Preview: Steve Hughes - Big Issues

I’ve been lucky enough to have been able to get hold of some tickets to go and see the excellent Steve Hughes on his Big Issues tour in Wolverhampton next week.

I’ve had the fortune of seeing Steve twice before, both times supporting Reginald D Hunter, so it’s quite exciting to be able to see his full show in a smaller setting.

His act consists mainly of complaining about politics, the state of the world and music; and is absolutely hilarious. He has the canny ability to say the most obvious things that you don’t realise are funny until he points them out.

His funniest and maybe most famous act is him talking about the world of health and safety and how it’s basically common sense. You can watch it here 

His style isn’t really the typical feed line punch line sort but rather more like, dare I say it, Bill Hicks. His fantastic way of pointing out how everyone is a hypocrite and the governments are controlling us will make you laugh but also make you go home thinking a lot about what he’s said.

The gig takes place at my favourite gig in the country which is the Wulfrun Hall. To check out more comedy dates they’ve got on (which is a lot) go to www.wolvescivic.co.uk

We’ll let you know how it went next week, until then, watch his videos!

SB
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TV: Kevin Bridges - What's The Story?

Kevin Bridges is one of the Britain’s brightest and youngest comedy stars, so seeing him get a new show on BBC which delves into the roots of his comedy is great to see.

On first glance, the idea of the show seems a little poor, but it is actually a great watch. At just 25, you may not think Kevin has much to talk about but his comedy has taken the world by storm and looks set to be one of the best comedians of the next 20 years.

The show starts off in Glasgow with his parents and shows clips of his massive show at the Glasgow SECC, which was released on DVD as Kevin Bridges The Story So Far… Live In Glasgow.

It is almost like the show aims to explain every little story behind each joke which, while it’s not always funny, is really interesting. For anyone who has seen his stand up, they’ll know who Chad Hogan is, and for those who don’t, well you should watch the programme, but Kevin is whisked off to Utah to meet the not so fictional character.

An interesting part of the show is when Kevin meets Frank Skinner, to whom he admits that picking up his autobiography is what got him into comedy. From one comedian to another, it’s great to see them chatting and having a laugh and is an insight into what backstage of a gig might be like. It’s also nice to see the respect shared between the two.

How many episodes of the series there are going to be I’m not sure, but if it’s as interesting as the first, it may be a series worth keeping your eye on. The first episode can be seen on BBC iPlayer here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01c09kr/Kevin_Bridges_Whats_the_Story_Growing_Up/

SB
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Retrospective: The Keith Barrett Show

Hi all,

Sorry it’s been so long in blogging again; we’ve been very busy over the past week! To make up for it we’re going to be blogging your heads off over the next couple of weeks, with lots of DVD’s, videos, live reviews and TV shows.

To kick off, while we were on our travels, we managed to sneak in a cheeky watch of Rob Brydon’s character DVD Keith Barrett Live, which was rather a good watch.

Released in 2006 on the back of the successful Marion and Geoff and The Keith Barrett show, the DVD is fantastic in whimsical clever comedy. For some, the character of Keith Barrett may be tiring but hidden in amongst the similar jokes throughout the show are some genuinely clever pieces of comedy. For example, the section where he claims to not be great at thinking of things off the top of his head, and then creates ten minutes worth of comedy while chatting to audience is great.

Brydon plays the harmless aging divorcee character down to a T, which is probably what helped him land the role as Uncle Bryn in Gavin and Stacey. There are similarities in their characters and these are noticeable all the way through; most obviously his inability to be ‘cool.’

On the whole, the DVD is a enjoyable watch but we wouldn’t exactly recommend it to anyone. Lovers of character comedy and people who don’t mind there being no ‘proper’ jokes will find it a joy but many people will find it quite slow (as did my mother).

We managed to pick it up for £1 from CEX so whichever way you look at it, we got value for our money!

Until next time…

SB

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