Reviews

 

 Reviews

Can't believe we are writing our own reviews - come on guys, send some in!  In the meantime, here's some we made earlier...               

The October 9th Big Jack's show was part of two weeks of comedy at the Afroba, our contribution to the Reading Comedy Festival.  Audience numbers had been a wee bit thin on the ground for the five 'Fringe Magnets' nights, so it was brilliant for the acts to be playing to a packed house for Big Jack's Laughter Club.  Big Jack's regular Juliet Meyers can always be relied on to get the evening off to a cracking start, and this was no exception.  Juliet relied somewhat on old material, but considering the number of times we've seen her recently, it is not surprising that we'd heard a good deal of her material before.  it didn't seem to matter however; she generated the kind of easy laughter that we love to hear at the start of the evening, and her audience interaction was brilliant as usual.  Next up was cheeky chappie Ben Briggs.  Ben got the audience on side immediately and kept it that way.  Somewhat reminiscent of The Office's Mackenzie Crook, Ben was so likeable that he made you want to laugh, a great trait for a comedian to have!  Matthew Whiteley was our third act of the evening and had some nice material on the potential mis-use of the defibrillators at train stations and had a great come back when his act was interrupted by the sound of crashing bottles from the bar!  Headliner Andrew O'Neill last graced the Big Jack's stage back on Valentine's Day and it was an absolute pleasure to welcome him back.  Like Juliet, Andrew relied on some old material but, again, it didn't really matter because the material was fantastic!  Andrew got some great laughs out of describing rude boy reactions to his transvestism, mixing this kind of anecdotal material with some lovely surreal moments.  Andrew obviously takes great enjoyment in what he does and this makes him all the funnier. Despite being totally sober, the reviewer was in stitches during Andrew's set, surely the mark of a great comedian!  We hope Andrew comes back again soon.

It was good to be back at Big Jack’s on September 11th after a break in August.  First up was ex-teacher Paul Ricketts.  Paul’s slow and almost ponderous delivery suited the chilled out atmosphere in the Afroba, where the laughs were plenty but the atmosphere was not as raucous as it often is.  Paul got the evening off to a great start full of comfortable laughter, quite an achievement when the audience was slightly thin on the ground and still relatively sober.  His description of himself as a suburban, rather than urban, black person was lovely: “I brought a knife to school aged 13 … but it was for making apple crumble”.  He painted an accurate picture of comedy audience dynamics, with the people sat at the front as the ‘comedy cannon fodder’ and the anonymous hecklers at the back as the ‘comedy snipers’.  Next up was Jonathan Elston, who showed amazing confidence for someone just out of his teens.  Paul’s material was self deprecating to say the least and he won the audience over brilliantly.  His material about accidentally buying ‘Lynx Nice Guy’ instead of the swoon-inducing ‘Lynx Africa’ was great.Big Jack’s regular Mary Bourke used us as her willing comedy guinea pigs as she tested out her new material.  We love Mary; she does not hesitate to use her razor sharp tongue on hapless members of the audience!  Sorry Hungarian people, we are sure you are very interesting really!  The fantastic Paddy Lennox was our headliner, managing to be simultaneously affable and slightly manic.  His material covered everything from the pointless water-confiscating security measures at airports (‘what, is the pilot a gremlin?’) to his theory that the IRA have stopped hostilities because Al Quaeda have raised the terrorist stakes (‘you want me to do WHAT?’).  His brilliant audience interaction peaked when one of the aforementioned Hungarians uttered the classic line: “I’m not Jewish, I’m just tired”.  All in all, another cracking night at Big Jack's!

