material about having to confess you’ve been walking with someone else, and preparing for a zoom call just as you would for meeting in person. I liked his comparisons between his Sri Lankan heritage and his Britishness. He’s a naturally funny guy and I’d like to see him again IRL when we can!

Next came Lindsey Santoro, whom we saw at the Black Prince only last autumn in a Comedy Crate garden gig. She has a wonderfully bubbly and madcap persona, and a no-holds-barred attitude to jokes about sex from all angles (literally). I thoroughly enjoyed her material about the Rock Climbing Wall and the profiteroles line is a great send-off on which to end the act. Her enthusiasm and enjoyment for what she’s doing really comes across to the audience and she encourages us to share in her fun. Hugely entertaining.

Our headline act, and also new to us, was American Dave Fulton, live from his garage as he introduced us to his collectable motorbikes. A lot of his material was pretty near the mental health knuckle, but he always got away with it very nicely – I particularly enjoyed his fantasising about Trump’s death, as well as his observations about life in Newcastle and Blackpool. He also talked about the unexpected aspects of adopting a child of a different race than your own; some incredibly funny observations there. But in the end, it was all about the motorbikes, as one of the audience members couldn’t contain his excitement at Dave’s collection!

It looks like there will be two more Sunday gigs before – heavens forfend! – we might be able to start enjoying proper live comedy nights come April! Here’s the details for the next one!

Review – The Comedy Crate at the Black Prince Northampton – again, 3rd September 2020

Posted on September 4, 2020 by therealchrisparkle

As this wonderful year whirls its merry way into September, a few more live events continue to emerge from the mist. Hurrah that this includes the second visit of The Comedy Crate team to the extensive back garden at the Black Prince pub in Northampton, for another night of comedy. This time Mrs Chrisparkle and I were not only accompanied by Lord and Lady Prosecco, together with heir to the Prosecco estate, Prinz Mark von Köln, but also our friend Dr Eurovision (one of our few friends to have their own nickname and not one supplied by me!) Fortunately the rain decided to give us a break but in any case we would have been protected by that big marquee so your only chance of getting wet is queueing for a beer or a Sauvignon Blanc.

Things started a little late as, by 7pm, scheduled kick-off time, our headline act hadn’t actually left home yet – a mere 90 miles away. Therefore we had a couple of changes, but comedy thrives on the seat of its pants! Our MC for the evening was the irrepressible Archie Maddocks, whom we’ve seen three times before doing spots at the Edinburgh Fringe (ah, Edinburgh Fringe… Où sont les neiges d’antan?) and he’s always terrific fun. He sparked off the punters in the tables closest to the stage (I say stage, I mean patch of grass) and over the course of the evening kept us entertained with his quirky observations including how he resents sharing his name with a member of the Royal Family, the behaviour of his elderly grandad, and a wonderful new take on Toy Story.

Our first act was Lindsey Santoro, a new name to us, a Birmingham lass with pink hair and no inhibitions. She brims with confidence as she regales us with some terrific material, mainly about sex, including a brilliant physical performance of shenanigans in a jacuzzi. Very very funny and she got the evening off to a cracking start.

Next up, and in a change to the advertised programme, was local comic hero Ben Briggs, whom we last saw a few months ago at the Leicester Comedy Festival (let’s hope that comes back next year but I remain doubtful at the moment!) Coaxed back to perform for us with just an hour’s notice, he admitted he was completely unprepared but his natural sense of performance and back catalogue of brilliant material still provided a very funny set of tough-delivered, heavily ironic and biting comedy. He’s in his element when bantering with the crowd and did a terrific job.

Our headline act was Tom Binns, in his alter ego as Hospital DJ supremo Ivan Brackenbury. Although he’s been around for a while and has had a number of TV appearances, we’ve never seen either Mr Binns or Mr Brackenbury before – our bad. He had us in riots of laughter from the very start with his appalling tactless mix of revealing the patients’ embarrassing conditions and then playing a totally inappropriate record for them. But it’s a much more clever – and funny – act than those bare bones might suggest. Like the ghastly love child of Timmy Mallett and Jonathan King, Brackenbury is a brilliant comic creation – totally convincing, terrifically creative, and more excruciating than Matt Hancock defending Tony Abbott. I didn’t want him to stop.