Review: Broken Mic Comedy, The Hancock, Newcastle
Broken Mic Comedy, compered and curated by Simon Beckwith, is a monthly night of storytelling, audience participation, standup and sketches at Newcastle’s favourite student pub, The Hancock.
October’s night includes storyteller David Callaghan, one-liner Mark Kennedy, performance poet Rowan McCabe, the musical Joby Mageean, and headliner Vladimir McTavish.
The concept for Broken Mic is a simple one: each act has a short set in which to talk around anything they are passionate about. Acts take this in different ways, with some preparing bespoke sets on their favourite topic, and others simply performing their favourite material.
This particular night is unique in that the turnout is unusually low, giving Beckwith the opportunity to talk to the audience at length. He skilfully turns what could be an awkward night into a lovely intimate gig for a select audience, a theme carried on by each act.
For instance Callaghan brings to the stage a carefully prepared piece of historic material about a Victorian tragedy – which he offers to the audience, and immediately dumps in favour of a more personal set based on their lukewarm reaction. Callaghan’s style is a mixture of candid anecdote, whimsy and wordplay, equally accessible and endearing.
The smartly turned out, ukelele-playing Joby Mageean continues the candid theme with a tale of bullying, disarmingly fed in a methodical fashion, but confidently taken in an unexpected direction, a la Dave Gorman. Mageean plays only one song, showing a deep skill for standup alongside his musical niche.
Kennedy and McCabe both bring distinctive idiosyncrasy to the night, the former with a dark, brooding character and sharp one-liners – the latter with an animated approach to performance poetry, eschewing cue cards for a more audience-involving approach. The poetry is not, strictly speaking, comedic, although there are some laughs, and any skeptics in the room are quickly convinced of McCabe’s place on the bill.
Finally, headliner Vlad McTavish is a gem. Paul Sneddon’s character takes to the stage with a drunken aplomb, discussing his topics of passion – drinking, politics, and Scottish independence. He takes us through his weirdest gig experiences (of which this is not one), with a confidence and fluidity clearly built from experience. McTavish is a wonder to behold in such an intimate setting.
Local comedy nights can have the potential to become stilted for the audience and difficult for the performers, but Simon Beckwith is to be commended for his efforts in making this night a success, an intimate gig with some extremely talented performers and very happy punters.
Broken Mic Comedy is back on the 2nd Monday of every month, at The Hancock pub in Newcastle.
