Chris Cantrill, Kevin Quantum - Bobby Carroll's Live Comedy Diary

Written by: Bobby Carroll
Published: Monday 30th December 2024

Chris Cantrill's Easily Swayed is an exemplary storytelling hour from a naturally endearing personality. Cantrill essays his isolation after moving to a remote rural cottage. Similar existential folk horror of the fragile middle aged male psyche as Spencer Jones' latest show. Only here the verbiage rather than the clowning spins the yarn. Cantrill has his rambling walks across Cumbria, a bespoke red velvet adventurer's cape and a crumbling grasp on sanity. Watch his downfall.

Cantrill's solo breakout feels like a statement of intent. Very much separate from his sketch duo work in The Delightful Sausage, there's a humanity, gentleness and an unvarnished quality that feels a million miles away from the gleeful, bold coarseness of his infamous cult partnership. OK... so one of the supporting characters is called 'Choad'. His choices are often surprisingly soft play. Couching even minimal crowdwork banter in complimentary phrases like "good boys." It is a deliberately cute selection of vocabulary, intentionally disarming. He shares John Kearns' ability to redefine the mundane into the incredulous by adding a bit of wobbling oomph to even the plainest word. His sentences often begin with a mock falter, grasping for the correct term for comic effect. Only a fool could fail to see this is a diligently scripted and expertly constructed hour of stand-up. Paced and ambitious yet accessible and down to earth.

I'm still not 100% post-surgery and it turns out I currently can't last over an hour without a piss break. After a painful full bladder dash out, I had to listen to all of Cantrill's threads dovetailing together, slotting perfectly into one another, creating a message of familiar blokey hope, through a door in a corridor of the Soho Theatre. Even with thick MDF between us for the final moments he made me laugh out loud. Ow! Obviously we all want more Delightful Sausage but I now relish both halves of the meat package's personal chops and future tenders. Maybe one year at the butcher's, the next at the therapist's? Please? Am I being selfish?

Kevin Quantum's Christmas Special With Guests sees the well-established Scottish magician fill a month of theatre residencies throughout December. I caught the variety package show at the Church Hill Theatre in Morningside. Every show between Christmas and 2025 promises shameless entertainment. Like a decent panto it fills a canny gap. I'm sure families with overstimulated kids, bored grandparents and visiting folk appreciated having this sure thing built into their schedule long before the turkey left the oven. Even I relished an option that was not going to badger me with politics, rinse some past trauma or bully me with needy laughter. Also, it was a much-needed break from watching my cat hasten the robot apocalypse by terrorising his new AI mouse-bot.

Quantum makes for a dapper host. His magic often circles around sleight of hand and pranks the audience are in on. Minimal set up required so he can move with agility between the turns and the crowd. His close-up conjuring in the second half was smoking hot - you wouldn't want to play Follow The Lady against his lightning fast finger work! He does an expert job of warming us up and keeps us busy while the box pushing happens behind the red curtain. He is particularly adept at handling young magicians in waiting. When a precocious / anarchic kid joins him on stage he handles the potential derailment of the show with warmth and grace. He actually seems to embrace the unpredictability.

The running order is dominated by episodes from The Art Of Illusion. Muscle bound Chris presents us with a series of contraptions constructed seemingly from clockwork cogs and fire escape staircase metal. Robot Wars meets Dark City is the vibe. His glamorous box jumper Michelle shimmers as a distraction, then contorts herself into all manner of jaw dropping impossibilities. Sure the adults might figure out half of how 50% of the devices work, but that is part of the fun. You can suspend disbelief or marvel at the mind bending design and bodily manipulation. You'd be made up if The Art Of Illusion were booked as your cruise ship cabaret act or corporate entertainment or tech billionaire's engagement party headliners. The younger kids in the audience will want to get home and build their own spectacular torture devices. The teens might have new, strange sexual awakenings unlocked by both halves of the duo. Every return to the stage got an increasingly enthused response.

Later, Daiquiri Dusk brought some festive cheer in full elf regalia. The Chrimbo bangers playlist was turned up to maximum volume. Family friendly burlesque was the order of the day and the lady sure can spin a hula hoop or four, round and round and up then down, to marvellous effect. This was La Clique worthy stuff given the added sparkle of sophisticated LEDs that created bespoke images when they reached maximum velocity.

Quantum closes the show on an arty trick that was a bit more theatrical than his hosting skits. A gentle snow themed act out that ended with a glowing, twinkling aura of true magic. My cockles were well and truly roasted as the curtain dropped. I have a grand old time whenever I dip my toes into variety shows. In all honesty I laughed during this just as often as many a purebred stand-up mixed bill. The unjaded laughter of an innocent child. I certainly was amazed a lot more frequently. Fantastic!

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