Friday night comedy kicks at the Croft

Hungerford Comedy Club at Croft Hall, Hungerford on Friday, September 24

GRAEME Coulam opened proceedings with some excellent observational humour, showing a real affection for the assembled crowd of which he appeared to know all.

He prepared the ground for the comedic adventure by making us feel we were in safe hands.

Chris Chopping kicked off the evening with a self-effacing monologue on the tedium of a dull childhood, being dragged through endless National Trust Gardens by well-meaning parents. The strength of his piece was that he was able to touch on the experiences of childhood that have been more than a tad disappointing, bringing the audience on side.

Two women followed in markedly different styles and personas. Priya Hall movingly described her trials and tribulations of being uprooted from India and endeavouring to settle here but feeling estranged from both countries. It was a gentle comic observation more reflective than laugh out loud, but none the worse for that.

In a very different vein Jools O’Brien stormed the stage with a personal diatribe of well-worn subjects including internet dating, disappointing sex, single mums and plastic surgery delivered with great gusto and charisma. We loved her but perhaps her failings did not ring true because her persona did not especially mirror the image that she was endeavouring to project.

The headline act Mark Mair came on stage like the comedy colossus that he is with BBC Radio 4 work including Trapped and on BBC 1’s The Stand Up Show. The confidence was more than justified by the rubber-faced deliverance of the most excellent content. His observation of the absurd took the audience to surrealist heights of comedic delight. He had us in the palm of his hand and played us as a cat plays a mouse. So much so that he received a standing ovation of which he was clearly delighted but equally apprehensive as to how to follow without prepared content, so he riffed on picking on the front row with barbed observations but with such good humour as to bring the house down. He was winging it but soared to the sky of what comedy should be, sure, surreal and surprising.

An excellent evening with another show promised for November 26.