comedy show great british

On the 24th September, Leicester’s The Y Theatre hosted ‘We Are the Champions’, a show for winners of Leicester based comedy awards, which was bound to be pretty good right considering the show is rubbing it in the audience’s face that these are winners. WINNERS DAMN YOU! Too right they are and I felt deservedly so for most (That’s right one didn’t tickle my fancy at all…but which one was it?)

So kicking the evening off is our host and compére David Morgan, a self-professed television addict who admitted that for the first time he was missing BBC’s ‘Great British Bake Off’ (So was I David, thanks for bringing it up). I had managed to forget before the show but he kept bringing it up, I originally wanted comedy now it was bloody cake. The perfect chatty comedian to dress up and play compére, David was nominated for a Dave’s Leicester Comedy Festival award this year but sadly didn’t win, I say sadly, I have no idea who won that particular award. They may have been good but I didn’t see them, I’m watching the funny guy on stage that talks about ‘Bake Off’ and in my head he’s the winner. He gives us some cheeky insights into gay marriage and the take out menu on the dating app for gay men, Grindr. He was delightfully charming and entertaining before introducing the other acts. He would be the perfect host on ‘Come Dine With Me’ (which he of course mentioned).

The first act is Kate Lucas, winner of the Leicester Mercury Comedian of the Year 2014, who I actually saw at the 2014 Fringe festival. I managed to contain my excitement and not scream at her on the front row “HEY KATE! HEY REMEMBER ME!!” which was for the best because she’s the musical portion of the show and she had a new song to share. You all know how Mary Berry from ‘Bake Off’ is actually secretly evil? Well this song has nothing to do with that (nudge, nudge). Personally I doubt that she thought her lyrics had dark undertones, she was as shocked as me when the audience hesitantly laughed at a crack addicted amputee ex-boyfriend. I felt like the audience’s time with Lucas was over far too quickly but time does fly when you’re having fun at the expense of the people’s misery that she was singing about.

Moving swiftly on we come to Darren Walsh (UK Pun Champion 2014) and deservedly so. A mixture of clever tech work and word play made for an enthralling set, just wondering what was going to come out of his mouth next. Of all things I never expected to hear a cat meowing the theme from ‘Jurassic Park’.

Next we have Marc Lucero (Silver Stand Up 2014) and what a silver fox, with a tendency to lose his glasses and find lost Christmas walnuts in his rectum. Comedians like Lucero demonstrate why it’s so important not to become ageist when looking for comedy, and I loved his own self-deprecating comparison to Rolf Harris.

Right, let’s get to Ahir Shan (Best Show Dave’s Leicester Comedy Festival 2014) and how I hated every minute. Thankfully comedy, like all art forms, is subjective, maybe Shah just wasn’t what I’d normally like in a comic, but it felt like even the oxygen in that room thought he was an awkwardly bad comic and wanted to leave. I found his style to be far too pretentious and aggressive for me to enjoy and being close enough to the stage to see the saliva flying out of his mouth as he hissed at the audience was a massive turn off. He had good punch-lines but it felt like the build ups were far too long and the damage of him droning on had been done.

Overall a really enjoyable evening, one (in my personal opinion) bad comic didn’t spoil the show, and the acts all had diverse styles of comedy so the audience was thrilled from what I could tell. Although I was hoping halfway through Shah’s set Morgan would come back to the stage, unannounced, proceed to knock him out in true superhero style and then take his award for Best Show Dave’s Leicester Comedy Festival 2014.