Review: Hilarity Bites’ New Act of the Year Final 2011 – Darlington Arts Centre
Hilarity Bites' New Act of the Year Final 2011
After Andrew Ryan’s 2009 win and Andy Fury’s triumph last year, the Hilarity Bites New Act of the Year competition came to a close at Darlington Arts Centre last night with six new acts hoping to take the 2011 crown. Both Ryan and Fury returned once again, with Fury offering a short closing set and Ryan compering for Peter Brush, Jay Hampson, Fern Brady, Kiri Pritchard-McLean, Matt Winning and Jamie Andrew.
Peter Brush drew the short straw and his low-energy style wasn’t suited to the opening spot of the night. The material’s there and comes from interesting angles, too; his delivery also has a friendly, poetic lilt to it that subverts his darker lines – but Brush didn’t even make the top three come the end of the night. It’s a shame, because good writing like his should be recognised.
Jay Hampson’s opening gambit about Justin Bieber is weak, but he improves as his set goes on, with an impressive line about Micky Mouse in his childbirth routine and a wicked Baby P gag that demonstrates good writing but is probably beginning to feel outdated.
Closing the first section was the eventual runner up of the New Act Final, Fern Brady. Brady’s ten minutes comprises of two basic ideas – the first, about personified foxes, is a cracker; the second, waving a black dildo around until someone laughs, is sadly exactly how it sounds. The potential is there in her set-ups, though the execution was lacking in this performance.
Kiri Pritchard-McLean’s turn after the break brought much laughter from the crowd. Concise and confident in her delivery, Pritchard-McLean’s certainly a likeable act with a few nice self-deprecating lines – her Gavin and Stacy stuff is probably her strongest – but twice confusing Darlington with Stockton-On-Tees may well have cost her the audience vote…
Stand-up number five Matt Winning can be a surprisingly visual act at times, but he has quality material to match his captivating on-stage persona. His running joke on Robert Mugabe was technically better than anything on offer in the final and in truth Winning offered the complete package: he’s got the material, the pacing and the presence to win over most crowds. A worthy winner of this year’s final.
Like opener Brush, Jamie Andrew didn’t enjoy the luck of the draw though his close to the bone routines probably didn’t alter the voting process anyway. Beginning your set by mocking a quadruple amputee is brave – or stupid – and to follow that up by attacking the prejudices of Christianity feels like double standards to me. In Andrew’s defence, the routine about homosexuality is written well enough and witty in places, but that talent should surely be put to better use than thoughtless attacks on everyone and everything – including Stephen Hawking, of course.
And it was up to last year’s winner Andy Fury to close the night with a short set while the judges counted up Winning’s winning votes.
Further information on Hilarity Bites Comedy Club can be found on their website here, and if you’d like you can follow their New Act of the Year Matt Winning on Twitter: @matthewin
