Channel 4 Comedy Gala 2011 review

When watching some of the more lacklustre comedians at the Channel 4 Comedy Gala, it occurred to me that all of the performers were doing this for free and in aid of a great cause, Great Ormond Street Hospital. Also, that comedy is subjective - there was close to 15,000 people at the O2 Arena and the populist line-up had to try and deliver something for everyone. Basically what I'm trying to say is that it's hard to be too critical on an evening that does so much good and raises so much money without feeling like a monster, which is why I have tried to kerb some of inherent cynicism and focus more on the positives of the evening...

The night opened with our "host for the evening", Dermot O'Leary (who was then not seen again for the best part of three hours) introducing N-Dubz. The band seemed incredibly out of place for an evening of comedy, which I suppose was the reason for Alan Carr's mid-song interruption, in which he, dressed as a fireman, zip-lined onto the stage and used a fire extinguisher on the band. This could have been awful had it not been for Carr's commentary on just how weird the whole situation was, which gave it just enough irony to make it funny. Carr's set (if you can really call it that, seeing that each comic got around 10 minutes of stage time) was fine but it wasn't so much stand-up as it was an introduction to the night's proceedings.

The first actual stint came from Dara O'Briain, who joked about guilty pleasures, his kids, and being a father (which was something of a theme throughout the evening, what with the cause, and the general age of the comedians taking part). Going first must be tough on a bill like this, but you wouldn't know it from watching Dara, who managed to hold the audiences' attention and get enough laughs to set the motions for a great night of comedy.

Mark Watson, who is about as close as you get to alternative on this line-up, gave a very strong performance, joking mainly about sexism, namely his dislike for how having "balls" was synonymous with courage and how there is no female equivalent - something he set out to change. I couldn't help but feel that, on the whole, it would have better if he had been given more stage time as opposed to someone like Jonathan Ross, who isn't a stand-up and yet was easily on stage for twice as long. That's not to say that Ross was bad, in fact at times he was pretty good - just not consistent enough to warrant his stage time. His bit about visiting a children's hospital and being mistaken for someone else was amusing, but the stuff about his dogs fared less well and went on for far too long.

Sean Lock had a very strong set which included some very topical material about super injunctions and the Icelandic volcano, combining the two together at one point to suggest the ash cloud was caused by "Ryan Giggs burning every newspaper he can get his hands on". The topical stuff was especially welcomed for clearly being new material - which was something of a rarity for the evening. In addition, his spots on Twitter and "Chuggers" (charity muggers) might just have been the best material of the night.

Recent BAFTA winner Jo Brand didn't quite get the audience reaction of the previous acts, perhaps due to the fact she relied on material used repeatedly on her numerous TV appearances. There was one story about getting abducted that started off promisingly, but just led to a rather flimsy joke involving her "ugly" shtick. In contrast, Lee Evans had the crowd eating out of the palm of his hand, even if his supposed nervousness of such a big crowd was somewhat hard to buy into (in fact, upon leaving, I was handed a leaflet advertising a DVD box-set of his last three arena tours). The topics of his jokes were very old fashioned, but told with real heart and some interesting word play. The amount of effort he put in, on just a purely physical aspect, was also very impressive.

Chris Moyles was there - but the less said about him the better. Why he was inexplicably dressed as Freddie Mercury, and why he chose to do an audience sing along will forever remain one of life's mysteries. Far better was Newcastle-born comedian Sarah Millican. She started out with an inconsistent bit about underwear but ended with a really strong story about a suicide pact her parents have, which managed to be dark, sweet and funny all at once.

Jon Richardson, who has recently been named as Jason Manford's replacement on Channel 4's popular panel show 8 Out Of 10 Cats and thus is soon to be a household name, was next. At the Gala he talked about his dislike for his own voice whilst resolving that it is good for comedy, as well as delivering a story about his favourite radio news announcement involving a severed crocodile head. His spot was perfectly fine, peppered with some genuinely funny gags that went down well with the audience, but he didn't exactly stand out and he is capable of much better material.

Jason Byrne's set, which focused on how women supposedly get aroused when they go shopping, seemed like it had been written by an eight year old, but it's that same child-like enthusiasm combined with an energetic delivery that got him big laughs. Personally, I didn't really like his material, but his persistence to make you laugh at his jokes eventually manages to breaks through all taste-barriers to the point where you can't help but smile.

