Tag Archives: Underground

Review – Screaming Blue Murder, Underground at the Royal and Derngate, Northampton, 25th October 2025

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It’s so great to see Screaming Blue Murder back in rude health in the Underground where it belongs. Sold out too – always rewarding when the start is slightly delayed by staff having to bring in extra chairs. Our genial host Dan Evans was on tippety-top form as he negotiated the slings and arrows of twins Laura and Henry’s joint 40th birthday party outing, with a considerable number of the audience vocally in support of the uninhibited pair. If that wasn’t enough, another lady on the front row said she had a dream about Dan the night before and – let’s just say – he had proved himself to be all man. Well. If that isn’t sexual harassment in the workplace, I don’t know what is. Dan spent most of the show avoiding her gaze or quietly smug about his sexual expertise.

Our first act, new to Northampton but not to us, was Abigoliah Schamaun, someone we’ve seen many times at the Edinburgh Fringe and who always brings a gutsy kick up any proceedings. Ohio’s loss is London’s gain, as Abigoliah gave us her impressions on how an American survives in the UK, including our (apparent) obsession with butter in a sandwich – I mean, it’s what butter was made for, honestly – how sexy an English accent is, and how to deal with fellow Americans on a long train journey. Her comedy is intelligent, relatable, and delightfully teasing. A fantastic start to the evening.

Next up was Toussaint Douglass, who had a great Edinburgh Fringe this year with his Accessible Pigeon Material; successful no doubt because he tried it out at Northampton’s Comedy Crate earlier this summer. No pigeon on Saturday night, just his incredibly funny and recognisable content about being in a relationship for eight years, having an 87-year-old flatmate (his Grandma) and the reasons for his personal ambition to die alone. He has a marvellously disarming style; very engaging and confiding, almost physically cosying up to the audience to get across his comic gems. His beautifully delivered final jokes, about how his bedroom activity can be likened to a football manager, provided the best laughs of the night.

Our headliner was Tony Law, someone who you either “get” or you don’t, and in the past I’ve found that I usually don’t get his surreal and otherworldly humour. But on this occasion, he knocked it out of the park. Brilliant use of props for completely throwaway purposes, and a hilarious use of accents, including a damn fine stab at the bizarre Northampton accent which is like a cross between Cockney and Brummie. His rapport with the audience was exceptional, and we were laughing about his act all the way home.

That was the last Screaming Blue for 2025 but there are already four gigs in 2026 on sale. Can’t wait!

Review – Kae Kurd, What’s O’Kurd, Underground at the Royal and Derngate, Northampton, 17th October 2025

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It’s always exciting to go to a comedy gig and not have a clue about the comedians you’re going to see. Kae Kurd is a new name to me, so I thought I would give him a try and it turns out a large number of the comedy goers of Northampton felt the same! It was great to be part of a truly diverse audience too; all ages, all ethnicities coming together for an evening of fun. More of this please.

But first – Kae Kurd’s support act, the friendly face of Muhsin Yesilada, again new to me, but a perfect choice to start the evening with a swing. Engaging, building a confident rapport with the crowd, he delivered his material in a relaxed and surefooted style, giving every comic observation the time and space it needed to land. He has some excellent sequences concerning dealing with his horrible nephew, and that delicious pleasure you can take when an irritating child doesn’t get everything their own way. When he gently teased some latecomers, who protested their lateness because outside they’d just met Kae Kurd, his instant response was “Me too!” A very enjoyable opening act.

After the interval we welcomed Kae Kurd, another engaging stage presence with a very effective delivery style. He presents his act in quite a static way and comes across as perhaps surprisingly low energy; but his tone is unpredictable, and his material is precise, hard-hitting and frequently goes where angels fear to tread. In a deft way of getting to know the audience – and us getting to know each other – he asks for a cheer if you’re in your 20s, then your 30s, your 40s and 50s. This allows him to chat to random people in those age brackets, voicing his opinions and observations about what people are like as they get older. I had to stay silent, as I presume he has no idea there were 60+ year olds there!

