Sunday, May 02, 2010

Caught Adam Buxton at The 100 Club on Wednesday night. He was ably supported Jonny Sweet, Tim Key and Tom Basden, and hosted by Fergus Craig. Amazingly enough, in spite of my thinking I would be late, I caught all four of them, albeit, standing forlornly at the back of the room in my MBTs.

Anywhere, this wasn't an ordinary stand-up comedy show. It featured a whole range of different kinds of media. Jonny Sweet, in his story about his brother, an award-winning blurbist, used audio-visual slides and video to supplement his story. Tim Key was just a bit of an insane Irishman, which is to say, pretty darn funny.

I always think the host has the worst possible job of the night, and it was good to see Fergus Craig making the best of it. His impression of a Lil' Wayne tune - as a white man doing gangsta actions in the campest way possible - was hilarious.

And Tom Basden? I think he was the best of the lot, even better than Adam Buxton, even though Adam was very funny indeed. Tom's repertoire is incredibly weird, consisting of short original songs (accompanied by his guitar), strange little drawings (I really enjoyed Where's Wally's Grandad and Obamas in Pajamas) and excerpts from his novel, which, if ever published, would be a shoo-in for the Bulwer-Lytton award. Absolutely hilarious and very original.

The other thing about Tom is that he looks a lot like CG! Or, rather, given his age, I should say CG looks a lot like Tom. And the fact that they both play the guitar and speak in very similar ways? And the fact that Tom's just about a year younger than I am (if he's speaking the truth about his zodiac sign)? Man. Much better than someone five years younger. Almost-instant girl-crush right there.

I never ever thought I had a type beyond the guys I used to go out with when I was in Singapore, but, I guess, now I do. Tall, sandy-haired, Englishmen, preferably with guitar-playing ability. Oh, and, er, younger than I am too, even though, on paper, I'll deny it, but, in practice, I'll concede everyone has a point.

But back to Adam. Anyone's who's been to a BUG will not be surprised to find that Adam's comedy routine consists largely of self-made video clips, strange music videos and readings of YouTube comments on these videos. It may sound boring, but it works. I mean, BUG 19 is coming up the BFI, and they're almost always sold out within a few weeks, so he's got to be doing something right, no?

In any case, the line-up for this night was amazing. I think I only paid £15 or so to catch four very talented comedians. Sure, there have been nights I've paid far less (i.e. free) such as catching Michael Macintyre and Al Murray at a double-filming of Live at the Apollo last year, but, still, nights such as these are few and far between.

Adam is next performing at Are You Taking The Peace? at the Bloomsbury Theatre on May 6th, which also features Stewart Lee, Tim Key, Al Barrie and Will Andrews. Tom Basden's gigs are listed on his website. He's got three lined up for May, none of which I can make, but which I would strongly encourage any one else to go to.

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