Sunday 8th December 2024
While I love comedians such as Tim Key and Bo Burnham who weave intricate and layered comedy narratives across a two-hour show, when it comes to comedy, you can’t beat a gag. Nothing has the ability to unite a room like a one-liner and along with Jimmy Carr and Tim Vine, Gary Delaney is one of the best in the business. Having caught Delaney at the Cast Theatre in Doncaster back in November of 2023, I was intrigued to know how much of this set as headliner of a full night of comedy in a smaller venue would be different to his previous headline gig at a much bigger venue. The answer is wonderfully different but also the same in all the ways you’d want it to be…
Before getting stuck into Delaney (a sentence starter that the man himself would no doubt be able to create a joke out of), a quick word for Joe Kent-Walters and his comedy character Frankie Monroe. The conceit is that Frankie manages a Working Men’s Club in Rotherham which also happens to be a portal to hell. Part League of Gentlemen and part Phoenix Nights, Monroe’s hellish compere steals various items from the audience, makes deeply suggestive comments towards both frightened-looking women and men and performs terrible ‘magic’ tricks. It takes some bollocks to present a ‘character’ at a comedy night in which you aren’t the headliner but Monroe wins the crowd over instantly and is consistently hilarious throughout his 20-minute set. Having won the BBC New Comedy award in 2023, it is clear that Kent-Walters and his insidious creation Frankie Monroe have a bright (dark?) future ahead of them.
A word too for the venue. Despite its unearned reputation, I have always found Mexborough to be one of the friendlier and more welcoming South Yorkshire villages and it’s a truly wonderful thing that it is able to support a mid-sized venue like The Imperial which serves a great selection of local ales as well as bringing loads of great acts from the world of both music and comedy to a part of the world that is often dismissed as a cultural backwater. Go on ’em.
Delaney takes to the stage in a typically understated manner and launches straight into what is his second set of the day (having already performed a matinee show earlier on). As in Doncaster, the one-liners come thick and fast, but the curtailed running time means this show has even less of a narrative thread than the one in Donny. This is not a criticism. Delaney is a pro and he knows that a truncated show calls for less crowd work and more focus on gags – of which there are many. While I won’t spoil too many of the punchlines here, Delaney’s gags are typically either clever wordplay (“I cured a ham earlier and now it’s a pig again”) or deliberately provocative smut (“I’m not saying I was an ugly child but I had to give paedophiles sweets”). It’s a heady mix and sometimes it’s hard to hear the start of one joke because the crowd is still laughing so loudly at the last one.
Following his rapturously received set, Delaney leaves the stage to a hero’s exit having proven once again that he is one of the finest live performers on the comedy circuit. If you can make it in Mexborough, you can make it anywhere.