The Clapham Grand turned out to be a very grand setting for this show. We managed to get near the front of the queue, and so were lucky enough to get on of the few tables at the front of the stage. (Many more were stuck up in the balcony in normal seats.) As it was we had a "light box" round table, all very swish.
The programme The World Stands Up was being recorded for Paramount, so it's highly likely that there'll be some shots of me and Caz in there.
The MC for the evening was Hal Cruttenden though he wasn't actually being recorded himself. I don't know whether its was with the amount of time he spent on the stage warming us up or not, but certainly he probably got the biggest laughs of the evening. His natural voice is very close to Tony Blairs, slightly camp middle class. He made some very good jokes using this, without being overly political.
Rhod Gilbert - I got tickets for this, then found out Rhod was on the bill, so as you can imagine I was quite excited. When seats came free next to us we tried to persuade one of the production crew to get Rhod to sit next to us. We failed.
Anyway Rhod had the difficult job of being first on, before there was lots of beer consumage. It took a few acts for the crowd to really get going.
Stephen K Amos - I like Stephen. It was interesting to watch the audience following his jokes. He does a similar trick to Mark Watson, in that he begins his act using an accent. Some of us have seen him before and know that he is from London, but it was clear a large portion of this audience had not.
Susan Murray - Of the two women on the bill she was the better one. (Not difficult.) Though possibly the more noticebly nervous, her material needs some work. Rampant Rabbit material really is a no-no.
Alistair Barrie - Not looking anything like the picture on this link; he's shaved his hair off and grown a ginger beard. He was definitely one of the better comics on tonight. I'm keen to see him again in a proper comedy club environment.
Marc Theobald - After getting over the initial facial hair shock this guy was ok. This is the beginning of the onslaught of Americans and Canadians. It's a shame they didn't try to split the UK ones up a bit. It might have helped with the comedy fatigue which started about here for me. (The hangover from the night before was niggling away. And let's face it, this is a Sunday night, I was shattered.)
Jennifer Robertson - A canadian, who from what I can tell from the net, is known there for her comedy. I'm afraid she died on her arse here. She failed to change the Canadian references in her jokes; which had it just been the odd one would have been ok. But she was referencing things we neither knew nor could work out, and when it's a punchline that's a problem.
Sinck - smartly dressed with suit and hat, he was once a teacher apparently. He didn't seem to like kids much, so that's worrying...
And finally we had Seán Cullen - He's like a larger, less pretty, Canadian version of Noel Fielding. Mental, mad, surreal ramblings, with the need to occasionally put some into song. One time member of Corky and the Juice Pigs. Where as fellow Corky Phil Nichol has gone on to be known as the angry party animal of the comedy world, it seems Sean will forever be known as the Only Gay Eskimo. I enjoyed his set, but I can see he lost some of the audience due to his madness, and I don't think they knew who he was.
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