If Maynard lacked words KG Tha Comedian had enough to make up for it, racing energetically onstage to R Kelly’s The Vibe and then dissecting the lyrics, suggesting that you couldn’t have a Nigerian version listing Nigerian women's names, it just wouldn't sound cool.
Much of the material centred on the pressure KG gets from his mother to succeed. Whenever another black man is in the news she has a go at him for not doing as well. At least he doesn’t have to compete with Bill Cosby any more. There was a childlike glee to KG which certainly won the audience over if not the judges - he was voted People’s Champion.
It was initially fairly easy to pigeonhole Mike Cox, who came across as an identikit cockerney geezer. If Rob Beckett is the new Micky Flanagan then Cox could be the new Rob Beckett, rattling through a list of things that “drive me mental” from new parent posts on Facebook to health and safety gone mad such as packets of nuts with the warning “may contain nuts”.
If some of the quips felt bit over-familiar Cox got better as his set went on and had a great well-told routine about lentils. In terms of picking someone out who will have a TV career I’d have certainly put Cox in the top three.
When I saw the name AJ Roberts in the line-up I thought it might be musical comedian Abi Roberts but it turned out to be a man. In fact there were no women in the final, which was a disappointing aspect of the night. I’ve seen Tottenham lad AJ before and he certainly has the gift of the gab.
In fact even before he did a send-up of fast-talking racing commentators I thought he’d make a great racing commentator. Failing that he could have a career as a market trader doing deals on dodgy crockery. His final breathless routine got a huge laugh, but was not quite enough to land him a win.
By the time the final act Nigel Ng came on I still fancied Lambert as the winner and Ng’s slow start and acknowledgement of the lack of response didn’t bode well. Yet somehow his short set moved up through the gears and he got funnier and funnier as he reflected on cultural differences, having spent time in Malaysia and America before settling in the UK.
I’ve seen Ng before and another factor in his favour was that there was material here I’d not heard – from jokes about Brexit and the mispronouncing of his surname to the German lack of wit: “They all speak English but they don’t speak humour.” Ng certainly does speak humour. If the judges are right people are going to learn how to say his surname soon because he was voted winner and future star.