We only had three acts in the line up on 10th July, but what acts they were!  First up was the fabulous Mary Bourke, a class act and our headliner back in February.  We were privileged to be  Mary's comedic guinea pigs as she tested out her brand spanking new material, highlights of which were her ideas on a new emoticon for use in emails, and a hilarious story of her experience doing stand up to a room full of US Marines in New York.  It's difficult to describe our middle act, Imran Yusuf, who is, in the reviewer's opinion, the most exciting and original act to grace the Big Jack's stage in a while.  His lightning quick patter was mind boggling, veering crazily between different subjects and accents and demanding pop-eyed attention from start to finish.  Definitely one to watch.  Our headliner was opinionated Brummie Karen Bayley.  Karen delivered some great laughs and her bold, no nonsense style went down a treat.  However, slightly miffed by Karen's comments on vegetarians, the herbivorous reviewer stopped taking notes at that point, so the review stops there.

After a couple of months of dwindling audience numbers, it was a triumphant return to cracking form at Big Jack’s on 12th June.  The acts this month were all about the Js, with a Juliet, THREE Jameses  and er … a Liam.  We were delighted to welcome back the fabulous Juliet Meyers as our opening act.  Juliet, who delivered a fantastic set back in November, certainly did not disappoint.  Juliet’s set was mostly new material, including a great story of an imaginary accountant husband called Tim, who Juliet was forced to invent by declaring herself a ‘Mrs’ to the plumbing company.  The old stuff went down just as well, with a piece about the arrogance of kosher sausages makers (“we answer to a higher authority”) leading to a very amusing audience discussion about the content of said sausages.

Next up was the extremely enthusiastic James Acaster, who gave Rob (of Rob & Skatz fame) a run for his money in the ‘tallest bloke to throw shapes on the pallet’ competition.  James’ act was short but sweet and centred mainly on the dangerous repercussions of the ‘I love you/I love you more’ game.  A promising new talent we think.  Contrasting deliciously with James no.2 was our very own deadpan star Mr Mason (also James), who never fails to deliver and had some great new material.  Topics included the evil that is ‘The Apprentice’ and a reading of James’ own CV (the honest version).  Keep up the good work James!  James no.3 was Mr Mullinger, a half-Polish, all-charming chap from Surrey.  Hugely entertaining and a thoroughly nice bloke, James got great mileage from his Eastern European heritage.  James battled valiantly against a strange mumbling heckler and emerged triumphant.  Headliner Liam Mullone brought the evening to a storming finish.  Who would have imagined that a ten-minute piece on washing powder would be side splitting?  Who else noticed that washing powder and weapons are graded in the same way: biological, automatic and machine?  Scruffy and surprisingly well spoken, Liam’s set was sprinkled with surreal flights of intellectual fancy that left us in stitches.  His audience interaction was fantastic, leading to some brilliant improvisations – the sign of a first class act.  Mr Mullone, we salute you!

Summer’s sudden arrival meant that just about everyone in Reading had congregated in the town’s beer gardens on Thursday 8th May, leaving the Big Jack’s audience somewhat thin on the ground.  The non lemmings and Big Jack’s faithful followers were to be found in the Afroba, with a lot more room to stretch out than usual!  ‘Jimmy Somerville/Desperate Dan/Phil Mitchell’ lookalike Pat Gallagher was first up.  He had a tough job due to the small crowd, but battled valiantly on with a nice set that included some well aimed swipes at the Afroba’s décor (“looks like the feng shui was done by Tracey Emin on magic mushrooms”) and the Big Jack’s audience (“lager lager meets saga saga”).  He also had some great material on a subject close to the reviewer’s heart: the complete morons who believe that Harry Potter is the devil’s work.  Katie Wilkins was our second act of the evening.  Her set was short but sweet with some beautifully crafted jokes on anti semantic jokes contrasting nicely with some more basic material about the dangers of having a sarcastic voice when talking dirty.  Andrew Watts, winner of the ‘Reading New Act Competition’ 2006, delivered a good set with some nice material on email kiss inflation (you had to be there) and the all purpose answer when faced with any question from a woman about fashion (“yes, but what about the accessories!”).   Cornish comic Anna Keirle was our headline act and won the audience over straight away with her lively, chatty style.   Her descriptions of her ‘pirate hangovers’ were brilliant and the drinkers amongst the audience (that will be everyone then) sympathised with stumbling through the door in the early hours and being fascinated by whatever rubbish is on the TV, when you can hardly keep your eyes open.  Come on folks, the Afroba’s as good as a pub garden with the windows open and the fans on – and staying out of the sun is good for you!

