Ed Gamble, Glastonbury + Kaleidoscope festivals, Jazz Emu - Mark Muldoon's Comedy Diary
Published: Wednesday 17th July 2024
Interesting prospect, the idea of seeing Ed Gamble do stand-up. Amongst a broadly accomplished skillset, he's definitely at his best when he's showcasing his off-the-cuff comedic powers. People arguably now know him best as a podcaster or presenter. Is there a sense that he has something to prove, by showing his touring shows can be just as good?
He opts for an enjoyably combative opening gambit. It's an extremely hot weekday evening, with a performance that clashes with an England football game. But we've still decided to come see comedy, causing him to refer to us as "you fucking nerds". From there we move into a discussion of his street's WhatsApp group - a fertile, underexplored topic for observational comedy.
If reports from earlier in the tour are to be believed, it feels as though this show has improved the longer it's been on the road. It's traditional observational comedy and storytelling, sure, but a quality example of the form. Air fryers are discussed. Both Sonic the Hedgehog and Baby Reindeer get neat throwaway gags. There's a fun theory about why the NHS is doomed. It's a slick, enjoyable hour. You may see the ending of the show coming, but that doesn't prevent it from being a neat and satisfying way to tie the show together.
If you're at the Edinburgh Fringe this year, you'll have the chance to see critically-acclaimed musical comedian Jazz Emu's biggest show yet (meaning: he'll be in quite a nice room, and performing with a full live band for the first time). It's possible you won't be particularly sold on the show to start with, though. It feels like a series of merely-decent ideas that aren't good enough to justify how randomly-assembled they are. But then the ending comes, and a lot (if not all) of the show retrospectively makes a lot more sense. You leave having enjoyed the show more than you were whilst watching it.
Glastonbury festival, now, which was certainly good fun this year, although, erm, I didn't see any live comedy. The festival continues to enormously undervalue the artform, and the comedy line-up tends to be a lot of the same names every year (the ones, you suspect, that are happy to perform in exchange for free Glastonbury tickets). Anytime there was anybody I fancied watching, they were part of some horrible clash with music I was extremely keen to see (Maisie Adam or Mannequin Pussy? Tricky). Still, important we offer a shout out to James Acaster and Nish Kumar's DJ set late on Saturday night, which succeeded in bending their often too-cool-for-school music tastes into something that was still credible but inarguably crowd-pleasing. Here's a fun playlist covering off much of their set.
Many other music festivals have found added value in lavishing far more effort on their live comedy offering. One such event is Kaleidoscope Festival, which is basically the in-house offering from London mega-venue-on-a-hill Alexandra Palace. The 'Fringe' stage is in the West Hall, a room the comedians complain is like "an aircraft hanger", meaning they're struggling to hear the audience laughing (which we are doing: our enjoyment isn't being impacted). It's maybe an odd staging choice, not least because the flatly stunning theatre room is seemingly going unused next door.
They've booked a promising line-up, though. If you've ever wondered what the easiest job in the world is, I'd argue it's interviewing Brian Blessed. All you need to do is prepare three questions for the Flash Gordon actor and he'll monologue the rest, darting non-sequentially from one amazing story to another. Quite apart from anything else he - without prompting, naturally - tells us about the time he asked the Dalai Lama how he copes with getting horny (cold showers make all the difference, apparently).
Elsewhere, Katie McLeod hosts charmingly as her Kharismaa persona, respectively introducing Chloe Petts (a commanding joy), Ahir Shah (largely doing reliable old material), Sophie Duker (some good stuff but overall a bit of a mixed bag) and headliner Simon Amstell (as if AI had been challenged to write a Simon Amstell comedy set, and not succeeded in making it funny enough).
Outdoors, the music at the festival could be described as "don't expect people to be happy if it's from the last 20 years". There's The Go! Team (who should be thanked for assembling their setlist considerately, with a focus on their early-career bangers), Soul II Soul (well-chosen sunset accompaniment) and headliners Ministry of Sound Classical (by its nature a bit parasitic, but irrefutably very, very effective). Moreover, in the world of music festivals the event achieves something important and surprisingly rare: both sightlines and sound are great no matter where you stand in the main arena. So, you know, it does work well as a festival. Would recommend.
Read previous editions of this column (featuring Fawlty Towers: The Play, Sarah Keyworth, Phil Wang, Jessica Fostekew and Rhod Gilbert).
Mark Muldoon is also available on Instagram and Twitter. He hopes he never again has to choose between seeing Maisie Adam or Mannequin Pussy.
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