Yes, it's a bit of a conveyor belt of comedy. Yes, it feels like a stand-up sausage machine at times. But there is no denying that Channel 4's annual Comedy Gala at the O2 Arena does pull together a pretty decent line-up. And yes, before you mention it, I know a lot of the acts, such as Michael McIntyre, Kevin Bridges, Alan Carr and many more come from the Off The Kerb management stable.
If you didn't get to the live gig earlier this month you can make up your own minds about the show by watching the edited version on TV from the comfort of your own lounge where the food and drink is no doubt cheaper, the queues for the loos shorter and the view arguably better too.
With most of the acts only doing around ten minutes of their best material they would have to be pretty grim to outstay their welcome. I'm particularly looking forward to see how Sean Lock's EU referendum material comes out on TV. Lock seemed to be firmly in the "in" camp but judging by the response to his material I got the impression that a lot of the people in the audience were not so sure...
Anyway, below is the review of the live show that previously ran in the Evening Standard here. You can watch the TV version on Sunday, May 29 on C4 from 9pm.
If you need your year’s comedy fix in one night there is no better place than C4’s annual comedy gala. But brace yourselves for a marathon. The event’s seventh year, in aid of Great Ormond Street Hospital, continued where the sixth left off, rattling through a conveyor belt of more than twenty comedians plus musician Jake Bugg, who drew the short straw by closing the three-hour show as people started streaming out.
Conveyor belt and also sausage machine, with acts occasionally blurring into each other with the same-flavoured humour. Apart from Sean Lock’s relatively topical Brexit reference, relatable observational wit was the theme. Kevin Bridges shared familiar wi-fi woes with us, Rob Beckett revealed how now he is married life is more about painting fences than painting the town red and high-energy Russell Kane offered relationship tips. Find someone very different and happiness follows.
Kerry Godliman captured the quickfire tone of the night best by calling it a “bullet-pointed odyssey of jokes” before accurately noting that landlines are only used these days to ring mislaid mobiles. Hal Cruttenden also reflected on old-school communication, claiming that his is the last courageous generation that had to call a parental house phone when asking someone out on a date.
Acts ran on and did their most reliable 10 minutes of material. There were lots of laughs but few were able to expand on ideas. Single mum Shappi Khorsandi briefly bemoaned the fact that she is too busy to keep up with the Kardashians when it comes to sexy selfies: “I don’t have time to varnish my body.” Corny quips ruled. Crooning stand-up Charlie Baker said: “I married my best friend. My wife was livid.”
The most memorable moments were when the pace changed — Seann Walsh deftly miming how boyfriends are glued to the TV screen when there is nudity in Game of Thrones or Joel Dommett silently re-enacting the difference between men sexily waking up in films and men waking up in reality. Bold moves with 14,000 people watching you onstage.
Eventually the one-liners flew so thick and fast it started to become exhausting. It was left to Michael McIntyre to inject an element of spontaneity into proceedings with a topical routine celebrating the sudden heatwave with a cry of “Let’s hear it for the burnt people”. Plenty of the audience put their hands up, but by the end of this epic evening it was less a case of too much sun, more a case of too much fun.
