ComedySoc’s big event of 2012, Laughitude (that’s said with a Northern A, not a Southern A) Festival had enough variety to cater to all tastes.
After some technical difficulties, the show opened with The Shambles. I’m a fan of The Shambles and their improvised shenanigans, and once again, their wacky ways didn’t disappoint. With six rounds, the whole troupe got a chance to shine, with the standout round being “Late for Work”. All of The Shambles were on fine form, but Dan Wood stole the show – how he came up with such bizarre rhymes for rubber duck, I don’t know. The poor acoustics in the Roger Kirk Centre didn’t hamper the audience’s wild suggestions, and in fact provided inspiration for the final round. All in all, a great show opener.
After the interval, which consisted of drinks galore, the stand-up and sketches took the stage. The sketches consisted a send-up of BBC News, a Boyfriend Approval Rating, Mungo Tatton-Brown in a wig and a French Listening test. All had their merits, but the poor acoustics in the room didn’t help the unmiked performers, meaning that much of the comedy was lost in the depths of the Roger Kirk Centre. The continual jumps between sketches and stand-ups created a constant change of pace that felt out-of-place. A few of the sketches never reached their full potential, though there was undeniably talent bubbling under the surface. Each performer was strong, entering into the sketches with energy and aplomb, with the French Listening Test being a particular highlight.
All the stand-ups were strong, and each had a fantastic rapport with the audience – a particular favourite was Charles Deane’s beautifully told story of the history of the gin and tonic. But there were two stand-outs amongst the stand-ups. Hurt and Anderson (aka Georgia Hurt and Laura Anderson) were absolutely fabulous. Female comedy double-acts whose jokes aren’t all about being women are a very welcome change. The two had fantastic chemistry, starting their show with a scarily perceptive sketch about women’s magazines. Their magnum opus, however, was a sketch best described as Thomas the Tank Engine meets Brokeback Mountain. It was glorious. The other stand-up who shined was Manraj Bahra. Fluctuating between the awkward and the sublime, with some fantastically dark and deadpan jokes, he closed the show to rapturous laughter and applause.
With some intelligent witticisms, beautifully delivered jokes and a fair amount of flat-out ridiculousness, ComedySoc once again delivered a thoroughly enjoyable evening.
DEANO!