Stage @ AltLinc Comedy Club
Once again AltLinc ventured to the Zing comedy night, as they so frequently do on Mondays.
The turnout this week was certainly larger than any we’d seen before at the Zing comedy night, which was a very pleasant surprise. Extra seats were brought in to accommodate the large number of people clamouring for their weekly slice of free comedy. Organiser Ed Carfrae finished his usual pre-event adjustments to the lighting and the microphone, and spared no time in introducing this record crowd to the MC for the night – Ian Miller.
We’ve seen Ian Miller before at the Zing comedy night and his act, though quite funny, never really managed to take off. We thought the act was going the same way tonight, but thanks to a much sharper delivery (and a much larger audience) his opening gags about not being able to talk to women were an instant hit, and the gig got off to a roaring start. Bolstered by the good reaction he was getting, Ian confidently rolled through five more minutes of introductory comedy before introducing the nights first scheduled comedian.
Trev Tokabi hit the stage and enjoyed a fairly successful set. His comedic style was very anecdotal – beginning with a story involving a couple he’d seen having an argument on a night out. He spent some time on the subject of his nationality and made a few comparative gags about England and his native Ivory Coast. These were followed by a few jokes about British weather, and weather reporters in particular, which garnered the most applause thus far. He finished with a flourish with some jokes based on Speed Dating. Certainly a very strong start.
Next up was the extremely eccentric Sarah Mason. She was an immediate shock to the system, but had the audience gripped with her sheer loudness and zany personality. Her material centred around themes of sex and marriage, and the female members of the audience particularly enjoyed her tales of wonder and of woe regarding those two themes. Once you got over the initial shock she was a delightful comedic personality and kept the flow going very smoothly until it was time for the next comedian to go on.
The final act before the headliner was Don Tran, whose brilliantly dry one-liners really stole the show. Don supplied an endless stream of really well delivered jokes and the audience were howling with laughter within minutes. His memory for jokes was very impressive too, as he barely paused to think between each one. Definately the best comedian of the night, without a shadow of a doubt.
The headliner was Scottish comedian Stephen Carlin. Stephen came onto the stage at the end of a very good performance, but the Scotsman held his own and helped keep the hilarity at it’s snowy peak. His comedic stylings put me in mind of Irish comedian Dylan Moran – not in terms of the material, but more in terms of the quick wit and ready grasp of satire that they both posess in spades. All in all, this was one of the best comedy nights we have attended, and judging by the audience, they clearly thought so too.
