Junior Simpson Sarah Millican
21 May 2006
Resident compare Geoff Whiting started the show shortly after Eight and took slightly longer than usual to warm up the audience. I don’t know if it was the downturn in the weather or just that Sunday feeling but the crowd seemed more subdued than normal. In my experience, the best way for a compare to get the crowd going is to get them involved and Geoff is one of the best at this. After Twenty minutes of “Where are you from? What do you and have you had sex this weekend?” He was ready to bring on the first act. I was quite bitter towards Sarah Millican when she came on the stage. Like me she had entered last years “So You Think You’re Funny” competition. Unlike me she was a runner up and was now getting paid for her efforts. After opening with a bit about being recently divorced and her ex being a useless c#nt I thought “Here we go. another sister doing it for herself.” Turns out I was wrong. As the set went on her material got bluer ( her first time in a sex shop, this reviewers day job) and darker. Sarah finished with a bit about what she would do if she ever gets raped. A dangerous topic for any comedian, male or female but handled superbly by Sarah Millican. By the end of her set I, along with everyone else in the room thought she was funny.
After setting up the caption competition and taking a short break Geoff introduced Clare Clifford, the first of two open spots. I am sorry to say that Clare’ set was mostly forgetful. I can remember laughter but I can’t recall a single joke. Still Clare is new on the circuit and I hope she sticks with it. A word of warning to any aspiring comedians. Clare had to drive a five hour round trip from London to do a ten minute set and not get paid a penny but that’s show business I guess.
Geoff read the entries to the caption competition, dished out the prizes and then bought Phil Doe on to the stage. In the next ten minutes there was talk about dildos (and an actual dildo), midnight urination and spiking his vege girlfriends food with meat before killing and eating her. It would have been quite disturbing had he not had the cheekiest grin from start to finish and the odd knowing wink to the audience. I am very interested to see if he could keep it up for a full half hour.
After another loo/bar break it was time for the headliner. I knew what to expect from Junior Simpson and I wasn’t disappointed. There is a good reason Junior has performed all over the world as well as on T.V. and that is he is funny. His body language, his anecdotes, and his heckler put downs had the whole room in stitches. From smuggling a fruit salad into Australia, his last visit to Newcastle and out of control children and what should be done to them. Junior Simpson is a very fast talker, firing off jokes at a machine gun rate so it can be quite hard to keep up. His jokes target anyone and everyone and they rarely miss their mark. Top stuff
If, like me, you like you’re comedy dark and thought provoking then you could have done a lot worse than last nights Comedy Cavern.
Philip Eggins