Just before a much needed interval, "the biggest name in British comedy", Michael McIntyre approached the stage, confessing that he hadn't done much stand-up as of late, what with his ascension from comedy towards celebrity. He's obviously now a judge on Britain's Got Talent and this led to him talking about how "awesome" being famous is and how he is now known as "The Michael McIntyre", particularly on the phone when paying bills and what not. All of which was tightly written and well delivered, if somewhat formulaic. The other material, particularly the stuff about his three year old son's obsession with cheese, was a lot weaker and eventually led to a very lazy call back. Observing the audience, McIntyre was possibly the biggest draw of the evening, and those who like his comedy wouldn't have been disappointed with his set.

The interval came and went seemingly before half the O2 audience realised and, as a result, Rich Hall received one of the worst slots of the night; having to perform whilst hundreds of people found their seats. Despite this, he was still a very strong act and unlike many of the other performers that night, did something completely different (compared to his usual TV appearances at least). He performed a three minute song about being in love with a girl in the Klu Klux Klan, which managed to be funny, charming, and well constructed as song in its own right.

One of the highlights of the evening was Kevin Bridges (pictured), who started off with something of a call to arms to his fellow Vodafone users, which was somewhat apt considering the venue. He went on to discuss how phone networks allow normal people to talk like footballers, what with contracts and moves to other companies etc, all of which went down well. He also did some stuff about learning to drive in London and learning Spanish for an upcoming holiday and it was that sort of variety that made it the perfect set for this sort of evening.

Mickey Flanagan (pictured below) should maybe consider going into travel writing, seeing how he managed to fit a story about misunderstanding accents in New York and getting Delhi Belli in Mumbai in such a short set. Flanagan's material was very strong and you could tell that he is a Comedy Store regular; in that he is able to deliver high quality sets for short spots. The audience loved him and he received one of the biggest rounds of applause.

Andi Osho's set was not so strong, definitely not strong enough to hold the full attention of people who had already sat through so many comedians... and Chris Moyles. There were some patches of really well crafted jokes, such as a story about a foreign man's inability to grasp the correct intonations of a football chant. However, it did at times feel like Osho relied on audience interaction to make up for a lack of material. Another person who falls into the category of under-performing was seasoned stand-up Jack Dee, who did have some strong material, but, like with Jo Brand, it was the same material that has been done to death on his Live at the Apollo stints, stand-up DVDs and panel show appearances and, as a result, didn't grab the audience as much as it would have done it if was new.

In contrast, Jack Whitehall approached the stage with a lot of energy and determination and was able to immediately pull things around. His suggestions for the Midsomer Murders racism row were very well crafted and received big laughs. The only problem with his set was the ending, in which he told us how he used to talk like "a youth from the ghetto" in order to distance himself from his posh roots, which managed to be terribly unfunny and somewhat patronising at the same time. He earned his round of applause more than most though.

Shappi Khorsandi failed to connect with the audience, perhaps due to the fact that the gig was overrunning and she maybe had to rush her set a little - but some of her jokes felt pretty weak ("What is mixed race? To me a guy on a horse and a guy on a motorbike is a mixed race..."). This was reflected by the very quiet audience response.

As we approached the final stretch of the evening, Jason Manford came on stage and, perhaps due to his experience with these sorts of gigs (having hosted Live at the Apollo and the like), managed to hold the entire audience. No small feat considering we'd already seen something close to 20 acts. Both his delivery and material were assured and confident, and perhaps more importantly: funny, which was more than needed after a few inconsistent performances. Whether he was playing around with the audience by using some of Jack Whitehall's material and offering "two different versions for the edit", or using Andy Gray's off air outburst to talk about his own tabloid scandal ("imagine losing your job for something you did off air"), Manford seemed very comfortable on stage.

The last act of the night was Liverpudlian comedian John Bishop, who you may have seen on every other show too recently - he's everywhere. Bishop suffered from a similar problem as Rich Hall, in that the night had overrun to the point where people had to leave in the hopes of catching the last tube home, something which Bishop incorporated into his act, noting how all the London comics had performed first. Bishops set was adequate, but maybe not good enough to be closing the evening. A far better choice would have been Rhod Gilbert, as he has the requisite enthusiasm and liveliness needed to get the audiences attention at this late stage of proceedings. When Gilbert came on earlier in the evening, the audience immediately perked up and I can't help but feel it's that sort of high energy you'd want the evening to end on.

All in all, the event was pretty good, but not great. Perhaps if there had been slightly less people on the bill or a couple of more avant-garde acts thrown in, the audience wouldn't have grown as weary as they did towards the end of the night. Also, I'm not so sure that purely on comedic terms, that the live show was worth its £65 admission fee, but when you know that the money is going to good cause, it evens out. Last year the event raised £800,000 and it looks like this year's Gala will perform similarly well - so congratulations to Channel 4 and promoters Off The Kerb for helping out charity in this way. It'll no doubt edit down to a very entertaining TV show...