Review: Matt Kirshen, Chris Stokes, Nick Helm and Steffen Peddie – Middlesbrough Town Hall

Matt Kirshen

It is an understatement to say that Ten Feet Tall Comedy is responsible for bringing the best comedy clubs and nights to Teesside. It is an oversight to think you can predict a lively Saturday night Middlesbrough audience. These are the two things I have learned at tonight’s gig.

It kicked off nicely and reasonably enough in the vast and packed crypt of Middlesbrough’s town hall hosted by your typically friendly, jolly Northern compere Steffen Peddie. Peddie set the groundwork for what looked to be a genuinely lovely gig with his stories on North East inter-rivalry between the big towns and Peddie’s general hatred for all charv-kind. Whether they be breaking into his house, interrupting his gig or commenting on his every move, they should all be culled… according to Steffen.

He then brought on opening act Nick Helm, whose own personal brand of aggressive and unsettling anti-comedy didn’t sit right with much of the Middlesbrough audience, confused between whether his insanity, rage and depression was fact or fiction. Through no fault of Helm’s, he’d unwittingly set one or two specific punters on a warpath to destroy the gig as they lost interest during his bold use of bad gags, hate filled poems and nervy songs which I personally enjoyed every minute of. His closing audience participation song was a particular treat, involving Helm screaming and singing at one unlucky member of the front row until they sang the lyrics back.

After the interval middle act Chris Stokes came to the stage to a small but very obvious group of people in the crowd completely ignoring him and carrying on with their conversations. He immediately left the stage to try again. Take two was not much better and soon the gig spiralled into chaos. Where Stokes was allowed, his material had flashes of brilliance and the routine he could just never get through on being a geek in relation to typical lads showed promise, but unfortunately one of these ‘lads’ was in the audience tonight and fancied himself for a bit of a joker. What followed were the most inane blather and nonsensical heckling I’ve ever witnessed, with Stokes having little choice but to rail on him with put down after put down until everyone got a bit fed up. Stokes advised everyone to stand up and call the heckler a prick on the count of three; he didn’t even get to one before the place erupted with obscenities.

The gig limped to its final section with just about all the wind taken out of its sails; save for one small victory, the heckler had been removed from the premises. His table of drunken friends however, hadn’t. Matt Kirshen tentatively took to the stage obviously expecting to have a really bad gig dealing with hecklers and people talking by the bucket load, I was unsure whether the crowd would be able to get back into comedy mode and fully appreciate Kirshen’s headline set after such a disruptive middle section but was pleasantly surprised at the gig’s full turnaround back into a lovely night while punters enjoyed Kirshen’s dark and sometimes daft jokes, particularly whether or not you should refridgerate tomato sauce and his material on the New Orleans hurricane in 2006. And quite frankly I’ll never be able to listen to the Benny Hill theme again!

Big Mouth Comedy really is a lovely gig, and very popular to boot, attracting all kinds of punters from comedy veterans to complete newbies – but if you think what you’ve got to say is funnier than the comedian’s prepared routines, you’re just as well to stay at home and talk to yourself in the mirror.

Big Mouth Comedy Club is a monthly comedy night held at Middlesbrough Town Hall. Tickets and information for all Ten Feet Tall gigs can be found here.