Selly Joking is the brand new comedy night organised by Selly Joke, our favourite one stop shop for fancy dress and party needs. They certainly lived up to their name with co manager Chris Bates anchoring the night with his superb skills as a compere (those who have had the pleasure of seeing his sets during his time as part of the Birmingham Footnotes will remember this well). He reacted both to performers and the crowd to keep laughs coming all night.
The line up was formed of current Birmingham students from the Footnotes Comedy Society, former members back for this special event and a headliner from the national circuit. Kicking off the night was David Ayland whose witty comments on global warming got the crowd going. Next to the stage was Nick Charlesworth with his mix of flamboyance, quirkiness and downright hilarious songs (his guitar skills and laughter itself were also sublime). Daniel Moroney was the final Footnote to take to the stage with a set that used sarcasm and awkwardness to great comic effect.
It was then the turn of the returners to keep the laughs coming, the standard being set high by the first acts. Old favourite Leo West was next up, using both his natural comic flare and superb skills as a writer to deliver highly amusing anecdotes and poems. Michael Brownlee came next, bringing with him an uproarious story of a pregnancy scare that left everyone laughing. Chazz Redhead made his return to Birmingham comedy with his usual rowdy blend of surrealism, film reference and superb acting skills to deliver an absolutely bonkers set.
The headliner was Andrew McBurney who was ingeniously able to switch between his broken hearted Scotsman and ill informed American musician to keep everyone guessing about what was coming next. He played both characters to hilarious effect.
In what was hopefully the first of many Selly Joke organised comedy nights the laughter was continuous throughout all the acts and hammered home what a great local comedy scene we find ourselves in the middle of.
Ben Rider
