Review: Kevin Bridges: The Story Continues – Newcastle City Hall

Kevin Bridges

Kevin Bridges is a dick magnet. First it’s a tattooed moron in the stalls chanting, “Easy, Easy, Easy.” Then another fan blurts out that he has cancer – and two minutes later reveals that he was telling fibs. And finally, during the encore, a polite, middle-aged woman walks to the front of the stage to tell Bridges she’s married to a bloke from Glasgow. It’s one of those nights.

But this petulance seems to be a bi-product of Bridges’ unassuming brilliance. That friendly cynicism undercutting routines, so dry and apparently natural, makes him the everyman comic, the bloke down the pub.

As Bridges tells us, he despises the self-importance of celebrity culture – even though he’s included in that circle himself now; he sticks his finger in the wounds left by David Cameron and his pals; and he even rallies against his colleagues Jimmy Carr and Justin Lee Collins. A bold move, yet we’re behind him every step of the way.

By and large, it’s light-hearted shtick. Given time to think, Bridges is all about fish fingers, holidays and Danny Dyer documentaries. There’s plenty of gags along the way, of course, as well as some nice call-backs to stitch the material together.

His only mistake is returning for an encore. Bridges might feel like he’s selling the crowd short a little with just over an hour of material – but that’s certainly better than what followed. Admirably refusing to resort to old material, he leaves himself with no other option than to open the floor to discussion, which then descends into farce.

Part of me thinks he quite enjoys the back and forth with the crowd, like a mischievous club compere rallying the troops – but if you’re paying £21 for a ticket you expect something a bit more than that.

For the most part, Bridges is good value, carrying you through the show with bags of charm and lots of laughs. But while most comics would settle for a modest victory, Bridges pushes forward for another laugh and leaves himself open to attack. “I thought I was home and dry,” he announces at the close with a wry smile, “but you’ve just gone and scored five goals in the last minute.”

A score draw tonight, then, though Bridges will be disappointed: he really should’ve taken all three points.