Review: Joe Lycett and Friends

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Comedy HutYesterday, on March the 5th, I went to the first comedy night at the Custard Factory in Digbeth and it was a really unique experience as there were only 100 seats so the crowd was really nice. The night was hosted by Karen Bayley and featured sets from Freddie Farrell, Jon Pearson and of course Joe Lycett.

Freddie Farrell is local to the area and reminded me of some Brummies I know. I really liked his often sarcastic and down-beat tone because it is reminiscent of Jack Dee. His material about his girlfriend and kids received big laughs, his impressions of his children with their Birmingham accents especially. Jon Pearson was next and I also really liked him as he was kind of a hybrid of lots of comedians I’ve  seen. He has a skill for building a story and while constantly flitting back to things he mentioned at the very beginning in a similar way to that of Rhod Gilbert (though he didn’t have enough time to build it to Rhod’s intensity).

Then it was finally time for Joe Lycett, one of my favourite comedians ever and just a really nice guy. The set was hilarious and heavily featured the two Mexican students sat in front of me who were adorable. At one point, Joe had climbed over the front row and was sat flirting with Diego and Ivan. Joe showed us some of the material for his new series Junk that is about to be recorded, and I am really excited for. The junk he had was pretty disturbing to be honest- it featured a frog doll with a baby’s head, holding a wasp- incredible. I would have liked his set to be longer as I thoroughly enjoyed what I saw of the set and will definitely be seeing him again soon!

Also, if you live in or around Birmingham, do look into the Comedy Hut in Stourbridge and Digbeth as they show lesser-known acts and could do with support from people like us.

Ja’mie: Private School Girl

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I could have cried tears of elation when I heard Ja’mie: Private School Girl would be premiering in the UK on BBC Three earlier this month because all of Chris Lilley’s previous work has been hilarious and original.

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The show is Australian and follows the life of Ja’mie, an egotistical bitch of a girl, played by Chris Lilley who happens to be a man yet also happens to be hotter than pretty much all girls I know. Ja’mie was originally a character in one of my favourite shows ever, Summer Heights High. The show only ran for one series which was disappointing because it had me crying with laughter. It is set in an Aussie high school and focuses on a few main characters which are all played by Lilley (the less significant characters have different actors).

Ja’mie is one of the significant and most loved characters from Summer Heights High so has subsequently earned her very own show. Ja’mie and her group of popular girl prefects are in the final few months of their time at Hilford Girls’ Grammar but are more interested in the social side, particularly the boys from Kelton Boys’ Grammar down the road. One particular guy, Mitchell, is the favourite of Ja’mie and she embarks on her mission to get him to be her’s.

Whilst caring about the social side of school, Ja’mie is also determined to earn the Hilford Medal at the end of her time there- the prize basically given to the most successful, thoughtful and popular girl in school. It is inevitable that Ja’mie will win the prize despite probably being the most hated bitch in school.

I really admire Chris Lilley’s work: his ability to take on so many different personas, his character development, the mockumentary style of the series and his uncanny ability to look hot in a dress and a wig.

House of Fools

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January marked a much awaited time for Vic and Bob fans: the arrival of the brand new surreal sitcom, House Of Fools. The programme follows the troubles faced by Bob [Mortimer] and his group of unreliable and slightly insane ‘friends’ (plus his Norwegian son, Erik) who all insist on lodging in his house whilst continually mocking poor Bob as he manages to fail in all aspects of his life.

The casting of the programme is near on perfection, featuring Matt Berry as Beef, Dan Skinner as Bosh, Morgana Robinson as Julie and of course Vic and Bob themselves. I was pleased to see a new face on the programme: stand up comedian Daniel Simonsen as Erik, whose role in the show is refreshing, maybe because the exaggerated Norwegian accent is hilarious in itself.

Reeves and Mortimer have said in interviews that the aim of the show was to take the conventional idea of what should be in a sitcom and completely turn it on its head by recreating typical situations but in a new way. For example, when a neighbour tells the protagonist that they need them to look after something very important, the audience are immediately aware of the inevitability that something will soon go drastically wrong. The double act recognised this and made it the plot line of episode two, The Pork Pie Affair, in which Julie asks the group to look after an oversized pork pie that is to be given to Bruce Willis that evening.

The programme is broken up with songs of nonsense, that Bob describes as a “shortcut to telling a plot, so we set everything up via the gift of song.” The words are constantly going round my head on a daily basis and I can’t seem to get them out so beware!

No More All-Male Panel Shows

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Today the BBC announced they were to make sure every episode of shows like QI and Mock the Week are to have at least one female guest. My first reaction was along the lines of: ‘sure, this is coming from a good place, women should be greater represented in comedy. The idea behind this is a sound one.’ However, I don’t think this is the correct way to go about it in the slightest. Speaking as a young female, I felt embarrassed to hear that women would get such special treatment. From now on, even if it is untrue, every comedienne that is asked to appear on such shows will feel that they are just there to fit the BBC’s new criteria. They are being completely undermined.

mock the week

© BBC

Females comics don’t get half the recognition they deserve and some of the funniest people in the industry I know of are women. For example Katherine Ryan, Sara Pascoe, Dolly Wells, Morgana Robinson, Roisin Conaty, Sarah Millican and Aisling Bea, are amongst some of my favourites. I think women add a valuable new dimension to such panel shows. They make it interesting. So seeing my favourite comediennes on television is always a highlight for me as like most people, they have earned their place on the panel. Years of hard work goes in before people come anywhere near to performing on programmes like Mock the Week.

It makes me sad to think that the women mentioned above may feel undervalued in the future when invited to appear on BBC panel shows because they deserve to be commended for their hard work. In many cases, they deserve additional recognition purely for the way they have surfaced above the hundreds of male comics in the UK while facing constant discrimination along the way. How many times have you heard the phrase: ‘she’s funny for a female comic’ or ‘no female comics are ever funny’. These make my blood boil- do they have no idea that humour is not purely in your genetic information? Have they not stopped to consider that intelligence, wit and life experiences might have some influence?

Some Girls, Series 2

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I tend to try and watch all new sitcoms that appear on the BBC and Channel 4 in particular as comedy is clearly thriving in Britain at the moment, but the main thing that originally drew me to series 1 of Some Girls was the fact that it starred Dolly Wells (Noel Fielding’s Luxury Comedy).

some girls

Some Girls follows a small friendship group through their experiences at high school; most of the girls in the group are very odd. Viva is the character with the main focus as we are introduced to her family, which includes her pregnant stepmother Anna Hitchcock (‘Bitchcock’) who is played by Wells. Anna is also the girls’ school football coach and has most of the funniest lines in the whole show. One of my favourites from this new series was along the lines of: [In a full school assembly] “As most of you know, Mr Andrews has died. For those of you who didn’t know, Mr Andrews has died”. I found her sarcasm and impatience throughout the episodes hysterically funny.

The cast is refreshingly young and skilled. Amber (Alice Felgate) and Saz (Mandeep Dhillon) are completely insane characters and have such contrasting personalities- Amber is a typical ‘dumb blonde’ character with a really kind heart and Saz is sarcastic, angry and hilarious. Some Girls is surprisingly original and enjoyable; I found myself laughing out loud a lot.