Last week and the week before I went to see two famous Welsh comedians... well, one famous one and one rising comedian, Rhod Gilbert and Elis James. Rhod is famous everywhere because he is hilarious and Elis is rising in popularity due to his appearances on TV and filling in on Rhod's radio show on Radio Wales (and online) as well as his own shows.
Anyway someone asked me on Facebook if I would write a review for their blog and I did. I also found out that comedy reviews are hard, not like plays and stuff. Hence what I wrote being a bit rubbish, here it is - |
| At his Last show. I got told off when I took this even though I was taking a picture of a sign and it hadn't started... nothing had even happened! |
Rhod Gilbert: The Man With the Flaming Batternberg Tattoo, work in progress show
Last week was Rhod Gilbert’s charity gig at the Parc & Dare Treorchy. Firstly well done for raising over £6,000 for the Valleys Kids charity.
He was late but we didn’t really mind, even his reason for being late was funny, he apparently “just left late” and he literally went on stage straight from his car, hadn’t had anything to eat and needed a pee. He spent a few minutes on the venue and telling us why he likes playing the valleys, and the audiences (we “just take the piss” apparently), including an incident with a parking space and man in his dressing gown (and nothing else).
The material seemed familiar, as it would to anyone who watches and listens to Rhod on TV and radio - I mean who could forget that particular ‘Work Experience’ episode that this tour’s name comes from? But it wasn’t too familiar, I personally forgot about the show he was on at Christmas so the bit about his girlfriend’s present to him was fairly new. As it was a preview show he said some of it worked and some didn’t but personally couldn’t find fault with any of it, saying that though the “Toasty Jeff/travelling chef” possibly went on a tiny bit too long but was still hilarious. The whole thing was a hilarious anger-rant filled two hours leading up to the video punch-line we’ve come to expect; this one was funnier than the last. If this was just a work-in-progress the polished show should be awesome!
At the end of the gig he auctioned off a pair of tickets (£200 to the same charity) to see him in London, the audience managed to get him to pay for the travel but couldn’t get him to pay for an hotel too.
He was late but we didn’t really mind, even his reason for being late was funny, he apparently “just left late” and he literally went on stage straight from his car, hadn’t had anything to eat and needed a pee. He spent a few minutes on the venue and telling us why he likes playing the valleys, and the audiences (we “just take the piss” apparently), including an incident with a parking space and man in his dressing gown (and nothing else).
The material seemed familiar, as it would to anyone who watches and listens to Rhod on TV and radio - I mean who could forget that particular ‘Work Experience’ episode that this tour’s name comes from? But it wasn’t too familiar, I personally forgot about the show he was on at Christmas so the bit about his girlfriend’s present to him was fairly new. As it was a preview show he said some of it worked and some didn’t but personally couldn’t find fault with any of it, saying that though the “Toasty Jeff/travelling chef” possibly went on a tiny bit too long but was still hilarious. The whole thing was a hilarious anger-rant filled two hours leading up to the video punch-line we’ve come to expect; this one was funnier than the last. If this was just a work-in-progress the polished show should be awesome!
At the end of the gig he auctioned off a pair of tickets (£200 to the same charity) to see him in London, the audience managed to get him to pay for the travel but couldn’t get him to pay for an hotel too.
Anyway, the Parc & Dare, my local theatre, has been properly tarted up! Which is a good thing, just wish they would start showing films there again, but they apparently make all their money from live things so that's good I suppose.
The week after I saw Elis James, he has a funny voices and he does funny accents. His support bloke was ok, though I think he stole a joke from Bill Bailey, and he looked like an "inflated Martin Clunes" (his words), I did not notice this until he said it, and he did too. Anyway Elis was good again buuuuuut he was only on for an hour and half of that was old stuff, still funny though!, and I suppose the small gigs are where comedians tune up their currant shows for the full tour, and Edinburgh festival. But what I was more disappointed about was that he didn't tell us, what I like to call, his "Grandmaster Flash is teasing me" story, which is hilarious!
For the record, there was nothing wrong with your review whatsoever... and it's getting a good hit rate too, so hopefully is bringing some new readers to your blog too! Any time you feel like dipping your toe again, I'll gladly host another guest spot for you so just send me anything and I'll make a space for it.
ReplyDeleteThe Parc and Dare seems much like a community run theatre in a town a little way from here; they managed to raise funds over time to open up a cinema as well as the auditorium and can now actually show films and shows at the same time... they don't show current films, it's arts stuff, foreign films and old ones you feel you should have seen. If I lived nearer I'd be there all the time, though - I love the pretentious stuff! They may not think anyone misses the screenings, so be sure to tell them so; it may be they just need a nudge in the right direction!
T x
Thanks, I just didn't think it was that good because I'm not used to doing them. Yeah I'll let you know if I've got any other reviews. I don't go to comedy gigs as often as I should, my friends don't want to go with me often, it's a long story to do with forgetting tickets on one occasion and being sat in the front for another (I might write about that on here).
DeleteNah, the Parc and Dare is run by the council and they took the screen down and said they were going to refurbish it, but were voted out and now they can't afford it, apparently :-(
Cheers!
Chris