This is certainly no show to take your Nan to, but for those who love a good bit of swearing, and a hell of a lot of nasty material, this is an hour jam packed full of it.
Ferry began with rude gags and some nastily hilarious audience interaction, setting the bar for offensive comedy pretty high, pretty quickly. No topic is off limits. Expect everything from Operation Yewtree to necrophilia; nothing is sacred. He does a good job of getting the audience prepared for the hour ahead of them, and keeps momentum going in between their short sets. And these are very short sets, so it’s straight in with the foulest stuff they’ve got.
Mark Nelson’s set was direct and hilariously crude, his brutally honest observations about masturbation were perfectly constructed and his cleverly tongue in cheek gags had the audience in fits. Next, Desmond O’Connor, with his ukulele wielding musical vulgarity, was well received by an already shocked audience. His dapper stage presence and cheery songs were cut through perfectly with some seriously sick lyrics; one especially catchy number entitled ‘I wanna fuck you’ was an absolute hit. O’Connor manages to be beautifully subtle and obscenely obvious at the same time.
It was a treat to see the familiar face of Mark Dolan, who was clearly trying out some gags he’d be fired for if he pulled them out on Channel 4. He began with some solid jokes, but his more observational material was far better received. The stand out star of the show was Alexis Dubus’ Mark Lucont, who strolled onto stage with no shoes and an outrageously rakish suit while luxuriously clutching a red wine. His slow paced sarcastic style was perfectly timed while his jokes were so carefully considered and disdainfully delivered that the audience was hanging on his every word. His poem about ‘fucking pensioners’ was a particularity dirty addition, performed with his classic elegant self-confidence.
Tom Stade was the last comic of the hour, and while a bit shouty and less subtle, his set contained some suitably muddy language and some squalidly funny observations. This is certainly no show to take your Nan to, but for those who love a good bit of swearing, and a hell of a lot of nasty material, this is an hour jam packed full of it.
