Evan Burgess visited the Hobgoblin Cheltenham Comedy Festival as it launched last night...
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| Festival Opener Carl Donnelly! |
“You like my
playlist?” Queried Carl as he stormed on stage in leopard skin Cuban heals.
Carl Donnelly explained that he had always had a slightly different look.
Deliberately cutting his hair from the fluffy afro he had before, he hoped to
slip the mocking of mates. Only then, he found himself slightly resembling Rolf
Harris just as charges were filed. What to do?
With a sense
of fearlessness about his embarrassing personal stories, Carl laid a lot bare
as the audience got to know the act quite well. Happy to out himself and
members of the audience for their toilet habits, the first half was friendly
yet challenged personal boundaries.
“Who´s had a
wee or a poo?” Came the inquisition as we rejoined our host for the second half.
A few people raised hands and called out, he´d found his audience.
Gaining
ground with the audience was just one aspect of the quality show. The strong
material was so laid back that you didn´t quite realise how concise the timing
was until the lines hit. Apparently he tried out new material. It was hard to
be sure how much was genuinely first time on the night. Perhaps that statement
just softened us up for a more refined joke than we were expecting, but the
laughs were consistent and storytelling lucid.
By the end
of the night, the exit from the stage wasn´t as easy as some other venues due
to the layout, but people were quite happy to keep clapping for 2 minutes.
After that some launched straight to the conveniences, “That’s a fine example
of perfect timing” said a gent as he strolled to the loos. “The material?” I
thought, misguidedly. “I couldn´t hold it in any longer” he exclaimed to his
companion whilst nabbing the closest urinal. Carl certainly knew how to leave
the public satisfied!
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