“I’ll introduce people that I love and I’ll also play around with some things that may be shit.” Hailey Settineri checks out the launch of Gorman’s new experimental comedy night.
When Dave Gorman first announced his new monthly comedy night at Hoxton Hall, tickets to the opening night sold out almost immediately. And now, as I walk into the beautiful old theatre, I overhear a fellow punter saying that the second show has also sold out, so it's clear there are high expectations for what is essentially a mixed bill comedy night.
Of course, this is not your average night of comedy. For starters, it’s hosted by an award-winning stand-up, whose bizarre adventures have been documented in books and television series. Then there’s the cinema screen in the background. The lights dim and the show kicks off with a clever animated intro featuring an online form being filled out by an anonymous clicker (Audience: Friendly/Unfriendly? *click* Phones: On/Off? *click*). It’s a nice change to the usual spiel about manners and the experienced audience clearly appreciate the quirky take.
Gorman begins his set with a visual gag that mocks his own style, as everything he says aloud is relayed on the big screen behind him including actions such as ‘drink’. He then launches into a story about meeting Alex Reid. “Don’t think that I’m name-dropping. You can’t show-off in a sentence that contains ‘Alex Reid’”.
After some observational humour about the contents of ‘The Weekly News’, conveniently supported by cut-outs appearing on the big screen, Gorman explains the rundown for the night. “I’ll introduce people that I love and I’ll also play around with some things that may be shit.”
The first guest comedian is Scottish-born stand-up Stephen Carlin who mixes dry one-liners with dark observations to create beautifully twisted jokes. From drugs (“I don’t need alcohol to enjoy myself… just a bit of heroin”) to placing curses on Argos staff, Carlin provides a fresh perspective to varied topics.
Gorman returns with a brilliant piece on aspiration friends in smartphone ads (revealing the derivative lives of fictional Twitter and Facebook users), before introducing alternative magician Ali Cook.
Cook is a great performer, pulling off faultless slight-of-hand even though there’s an audience member inspecting his slight-of-hand from the stalls overhead ("For those in the front, you're about to see a miracle. For those above me, you're going to see a whole lot more."). His strongest material is the most visceral – eating goldfish, decapitating doves, and swallowing razorblades – but his banter is engaging and there’s no shortage of eager volunteers in the audience. Cook even utilises the screen for the big reveal in a card trick, easing my concerns that Gorman would be the only comedian embracing the medium.
After the interval (during which Cook’s ‘blood’ is mopped from the stage), Gorman shares a recent Twitter dispute with controversial comedian Jim Davidson, likening it to trying to avoid a drunk brawl in a pub. The por
Up next is newcomer Al Stick who begins his set with a rant about clichés. He touches on the everyday, such as mice ‘being more afraid of you than you are of them’ (“I’m scared of Mike Tyson, but I don’t go around and shit in his Frosties”) to the industry-specific, taking particular umbrage to stock-standard introductions used by Jongleur MCs.
The final act for the night is surreal comedian Dan Antopolski, who brings an assortment of props on stage including an Etch-a-sketch (or is it an iPad stuck on an art app?). The visual gags are fun, and very suitable for the night, but Antopolski really shines when sharing pun-ridden anecdotes about being a father (“On sunny days we go to the park, on gloomy days they glue me to the ceiling.”)
All of the guests in tonight’s show have been fantastic in their own right, although I'd have preferred to see guest comics making more use of the screen. With ongoing quality line-ups and more integrated technology, Gorman's Screen Guild gigs should go from strength to strength.
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