The Comedy Store
- Posted on August 9, 2007 3:31 PM
- 1 comment
The Comedy Store: The Cutting Edge Team
Review by Naima Khan
Summer in the city can be a dull time for a broke student crashing on her sister’s sofa. This Tuesday however, purse strings being a little looser thanks to new job, I trekked to central London for some laughs in Leicester Square with said sister and a few fellow office worker-type friends of ours. Tuesday night is Cutting Edge night at The Comedy Store.
A bald guy, a moody guy, an old guy, a short guy, a Geordie, and a Canadian make up the Cutting Edge team who make it their business to demonstrate the absurdity of the world we find ourselves in by pointing and laughing mostly. Covering a healthy amount of comedic ground between them using audience selected news issues of the past 18 months, they challenge themselves - not always meeting the challenge - and manage to entertain us. Audience participation is required and I don’t just mean a few freaks need to sit in the front row so we can laugh as others more skilled than ourselves mock them relentlessly - though this does happen and is a vicarious exercise for those of us with an inner bully. No, I’m talking exchange of ideas, that is, shouting about what you’ve watched on GMTV in recent months. I’m talking assessing the quality of the comedy and giving immediate feedback or booing, jeering and yelling ‘Hit!’ or ‘Miss!’ It all gets a bit leery after the 20-minute interval when most of the audience take the opportunity to get another round in.
As with all comedy save that of perhaps Ross Noble - curly haired genius that he is - the night’s performances were indeed, a little hit and miss. There were enough regular winners to carve some worthwhile laughter lines. Winning gags included skiers on weed, personal impressionism and political satire - Mr Bush, you really have not helped yourself of late. Jokes that suffered a painful, not so slow death involved cows on a plan asking for in flight ‘moovies’ and your run of the mill crudeness- Bush is maybe not such a great name for a president. Nothing too cringe worthy though.
Maybe it’s the music that gives the team their edge. The chaps deserve kudos for being witty in the musical sense too. When Short Guy bounds on stage with a guitar you can’t help but smile and then giggle a little as he makes his wit rhyme and puts it to music. We are then further rewarded with a grand rock’n’roll finale, that is, they get the guitar out again and try to harmonise camp-fire style.
There is no denying that The Comedy Store is an out and out success with over 3,500 visitors every week. There surely is a winning formula at work here. You walk away with the feeling of having just hung out with your good friends who happen to be extremely witty and satirical if a little classically smutty at times. We weren’t exactly in the presence of comic genius but they made us laugh and that was what we were there for. I’m guessing they bring the big dogs out a little later in the week though.
Comments (1)
Katie
Sounds fun! Was Ross Noble actually performing then? He's a master!
Posted on August 9, 2007 3:42 PM
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