He unashamedly hates (strong word, but bear with me) people in their 20s, for all their modern hang-ups and idiosyncrasies. Being somewhere in his 30s himself, that makes him fit nicely into a niche comedic role of grumpy young man. His observations are telling and funny and remarkably true. Other comedy gems of the night included an account of his time in Zambia avoiding crocodiles and hippos, an exploration of whether Donald Trump would get on with choices of pronouns and how it’s easier to be right wing than left wing. I also loved his imagining how he’d get on talking about mental health issues to his father who fought against Saddam Hussein.

He is very quick witted on stage, with a great ability to remember facts about the audience members which he uses to excellent callback effect. It’s intelligent, thought-provoking comedy that’s always relatable, and I’ll definitely follow his career with interest!

 

Review – Screaming Blue Murder, Underground at the Royal and Derngate, Northampton, 7th June 2025

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It’s been two years since we last saw a Screaming Blue Murder in its natural home – Underground at the Derngate – as that blessed RAAC issue meant the theatre had to close and then slowly reopen bit by bit; the Underground being the last to emerge into the post-apocalyptic daylight. Since then, Screaming Blue has been in the Royal (where it worked pretty well), Lola’s Bar (which was small but not bad) and the deathly hallows of Filmhouse Screen 2 which just kills live comedy stone dead. However, last night’s show was the second to be held in the newly refreshed Underground (and they’ve done a good job of that) and with a very full audience! I can officially confirm that Northampton’s Screaming Blue Murder is back back back and it’s great news.

Of course, it wouldn’t be Screaming Blue without the cheeky delivery and shiny head of our genial host, Dan Evans, finding out all about the more prominent audience members. There was the Trade Union official from the GMB, which sadly has few boilermakers amongst its membership anymore, taciturn David from Glasgow, Alex the Ping Pong king who supplies both Bangkok and the Olympics – all aspects of its usage covered – and the party who met through the Simon de Senlis school. What a knight. Great work from Dan, and I trust he had a sound sleep at the Dunstable Travelodge.

First up, and in a change from the advertised programme, was the manic unpredictability of Paul Pirie, someone who’s graced the Screaming Blue stage many times before. In a comparison that’s both complimentary and alarming, he does remind me of the late Robin Williams, not only in appearance, but also in his tendency to go off on weird tangents peppered with sound effects. He also has Williams’ ability to be both ecstatically funny and perilously teetering on the edge of a mental crisis. He didn’t limit himself to the stage either, at one point wandering all around the audience. His material does occasionally veer close to where angels fear to tread, but for the most part it worked well!

Our next act was the excellent Wendy Wason, who delivers recognisable Mum material straight from the heart, with some hilarious domestic observations resulting from having three kids. There were painful memories of home schooling during the pandemic, and reflections on how sobriety wasn’t big in those days; I loved the idea that rosé is a “driving wine”. She also has some excellent material about her rather caring son finding out about periods. Always terrifically entertaining.

Our headliner was Matt Green, who always comes across as someone inherently polite, charming and thoughtful but with a naughty sting to his tail. He regaled us with stories of family life, including the dangers of subscribing to TikTok; but he was particularly good with his assessment of Trump as a toddler, and how brilliantly Keir Starmer played him in that terrifying Oval Office scenario. After the high energy of the two previous acts, Mr Green has a much more measured and conversational approach, but it fits well with his material and appearance, and he ended the evening on a high for everyone.

That was the last Screaming Blue of the Spring season – hopefully now it’s back in the Underground it will go from strength to strength when it returns in the autumn!

Review – Screaming Blue Murder, Underground at the Derngate, Northampton, 26th May 2023

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Time for another rip-roaring Screaming Blue Murder at the Royal and Derngate, and this episode was a particularly fun-packed one. Our host, the usually genial Dan Evans was on fire with his barbed ripostes with the front rows, creating a fabulous mood for us all to enjoy the evening. Although he did have to find wriggle room when he discovered that front row Lisa was a kick boxer; all the belts, all the dans. We also had the pleasure of vicariously meeting 29 year old Claire from France (who was not really from France and probably wasn’t 29 either) and David at the front who clearly has such a huge personal charisma that he can’t bring his legs together.

Our first act, and someone we’ve seen many times before, was Paul Ricketts; a very safe pair of hands who takes the audience on a journey of age discovery – a lot of his material is based on comparing the behaviours of the old and the young. He has some nice material about internet porn, and I recognised his memories of the porn fairy who, in the old days, would litter the woods with torn scraps of the stuff. Happy days. His routine was interrupted by a glorious moment when a woman at the back of the room clearly and assertively told a chap who was on his phone to go outside to make his call, which he did sheepishly, much to the massive admiration of the entire audience. A good start to the evening.