April 11th: Just a short piece this month: the reviewer was on the sambucas last night and is feeling (in the words of Paris Hilton after she was pictured falling out of a taxi with no pants on) "a bit tired and emotional".  It was back to the bad old days of the ailing sound system at Big Jack's last night, but all four acts valiantly battled on.  First up was  Matt Rudge, a likeable cheeky chappie with an eye for the laydeez.  With some great material on "chuggers" (charity muggers), coach surfing Australians and the sinister side of 80's game 'Guess Who!', Matt got the evening off to a cracking start.  Next up were two last minute heroes who stepped up when our booked acts couldn't make it: huge thanks to slick London boy Luke McQueen (a.k.a. Luke Hmmm Queen) and mud wrestling Buddhist Paul T. Eyres (a.k.a. "that Gareth Gates has put a bit of weight on").  Some pretty funny stuff about rohypnol and Phil Collins vaguely come to mind from headliner Terry Saunders' set, but at this stage the reviewer's notes descend into scribbles and sambuca-sticky doodles, so we'll sign off there to spend the rest of the day eating crisps and watching Columbo (at a low volume).

A record breaking crowd and four fabulous acts meant that the March 13th event was arguably the best ever at Big Jack's!  First up was the very dapper and folically challenged east London comic Gary Colman, who got the evening off to a storming start.  There were lots of lovely moments in Gary's set, including his theory that the advice issued in Canada on what to do when attacked by a bear (play dead for one minute, lying on your front with your hands covering your neck) was the work of a crazed gay man in a bear suit.  He got some great laughs out of his resemblance  to Lord Voldemort and a self deprecating anecdote on being a 'have-a-go hero'.  Next up was David Trent, who gave us a critique of the 'community art projects' (i.e. filthy graffiti) found in his local infant play park.  David's act was totally original and included some excellent audience participation, wickedly led astray by Jon, a.k.a. the tw*t in the hat.  Hannah Dunleavy was our third act of the evening and showed us why she won the Newbury Comedy Festival competition with some great gags about her first experience of watching porn and the difficulties of communicating with hairdressers.  Headliners Rob & Skatz were extremely eagerly anticipated, having delivered possibly the best received set ever at Big Jack's a year ago, and certainly lived up to all expectations.  The fabulous musical duo with a killer set of songs on the seedy side of life claim to be sent out by Social Services to 'make people better' by providing 'vital education on the dangers on drugs and death'.  Their hilarious new song 'Jihad Love Song' was an awesome addition to the catalogue of old favourites, including 'Amphetamines' and 'Viagra'.  In their words: 'you can't go wrong with a good nob song'!

