This was my first visit to Jongleurs
and although they didn't have as many acts as the five on view at
The Comedy Store I attended three weeks previously, it was still a damn
good night.
The compere was Andre Vincent, who began with an old favourite of being
separated from a partner/wife and the trials that brings, but always made any
topic interesting. He also threw in a one-liner, first asking if anyone had to
go to work tomorrow, it being a Saturday. A few people said they did. He told
them they should phone up to get out of it and just say they're "sick". When
their bosses ask how sick they are, you reply, "Well, I'm in bed with my
sister..."
Of the acts, first up was Anthony King (above right), a name I'd never heard of before, but one
who made a good impression, with an act largely based around the premise of
taking the simple things in life and twisting them on their side, often with
a sick twist. An example soundclip of his performance can be
found
here.
The second act in the first half was half-English, half-German musical maestro
Rainer Hersch, who has appeared as a guest on a few Radio 2 comedy shows
including Jammin', hosted by Rowland Rivron; and to say that Rainer
was as mad as a hatter was an understatement. A fair proportion of the act
involved a lot of shouting and manic behaviour, but all of it encapsulating.
Highlights of his act included comparing his newly-bought diggerydoo with the
attachment for a vacuum cleaner, to find that they sound exactly the same but
that the former cost him £100 more as well as a 12,000-mile round trip,
he played a section of Carl Orff's Carmina Burana (the "Old Spice" advert
music, to most of us) but with his interpretation of the lyrics; and, using
his electronic keyboard, kept referring back to a version of Left Bank 2,
the upbeat music used in the "Gallery" section of Take Hart and then,
in a distinctly non-PC mode, told us how "we're sorry, but we cannot return
your pictures", in the style of the deaf bloke who used to sound exactly
the same on the programme nearly 20 years ago. The way that gag instantly
transported you back through time was quite astonishing.
The third and final act was ex-Big Breakfast co-host and host of Channel 4's
student gameshow Dicing With Debt, Paul Tonkinson (right). I'd never thought
of him being as funny as he turned out to be on the night, but as well as
containing life's observations, he also interacted very well with the audience.
Before his act was over we'd learned that a guy to his left was part of the
group for a girl's hen night, came from (whispered) "Rotherham" and worked as
an urban designer, "designing urbans", naturally. A heckler from afar, who asked
Paul when he was going to start being funny, was swiftly and expertly dealt
with and, when heckled, a girl from the table in front of the stage offered
up her handbag for him to hold up and "Oooooo--oh!", a la Shooting
Stars.
Since he hailed from Yorkshire and was performing in Manchester, he compared
the two brilliantly and took the piss out of the Manc scallys you try to avoid
when you're out and about, sucking in his cheeks to emulate the drugged-up
prats who scuffle about in that way.
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