Next up, and someone else we’ve seen before, was Eleanor Tiernan. Naturally funny, with a nice blend of confidence and self-deprecation, she has some lovely observations about being Irish in London, and how nice it is when you end up crying for no reason and no one cares. I loved her stuff about what happens when an American performer is on stage in Dublin and says it’s great to be back in the UK; and she has some very funny material about going down a speculum size. Brisk, self-assured, and warmly chatty, she gave us a great set.

Our headliner for the evening, and someone we’ve never seen before but I have heard a lot about, was Addy van der Borgh; another naturally funny guy and gifted physical comedian, who instantly drives us into hysterics with comments about the way he looks. Full of fresh new material, he does a marvellous routine about how you age and don’t see it yourself, but the world sees you very differently; the sequence about giving a cheeky smile to a young lady and what she sees back is just brilliant. I also loved the idea of anthropomorphising a bottle of wine – naughty Monsieur Merlot, the perfect accompaniment to a tin of spaghetti ‘oops. He had us all in the palm of his hand – we loved every minute of it.

Another Screaming Blue Murder comes along in June – you spoil us, Mister Ambassador!

Review – Tom Houghton, Absolute Shambles, Underground at the Derngate, Northampton, 1st April 2023

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I remember when Tez Ilyas came to Northampton for a gig and within the first five minutes he’d mistaken the town for Peterborough (not a good move) and said that we didn’t have any cricket clubs here (an even worse move). Fortunately we were a kindly bunch and forgave him, but only after we insisted on a grovelling apology.

Tom Houghton started his show last Saturday in a similarly winning fashion. Good evening Nottingham! he yelled from off stage, which was met with the appropriate level of jeering. I think it was a genuine error. If he starts all his gigs with mislocating himself for comic effect it could be a very risky business. Fortunately Northampton and Nottingham are not known for any local rivalries – primarily because they’re not remotely local to each other.

Perhaps Absolute Shambles isn’t a bad name for the show, because he also proceeded to tell us that normally he would have a support act on first to warm us all up – but, basically, he forgot to book one. Thus his support act was – Tom Houghton! No problem, of course, because The Honourable Tom has got more material than you cram into a wardrobe, so he started off by looking for posh people in the audience. Nobody confessed; but in the interval there were conversations about how I wasn’t going to mention I went to private school and nor was I, too perilous an admission to make.

Tom saw through us though, and worked out who the posh people were – including the four sixteen-year-old girls in the third row who came in for a lot of gentle jibing. Tom’s big thing is his posh background, having only recently moved out of the family home in The Tower of London. But lockdown affected both the rich man in his castle and the poor man at his gate, and we got a little insight into the fact that his mental health suffered during those dark days of 2020. Other nuggets that he shared with us included a surprisingly lucrative sideline in selling pictures of his feet to foot fetishists, and his experience as being part of the reality TV programme The Circle.

He has a warm and likeable persona which endears him to the audience, so even when he’s being very cheeky with us – and occasionally rather insulting! – we still lap it up. The show runs at a good pace and, even if it occasionally feels slightly aimless and wandering, there’s always lots to enjoy and plenty of belly laughs to be had. And there’s no doubt, he is an extremely safe pair of hands, and the total master of the art of the callback. The show was sold out, but Mr H is returning to Nottingham, I mean Northampton, to do it all again on 30th June – this time in the Royal Theatre. Recommended!

Review – Screaming Blue Murder, Underground at the Derngate, Northampton, 24th March 2023

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Second comedy gig of the week, and back in the familiar environment of the Underground at the Royal and Derngate. Our genial host was, as usual, Dan Evans, mining his comic brain for witty rejoinders with the front rows of the audience. This week they included Chris the Floor Fitter, the staff from the Pytchley pub in West Haddon, and a battle of wits to gauge whether or not an MA in Counselling would beat a PhD in Cancer Research – we basically decided the PhD would always win. Dan on terrific form as per usual.