We discovered that the Big Jack’s audience is mostly comprised of unromantic cynics as a record number of you turned up to laugh in the face of Valentine’s Day.  The Afroba was absolutely packed!  Tony Cowards got the evening off to an uproarious start, with our loudest crowd ever.  Tony’s laddish, low-key, relaxed story telling style went down a treat.  Anecdotes about living with his mum were a highlight (“my mum is twice divorced: once from my Dad, once from reality”) and got us all wondering about whether there really is an age limit for the ‘mother and child’ parking spaces at Tesco.  We all learned something we’d rather not know when IBS sufferer Tony described the intricacies of the ‘Bristol Stool Form Scale’.  Also a football fan, Tony shared his favourite headline with us, which followed a goalkeeper change in the England team: “Keegan Fills Schmeichel Gap With Seamen” – whoever thought that one up deserves a medal.  Next up was newcomer and local boy Ben Harrington, returning to Big Jack’s after a nice set back in October.  Ben struggled a bit with his new material, but the old favourites about life in Pangbourne and his interesting definition of ‘gay straight’ went down well.  Ben kept the laughter going nicely for our third act of the night, Tyson Boyce, who hit the nail on the head when he described himself as a ‘psychotic Orlando Bloom’.  Aussie Tyson’s freaky on stage persona was in great contrast with the previous acts’ straight talking style and was set off nicely by his wild hair and staring eyes.  Tyson dealt well with an increasingly drunken crowd by threatening to follow the worst offenders home after the show.  His act was original and had some great moments, including an interesting take on ‘show and tell’ and a bit about the pros and cons of hanging out with Goths (“you can hide the sunscreen and watch them panic as they slowly start to tan”).  Headliner Mary Bourke was a class act, with some killer put downs for hecklers.  Mary’s act was intelligent, savvy and well received by everyone.  Reminiscent of Big Jack’s regular Jane Hill, Mary’s low key delivery belied the sting in the tail of her material.  There were lots of brilliant moments, including a description of what her mother’s voice mail should say (“press 1 for a loony conversation that will leave you a bit angry and guilty; press 2 for advice you didn’t ask for; press 3 to talk about people you’ve never heard about; etc) vs what her dad’s should say (“press 1 to speak to your mum”).  Mary’s swipes at celebrities were perfectly aimed: her theory that Richard is sucking the life out of Judy rang strangely true and she finished with a hilarious summary of Colleen McLoughlin’s autobiography.  All in all, another fab night at Big Jack’s. 

On January 10th, the stars aligned to produce a magic night at Big Jack’s.  Five stonking comedians and the biggest, loveliest audience we’ve seen in a while made it a night to remember.   We were worried you’d all stay at home eating broccoli and doing exercise DVDs, but it seems that you Big Jack audience members have more important things on your minds than New Year’s resolutions – like seeing some great comedy.  And you weren’t disappointed!  Our opening act was the brilliant Richard Coughlan, who got the evening off to a fantastic start.  A hugely likeable guy, Richard’s set was inventive, controversial, self-effacing, filthy and hilarious.  Despite covering such topics as the possible ramifications of Sweden’s lax incest laws, Richard’s material  was so funny and well delivered that even your gran might have forgiven him …. hmmm, maybe not quite.  Next up was Kurt Driver, whose quirky material and cheeky delivery went down well and kept the laughter going for our third act, Ed Hands.  With his dapper tweeds, measured delivery and unusual material, Ed’s set was a breath of fresh air.  Local rising star James Mason was the fourth act of the evening and treated us to some great new material in his deadpan style.  It’s always a pleasure to watch James at work.  Well, what can we say about headliner Andrew O’Neill?  We loved him!  Mixing the anecdotal with the totally absurd to brilliant effect, Andrew’s set was an absolute delight from start to finish.  Surreal, hugely imaginative and totally at ease on stage, Andrew cooked up a veritable feast of comedy.   Mr O’Neill, we salute you!

It was a very cold outside on December 13th and unfortunately not much warmer in the Afroba!  We kept telling people that the tables at the front were the nearest the radiator, but for some reason people were happier to huddle together at the back!  With Big Jack struck down with man flu, we had a change of compere for the evening, in the shape of ‘Reading New Act of the Year’ winner James Mason, usually our resident sound engineer.  James adapted brilliantly to compering, which is quite a different skill to delivering a well-practiced set.  Nice one James!  Our first act of the night was Paul Redwood, who used props to great effect and got the evening off to a cracking start.  Paul’s gags covered everything from the dangers of casting the kid with Tourette’s in the school nativity play; to the unexpected downsides of the smoking ban (finding out what geriatric bingo players really smell of!).  Paul ended his set on a very well received game of ‘Celebrity Drug Taking Play Your Cards Right’ (the question of whether Kate Moss is higher or lower than River Phoenix sparking an interesting philosophical debate: is being dead the ultimate high, or does being six feet under mean that River is in fact lower than Kate?).  Next up was Aussie comic Matt Grantham, whose deadpan delivery and imaginative material went down a storm.  Matt had some lovely ideas, covering such diverse topics as cow terrorists; the negative economical impact of people spending their time making and burning effigies; and the relative safety of the adder, Britain's only venomous snake (you know a snake isn’t very poisonous when the anti-venom is more likely to kill you!).  Our next acts kindly agreed to stand in at the last minute when two of our original line up pulled out.  Many thanks to Nick Page and Matt Price, our heroes!  As host of BBC’s daytime show ‘Escape to the Country’, Nick Page is, in his own words “Britain’s Least Famous Celebrity”.  Nick’s anecdotal style went down well, his material mostly about the unexpected benefits of community service!  Our headliner, Matt Price, had a surprisingly gentle delivery for an ex-boxer.  Cornish-born Cardiff-resident Matt interacted brilliantly with the audience, getting everyone on side straight away, so that when he asked the audience to imitate camp fires, even those huddling at the back were waving their arms in the air in no time!

