Michael McIntyre – The Comedy Store

Image via Wikipedia

Michael McIntyre hosts the Comedy Road-show Warm Up, an audition process for his show due for released on the BBC later this year. With eight different acts due to perform including Dwayne Perkins, Chris McCausland and Simon Evans, there was a plethora of comedy for the audience to enjoy.

 

This was the first of six warm up sessions at the Comedy Store in Piccadilly Circus for prospective comedians to perform for the chance to be part of Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Road-show, which has been nominated for a BAFTA this year. In such an intimate setting as this, Michael McIntyre had the opportunity to interact with the audience and his improvisation skills are as good as his stand-up is. His material was relevant to the audience and he had the audience laughing from the beginning to the audience.

 

First to perform was Chris Corcoran, who used to be a teacher and a presenter on the children’s channel Cbeebies. Most of his set was concerned with jokes surrounding stag nights and the older in the audience appreciated the comic value of the jokes, however, the lack of diversity in his performance meant that the audience was only laughing some of the time.

The second performer was the Canadian Holly Walsh who was one of the weakest performances of the night. Her clothing was revealing and made her look unprofessional. Her act was concerned with relationships, stereotypes and frequent mention of sex. Some of the material was good but her confidence seemed to let her down and it is doubtful whether she will be performing to large audiences unless she improves.

Next on the agenda was an act that surprised the audience: Angelos Epithemiou, who is a creation of Dan Skinner. The act returned to the traditional slapstick comedy of the old. The audience delighted in Skinner’s creation and his performance was one of the strongest of the night, bantering with the audience (including the comment ‘Not you, you’re a weirdo’) to me. At the end of his performance, the audience gave him rapturous and welcome applause.

The fourth act before the interval was Dwayne Perkins whose set was not unlike Chris Corcoran in making fun of relationships and marriage. His set was diverse and he appealed to a cross-section of the audience. As a black comedian, he has to complete with the success of comedians such as Chris Rock but he held his own and gave an outstanding performance.

After the interval, Chris McCausland came onto the stage and revealed that he was blind. He is one of a few blind comedians in the world but that did not hinder him as his observational comedy picked up on the most amusing of situations, including a woman who got her hair trapped in the tube door and the argument with his girlfriend that started out about a kit-kat and ended up being about feelings. His performance was strong, confident and it was obvious there was more to come from this performer.

The sixth performance of the night was British comedian Rufus Hound whose appearance is more intimidating than his actual jokes. He jokes about marriage, relationships and children. His performance was confident and his jokes connected with the audience but there is the fear that his ‘angel of death’ look might be off-putting to a larger audience.

The seventh and perhaps my favourite act on the night was Simon Evans who chose to dress well in a suit, make jokes about the North, being ‘posh’ and his small eyes. There was no fear with this comedian as he rattled off joke after joke and it kept the audience laughing throughout. With such a strong performance from him, he should be a contender for a place on McIntyre’s show.

The final act of the night was another Canadian called Craig Campbell who dressed for the occasion as he made jokes about Canadians liking wood and his experiences in London. Without a doubt, he was one of the top three comedians of the night and the burden is on Michael McIntyre to ensure that he picks an act that will become the next big hit of comedy.

Rating: 8/10