For the second time this week, all the acts were new to us, which is fairly extraordinary given the number of comedy gigs we’ve been to over the years! First up was Kelli! Taylor – the exclamation mark is a vital part of her name, rather like the musical Oklahoma! – a delightful character spoof of a hair stylist from Hull, whose salon is called Hair Body Her Choice. Kelli! takes us into her confidence as she backstabs about all her clients, from the tissue paper thin skin of the elderly to the vajazzling of the more daring. It’s the comedy of bitchiness and gossip, and it works very well. It maybe took a little while for the Northampton audience to cotton on to how the act was going to work, but once we got there, we all really enjoyed it. Very clever!

Our middle act was Amir Khoshsokhan, a quietly lugubrious chap who delivers his material with care and forethought but with a hugely wicked twinkle in his eye. He’s another of these supremely gifted and brave comics who adopt a slow pace but with such authority that no one thinks of heckling. Extremely funny material, with a re-enactment of a conversation with his (now) ex-girlfriend about going out late, a lovely sequence regarding sex role play (Gerald and Vivienne) – which leads to tremendous callback later, and the trials and tribulations of being a failed vegetarian. He had us in the palm of his hand and we all loved him. Definitely One To Watch.

Headlining was Stephen Grant, an ebullient fellow who bounds onto the stage enthusiastically and gets down to work with energy and likeability. He’s got a quick brain and terrific verbal dexterity, and I loved how he took some easily recognised and well-known topics, like IVF, or marital breakdown, and toppled them on their heads with fresh and funny new material that inevitably all ties up nicely at the end. He has great material about his natural tendency to pedantry, and closed with a superb sequence about how you can sum up a person and their age from their first name – thank third row Graham for that contribution. Savagely inventive with hecklers too! He was the perfect end to an already great night of comedy.

Three shows so far this year, and each one a sell-out. Screaming Blue Murder is on a roll! Next one is on 28th April – and it’s already sold out!

Review – Rob Auton, The Crowd Show – Underground at the Derngate, Northampton, 3rd March 2023

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Wasn’t it Barbra Streisand who said, and I think it was, People – People who need people – are the luckiest people in the world…. I’m sure that’s an attitude that Rob Auton would 100% get behind. It’s a sentiment that always reminds me of a great Tommy Cooper line: A friend in need… is a pest, get rid of him.

If anyone treads the thinnest of lines between stand-up comedy and spoken word, it’s Rob Auton. We saw him at the Royal and Derngate four years ago with his Talk Show, which I described at the time as an intelligent, thoughtful and emotional hour’s comedy. Since then, not only have we had the Covid pandemic and a plethora of Prime Ministers, but also the return of Rob Auton with his Crowd Show. And, guess what? It’s another evening of intelligent, thoughtful and emotional comedy. I guess I didn’t really expect him to change.

As before, the gentlest of first halves brings Rob to the stage, delighted to be performing again, and genuinely thrilled (I really don’t think he’s pretending) to meet the good Burgers of Northampton on a Friday night out out. He quickly elicits which of us have seen him before (a good third, I would estimate) and he’s chuffed that we’ve returned. Front row John had already seen his Crowd Show in Edinburgh, and Rob is gobsmacked that he’s come back for a second helping. He’s easily distracted by sweet-rustlings; he has to investigate the nature of the individual sweet concerned (Maltesers). He has a well-prepared riposte for the guy who leaves shortly before the interval, assuming he couldn’t wait to nip to the Gents; but in fact he’d gone to place a wine order for the interval. Pinot; although he never clarified if it was noir or grigio. The riposte was, therefore, inappropriate and not used.

I’m going into this kind of detail about the audience behaviour, by the way, because Rob himself takes a lot of time considering what his individual audience members get up to during the show. He sees it as a shared experience; what the audience does is just as vital to the nature of the performance as what he does. And he’s right; before the second half starts, a chap from the back of the crowd runs up and places a box of Maltesers on the stage. It’s all integrated.

Meanwhile, back to the show. Mr A takes us on a journey through his career to date; how he moved from advertising to performing, initially via the medium of poetry, through all his one-man Shows, to where he is today. He remembers aspects of those performances, his content and his intentions with each. It’s a cross between Rob Auton’s Greatest Hits and This is Your Life.

