2011 Edinburgh Fringe
Mick Ferry review
Amongst the comedians boosted by an appearance on Michael McIntyre's Comedy Roadshow is Mick Ferry, presenting a fine show in the Sportsman down in the depths of the Gilded Balloon.
Relying somewhat on his charm as a performer, this year Ferry's offering is a mainstream showcase of Northern banter carried out to a high standard. I do like a good theme in an Edinburgh show, and they can be so easily overlooked by the mainstream comics who can just rely on their charm and accessible material to pull them through. However Ferry has settled on a smart, general theme: the end of the world is coming, and how are we going to prepare? Simple enough, and general enough he could pull almost anything into it, but it's enough to give this hour a sense of focus. Also nicely incorporated with this theme was the idea of what would you take into a bunker with you, which incorporated the audience nicely and proved Ferry's improvisational skills.
Ferry is obviously very relaxed on stage, and the way he communicates his material seems effortless. Amusing tales of family life are stuffed with humour, but very comfortably and without forced effort. Even when speaking on topics that have been done to death by many comics, it was executed very well. Genuine warmth between performer and audience was formed, and this sort of true connection can be quite rare on the Fringe, as audiences tend to see more comedians that day than an average member of the general public sees in a year.
The ending felt a little bit forced and cheap for I, as a purist, like to see stand-up pure and unsaturated to the bitter end of a set. The hour itself may be a bit middle-of-the-road for those here for true alternative comedy, but in terms of mainstream, anecdotal, observational entertainment, you're going to be hard pressed to beat this.