Fern Brady, The Weirdos, Anirban Dasgupta, Andrew Doherty - Mark Muldoon's Comedy Diary

Written by: Mark Muldoon
Published: Monday 11th November 2024

Congratulations are in order for Fern Brady, who has been steadily increasing the size of her tour venues over the course of the last decade. Now, aided by a popular turn on a TV show you may have heard of called Taskmaster, that gradual rise has reached the grand surroundings of London's Hammersmith Apollo.

Brady deserves our thanks as well as our felicitations for opting to play the Apollo, as it's London's best large venue, and that's not even a close competition. It's just, in a depressingly uncommon way, a comparatively civilised affair, with its handsome art deco interior, great sightlines, a perfectly reasonable bag policy, and, as a music venue, I've never had a show there ruined by bad sound.

Let's also congratulate Brady on her new show I Gave You Milk To Drink, which represents more of the same quality output, rather than any grand reinvention. Her autism is again one of the focal points, though this show focuses more on external factors, as Brady reveals dignified contempt for reality TV bosses who want to cast her in order to provide an 'inspirational neurodiversity narrative'.

She also visits America, which cues plenty of reflections on how, quelle surprise, Americans tend to have different personalities to the people of Brady's native Scotland. Elsewhere, there was particular enthusiasm for her comments on whether or not she wished Boris Johnson had survived contracting Covid - a moment that got the woman next to me so excited she dropped her (thankfully empty) cup on me. Really though, the strength of a Fern Brady live show is just Brady herself: still a breath of fresh air in the 2024 comedy scene, with her bold comedic thinking and no-fucks-given attitude.

Also giving a fairly small number of fucks are firm British Comedy Guide favourites The Weirdos, a comedy collective that specialise in somewhat ramshackle comedy plays where the large cast of comedians (14 tonight!) assemble in a small venue. All of which leads you to get a strong sense that nobody involved is actually making any money out this whole endeavour. Think of it as more of a passion project. Entered into for the sheer enjoyment. And they really do all seem to be hugely enjoying themselves on stage.

This show, Qanon vs Dracula, is an ingenious concept blending two big themes from that weekend: Halloween and the US election.

Essentially a loose, silly little comedy play, I was warned before showing up that "the first night will be an absolute shambles". Which isn't overstating things all that much. Shows by The Weirdos often feel like they're at their most fun when things appear to be going slightly off the rails, though, in the second half tonight this does get pushed to its limits as the cast use their considerable charm and improvisational skillsets to attempt to get away with how frequently they're having to refer to their scripts.

But get away with it they do. The Weirdos are not so much 'rough around the edges' as 'rough right through to their core', and fans would never want them to lose that. Continuing with the uncommercialised ethos, they've got a charity pantomime on in London on December 20th, should that be of interest.

At the other end of the chaos/restrained spectrum is Anirban Dasgupta, a Mumbai comic who is arguably moderate to a fault. To be fair, he's self-aware with it: the show is called Polite Provocation, after all. But still, Dasgupta can't really be accused of dipping charisma, or bringing any particularly distinct persona to the stage; the comedy temperature in the room rarely threatening to get too high.

Still, he's a good comic writer, and there's fun to be had in sections of his show, such as during his light-touch history lessons on Gandhi, or thanks to well-received gags directed at India's own current political binfire. Keeping things nicely balanced, Dasgupta also states he's enjoying witnessing first-hand the 'decline of the UK' he's been hearing all about.

Back in 'silly little comedy play' territory is Gay Witch Sex Cult, a show from newcomer Andrew Doherty. Throughout, he plays a pretty dislikable character, Kaelan Trough, that works in real estate.

It's inarguably a fun concept, taking the highly camp, extremely self-centred Trough and abandoning him on a cursed island. Or, before that, making out his relationship is the very button of Instagrammable perfection (spoiler: it's not).

The show shares many traits with The Delightful Sausage's 2022 effort Nowt But Sea, though Gay Witch Sex Cult is maybe not quite as fiercely recommendable as that duo's stellar output. The comic writing is occasionally uneven; there's a slight overreliance on jump-scares to keep the audience on edge and drill home the fact we're watching a horror pastiche. That's not to say there aren't excellent comic highlights though: take the reflections on the film Parasite, the consistent total disregard for the female gender, and, above all else, the appearance of two incidental characters, Roger & Karen. It all makes for what is unquestionably an eye-catching solo-debut.

Finally, a quick return to the subject of Taskmaster: The Live Experience, for those that read our report on the ambitious production a couple of weeks ago. Social media continues to be awash with people who've attended and claim it to be a cynical cash in, and not worth the price. I see their point if they paid £70-100 for their tickets, but it still seems like passable value at the £50 price point. We've now been back to do the other of the two experiences, 'Melon Buffet', and feel comfortable stating that it's the better of the two, if you're wondering which one to book. Although there's not a vast gulf between that and the other offering, 'Absolute Casserole'. Besides, not for nothing is the fact that the bar prices seem pretty reasonable. A solid pint of lager is £6, which would be good value for a pub in 2024 London, let alone an 'arts venue'. It'll be interesting, anyway, to see if The Live Experience extends beyond its current run, which is due to end late-January...

Read previous editions of this column (featuring Taskmaster: The Live Experience, The Horne Section, Maisie Adam, Nish Kumar and Olga Koch).

Mark Muldoon is also available on Instagram and Twitter. Did he win Taskmaster: The Live Experience this time? Yes he did. Did he deserve to? Extremely not.