He returns after the interval as a heckler for his own show, sitting at the back calling for it to start, setting up a chant of We Want Rob! which he naturally obliges by eventually returning. The Crowd Show, as such, starts. It’s based on a Google search regarding advice on Speaking To A Crowd Of People (which is what he’s doing). A mangled file of papers in his hand, to which he apparently frequently refers, he goes through the list of individual pieces of advice one by one, showing how he is conforming to Google’s suggestions. It’s charming, frequently funny – although rarely belly-laugh inducing – and strangely reflective. He also plays some games with us; it’s a way of cementing the bond between audience and performer that probably works best when the audience is fully behind the idea. I’m not entirely sure we were.

Rob Auton has an almost unique ability to tell a universal truth in a quiet but winning way. As an example, he remembers an occasion where he saw his (then) fiancé at a distance texting someone and looking really happy to be doing so. Whoever it is she is texting must mean a lot to her, he thinks internally. And then he receives her text and realises it is he of whom she is thinking lovingly. And that’s a perfect, simple, totally natural moment of sheer joy.

I must be honest though – The Crowd Show didn’t fully engage me in the same way that The Talk Show did; whether it was due to his sticking rigidly to the structure of the Google Advice throughout the hour, or whether his observations and thoughts weren’t quite so revelatory, I’m not certain. He’s drawing very near the end of his tour, but no doubt he’ll be back with more reflective emotion soon!

Review – Screaming Blue Murder, Underground at the Derngate, Northampton, 24th February 2023

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Another massive night of comedy with yet another full house at the Screaming Blue Murder club at the Royal and Derngate, with daredevil host Dan Evans on top form coping with another unlikely bunch of customers. Every other person in the two front rows appeared to be a police officer, which made for a curious dynamic. Or, if they weren’t police, they were charity workers. Fortunately they all had good senses of humour!

Our first act – and the only one we’d seen before – was Otiz Cannelloni, whose act has a rather old-fashioned music hall/variety feel to it, but it’s none the worse for that – in fact, there’s probably too little of that around nowadays. He has a cunning blend of comedy and magic – and a charming rabbit to assist him with some of his tricks – and lots of silly comic throwaway lines. He’s a great example of if ain’t broke, don’t fix it, as his act was pretty much the same as before, but the material works really well, so why not?

Next up was Kat Geborys – who, probably quite wisely, shortens it to Kat to make it simpler for the rest of us. I was going to call her Proudly Polish, but in fact she doesn’t seem to have much complimentary to say about her native country – perhaps doing the slightly xenophobic material so that we don’t have to think it for ourselves; Poland is a country that she maintains (allegedly) can’t distinguish between being gay from being a paedophile, for instance. A lot of her act centres on her being – shall we say – sexually frank and direct, and there’s a lot of good material there. She has excellent timing, a fun stage presence and went down well with the audience.

Our headliner was Adam Bloom, a comic who’s been around for some time and it’s criminal that we haven’t seen him before – and we’ve missed a lot. Cleverly self-deprecating about his appearance, he delivers his excellent material with sure fire confidence; a mixture of traditional kids/marriage/divorce type observations and some more daring stuff – I really enjoyed his sequence about virtual reality sex. Great use of callbacks, and he ends his act with a very successful round of you give me a subject and I’ll give you a joke about it. A great end to a terrific evening.

Next Screaming Blue Murder is on 24th March and – guess what – it’s sold out again!

Review – Screaming Blue Murder, Underground at the Royal and Derngate, Northampton, 27th January 2023

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A big welcome back to Screaming Blue Murder and their first gig of the year which had sold out well in advance. An unusual vibe this time – although quite a refreshing one – in that there were approximately 20 17- and 18-year-olds from Northampton School for Boys (who were mostly girls, and I still haven’t quite figured that out) populating the front rows. Fortunately, they threw themselves whole-heartedly into the proceedings, and (mostly) laughed their socks off all night.

This presented an interesting challenge to our regular genial host, Dan Evans, who quickly got them splitting their sides. It’s true – he suggested that all the older people would be looking at fresh-faced 17-year-old Joshua, purely with the intent of harvesting his organs. Guilty as charged. It wasn’t all kiddiwinks though, with poor Mark on his own in the front row surrounded by students, plus good sport Rob, vehicle salesman Ash and his mental health nurse wife whose name I’ve forgotten, soz.