"First up on 8th November was the fabulous Juliet Meyers, whose set was a real joy and got the evening off to a stonking start.  Cheese eating, bad vegan, anti-Facebook Juliet has some pretty alternative views on life but had the carnivorous virtual friend-inviters in the audience laughing as much as those who shared her views - quite a skill.  Confident, energetic and likeable, Juliet covered some wonderful topics, including the unfairness of a Jehovah’s witness approaching the  homeless; plus an imagined battle between Al Quaeda and the Great British Slag.  Next up was Bobby Carroll, whose extremely blue act generated quite a bit of that “shouldn’t really find that funny but I can’t help it” kind of laughter.  Many thanks to Okse, who kindly agreed to fill our third spot at the last minute and whose amiable style and mixture of anecdotal and observational humour went down an absolute treat.  Our headliner was  Yorkshire lass Debra-Jane Appelby , who delivered a great set that was both clever and straight talking". 

"First up with the exciting news, for those of you, like me, who prefer their beverages pint-size: the Afroba is now serving draft beer!   Now that the important stuff is out of the way, on with the comedy reviews!  First up on October 11th was Wendy Wason.  Wendy’s sparkling stage presence and mischievous personality won the audience over straight away.  With her lively, chatty manner, Wendy had the air of someone sharing some fabulous gossip, rather than delivering a series of one-liners.  Not to say she wasn’t funny, because she was – very.  Her set covered a variety of topics, from George Bush being the ultimate victim of pushy parents, to the fanciability of Osama Bin Laden - and she went down a storm.  Next up was Ben Harrington, who delivered a nice set, and on his birthday as well.  Belated happy birthday wishes to you Ben!  Ben managed to make us laugh and expand our vocabulary: I’ve been itching to slip “pogonophobia” (a fear of beards) into the conversation ever since Ben mentioned it.  Lou Armstrong was our third act of the night.  Lou’s set was endearingly self-deprecating and highlighted the advantages and disadvantages of being small with a lisp and glasses.  Lou also had some nice observations about the Reading dating scene!   Local rising star James Mason was our penultimate act, and well worth waiting for.  I’ve seen James appear a few times over the past year and he just gets better and better.  James has really found his own, deadpan style that works for him and uses comedy pauses to great effect.  It’s an over used phrase, but James is definitely “one to watch”, a view that was shared by the judges in the ‘Reading Comedy Festival New Act Competition’ when they crowned him the winner a couple of days after his appearance at Big Jack’s.  Congratulations James! Headliner Marlon Davies responded to the laid back atmosphere of Big Jack’s by adopting an understated, anecdotal style that contained some real comedy gems.  Marlon is a really likeable chap and had some very funny stories about living with his dad. Lastly, thanks must go to Ian Wilmot, organiser of the Reading Comedy Festival, who provided such a great prize for the winners of the caption competition"  

