Review: Mike Milligan, Andy Fury, Carl Hutchinson and Eric Scarboro – Gateshead Town Hall.
Mike Milligan
What do you get when you cross a massive room that hasn’t been filled properly and an over-exuberant central heating system? The answer comes later. Before I attended tonight’s comedy night at Gateshead Old Town Hall I had high hopes for the show – a couple of friends of mine had also phoned up to try and get tickets, only they were told the event was sold out. That’s usually a good sign.
But the second I got inside I could see that it was not a sold out event. It was a room the size of an old school assembly hall with only a third filled with about ten round tables. And some tables only had two people sitting at them, including mine. It was an event that clearly could have been sold better, and the fact that Town Hall had been turning people away just seems ridiculous. I only mention the issues with the venue as it affected the acts performing and the atmosphere of the whole evening.
The show got under way with compere Eric Scarboro. Scarboro was very confident, possibly because he’s been working the clubs for over twenty years (on and off). His act definitely sat better with the older members of the audience. Whilst trying to warm the crowd up Scarboro tested the audience, trying to find out what kind of crowd they were. The answer was not very loud. Scarboro desperately tried to drum up some atmosphere for the first act, but sadly the crowd just didn’t want to participate.
The first act of the night was Carl Hutchinson. Hutchinson is a young, good comedian who obviously has some really well written material; his music routine was excellently told and got one of the few laughs of the night – it is perhaps his strongest piece. To quote Hutchinson, though, ‘You know a gig is going bad when you can hear the water running down the back of your throat’. Carl was relentless in trying to find the laughs in the room, and, in the end, just about managed a few giggles. But do not be mistaken – this is credit to how good a comic he is, as the audience really made him work for it.
Next up was middle act Andy Fury, a comic I had heard a lot about, and I was not disappointed. Fury is a good young talent, and I thought his whole stage presence was excellent. His strong regional accent really added to his act, and the way he dealt with the tough crowd was very impressive and enjoyable. Andy Fury is someone I look forward to seeing more of.
As everybody sat down for the final part of the evening temperatures were high, and this was all due to the radiators being turned up even higher than necessary. It really made the evening an uncomfortable one, and was perhaps one of the reasons the crowd were so subdued.
Closing the night was Mike Milligan. Again the crowd made the comic work, however he found something that worked on this audience – knob jokes. Milligan explained that he had a mixed bag of political and knob-based jokes, however the political jokes wouldn’t work on this kind of audience – Milligan almost reluctantly had to do a full set based on sex and knob jokes. I really enjoyed Mike Milligan and he is someone I would like to see again – just in different circumstances.
Overall tonight showcased three strong comedians, and in the case of Andy Fury a comedian I believe will be a real star of the future. However the venue must try harder – turn the heating down, don’t say it’s sold out – and so must the audience.