First up was Iszi Lawrence, whom we’ve seen a couple of times before at Screaming Blue Murders – she always has great material, but it sometimes takes an audience a while to settle into her pattern. She has a lovely sequence about coming out as bi to her mum, and I did like the material about how she acquired her cat, grotesque sound effects and all. She gets carried away with the subject of dinosaurs, which she admits to herself isn’t funny but can be fascinating – if you’re also into dinosaurs. One of the lads from Northampton School for Boys was definitely into dinosaurs and was agreeing demonstrably with her. As for the rest of us… I’m not sure the dino material works really!

Next was someone new to us, Jamie D’Souza, a quirky mix of Swiss and Indian (Swindian – not from Swindon, it’s not that bad, as he said.) Immaculately funny, with a perfectly structured routine, beautifully chosen words revealing a true feel for the language, and absolutely superb timing. His whole performance is one big act of self-deprecation and it works brilliantly. So many clever throwaway lines, and he leads you up a garden path to expect an ending to a joke which turns out to be something completely different. I particularly loved his material about being hopeless and inexperienced at sex, and the idea of making “old person noises” when he sits down. Terrific – and someone we would definitely want to see again.

Our headliner, and someone who’s always an invigorating presence, was the musical comedy genius of Jonny Awsum. Uplifting, inclusive and very, very funny, he jumps from comedy song to comedy song and each one is a delight. I particularly liked his Humming Song, and he got Rob from the audience up to help him with his Rapping Rhymes sequence, which was brilliant. There’s also a song with a chorus involving a well-known TV chef; I just wonder if Mr Awsum realises the said chef died over three years ago. I guess it doesn’t matter!

A great night’s entertainment – looking forward to the next one in February; check for returns, as it’s already sold out!

Review – Screaming Blue Murder, Underground at the Derngate, Northampton, 17th September 2022

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I expected sadly to have to sit out all this autumn’s Screaming Blue Murders as they had been changed to Saturday nights, and Mrs Chrisparkle and my Saturday nights book up very early. However, a last minute change of plan meant that we could go, so hurrah for that. And, despite the fact that this season’s Screaming Blues have been strangely omitted from the printed brochure, it was a sell-out, so they’re obviously all doing something right.

And it was a delight as always to be welcomed and entertained by the one and only Mr Dan Evans, who had his work cut out from the start by front row Shirley from Wootton, who was definitely up for a spot of interaction. We also met laid-back Sonny, Architect Andy and wise-cracking Ian. Dan did absolutely the right thing by starting the evening off with a heartfelt round of applause for Her Late Majesty – it’s always difficult to gauge the right level of respect, especially with something that’s frequently as disrespectful as a comedy gig! But it was the perfect way to recognise the official mourning period. He could then proceed with his usual brand of cheeky chatting with the audience.

First on stage was Robert White – a true Screaming Blue regular; I worked out that this was the seventh time we’ve seen him here. Now a Britain’s Got Talent alumnus, he has the special trick of being Asperges, gay and totally lacking in inhibition. With his trusty keyboard he can whack out any number of comedy songs about any number of audience members. Despite trying hard, he didn’t manage to discover any other gays in the audience, but it didn’t stop him from delivering some classic Robert White embarrassment songs and interactions. Whether or not we weren’t quite sufficiently warmed up I’m not sure, or whether it’s that he’s normally headlining or at least second in the bill, but his material didn’t always land quite so surely as it normally does. But then, with many people feeling the loss of Her Majesty, perhaps this wasn’t surprising.

Next up was Naomi Cooper, whom we’d seen four years ago, and she’s much more sure-footed with her material and delivery than she was then. She has enjoyable routines about being a “slut” (her description) and dealing with her mother. There’s no one single outstanding aspect to her act, but she sets up a nice rapport with the audience and there were lots of good laughs.

Our headliner, and another act we’ve seen several times, was Christian Reilly, master of the comedy guitar parody/pastiche. With his perky straw Stetson he gives the impression of being a country and western wild boy, and his Bruce Springsteen always goes down a storm – although my favourite of the night is his idiotically brilliant Bryan Ferry. It feels effortless, although I bet it isn’t, and the audience roared their approval. A brilliant way to end the night.

The next Screaming Blue is scheduled for next Saturday and includes the brilliant Russell Hicks – gutted that we can’t be there, but you should go!