"On 14th June, a packed-to-the-rafters Afroba was treated to an eclectic array of five comedians.  First up was Australian Greek Yianni Agisilaou, who treated us to some quick witted observational humour and an insight into the male psyche, by way of introducing his inner Frenchman, Pierre!  Yianni battled heroically with the cranky sound system before abandoning the mike entirely, obviously no stranger to voice projection.  After an extended break to coax the sound system back to life,  James Mason showed us all why he recently achieved semi-finalist status in the Laughing Horse competition, delivering a brilliant deadpan set that contrasted nicely with Yianni’s bounding enthusiasm.  Definitely one to watch.  Next up was Helen Huscroft, who delivered some witty observations on life in the classroom and brought a massive fan club with her – nice one Helen!  Many thanks to Nick Hodder, who kindly agreed to stand in at the last minute, delivering a nice middle session and giving us all a new perspective on the new Olympics logo.  Chris McCausland’s lovely headlining set was the icing on the cake.  Chris is a comedian who obviously enjoys his work and his infectious giggles alone got everyone laughing.  His ability to laugh at himself and the pickles he has found himself in made for a superbly funny set.  Everyone agreed with Jasper Carrott that Chris is ‘comedy brilliance’". 

"Thursday 10th May was one of those nights when everything goes smoothly; all four comedians and compere Jack were on cracking form and contrasted wonderfully with each other.  The British weather was at its worst, so the audience was a little thin on the ground, but there were enough people to create a satisfying swell of laughter and those that were there were in for a treat.  Opener and self confessed geek Matthew Crosby did a storming job of getting the laughter started, interacting brilliantly with the audience and including a memorable and totally convincing impression of a manga security guard.  Next up was relative newcomer Holly Walsh, who won the audience over straight away and went on to deliver an excellent set – one in the eye for all those guys who groan when they see a female comedian on the line up.  Neil Cole made a startling first impression by crashing into the back of the stage, then went on to create quite a different kind of impression altogether – suffice to say that none of us will listen to the Can Can in quite the same way ever again!.  Headliner Helmut, a.k.a. Marc Blake, was just the kind of act we like to end with, creating the kind of easy waves of laughter we love to hear at Big Jack’s.  All those people who stayed in because of the rain – shame on you!"

"The show on 12^th April got off to a nailbiting start, with the sound system throwing a wobbly as the clock ticked ever closer to the 20:30 kick off time.  Big Jack was explaining to the acts that they 'may have to speak up a bit’ when the dulcet tones of James ‘the mixer’ Mason echoed across the room: “I fink it’s workin’ now.”  After that nerve wracking start, the evening went without a hitch, with four fab sets.  Chris Martin got the night off to a kicking start by exposing a Big Jack’s regular as a ferret keeper!  A great opener sets the mood for the rest of the evening and Chris certainly did an excellent job.  Next up was the charming Vikki Stone, who dragged graphic artist Leigh up on stage and felt his thigh muscles – making a change from his collar (only joshing, Leigh)!  Rounding off the middle section was Shazia Mirza, whose images adorned the front page of that evening’s Reading Chronicle arts guide. The wonderful Shazia was booked to do a 20-25 minute spot, but treated us to an extended set as she tried out new material for her Edinburgh show.  What can you say about headliner Sully O’Sullivan? He was an absolute knock-out.  Had the audience in stitches while discovering their sexual peccadillos (you know who you are!)".

  Wow, we have our first review not written by ourselves!  The following is courtesy one of our comedians, Jane Hill, who delivered a fantastic set back in February 2007

  "A snowy Thursday, with more snow and ice forecast, and I drove to Reading to do a ten minute spot at a club called Big Jack's Laughter Club.  I had no idea what to expect, but I assumed that very few people would bother to venture out on such a cold night.  I was relieved it was only a 90 minute drive for me - virtually a hometown gig.  I wasn't particularly looking forward to it.

 It turned out to be a fantastic night at a very friendly little club.  Big Jack is a top bloke and there was a really good-sized audience - maybe fifty people, good mix of ages, all up for a good night out.  It was also good to meet up with two comedians I've met before at gigs, Andrew Roper and Steve Day.

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