Mostly Herring and Hayridge.
Tonight’s Mostly
Comedy was another great gig and a lovely way to see us into our summer break.
150 people watch Hattie Hayridge at tonight's Hitchin Mostly Comedy. |
The bill this
evening consisted of Hattie Hayridge, Richard Herring and us, with Richard
previewing his new show ‘Oh Frig, I’m 50’ in the second half. While I always
enjoy Richard’s stuff, tonight's show was one of my favourites, even at this
stage, managing to tackle the topic of his fifth decade on the planet in a
typically silly, sometimes thought-provoking and often brilliantly pedantic way.
I’m always impressed by his extraordinary work ethic and the quality of the
content he consistently puts out; there aren’t many comics that throw
so much into what they do so constantly, which clearly has gained him a lot of
respect from his fanbase, who were out in force in Hitchin tonight (as was clear
by the volume of their RHLSTP shout-out when he name-checked the podcast in his set).
Hattie was also
on great form and was very well-received, getting perhaps her best reaction at
the club. She’s such a nice, genuine person who’s very laidback, and was a great
counterpoint to Richard, not to mention another instantly recognizable face to share the bill; it was an exceptional line-up and a
pleasing echo of the last time Stewart Lee played the club, when he shared the bill with
Red Dwarf’s other Holly (and Mostly Comedy regular) Norman Lovett.
Glyn and I kept
our set brief at the top of the first half, with me also doing a solo set (as I did
last night) that was taken from the new show. It was good to do this both nights, as the more I try my new routines, the more I grow confident in where
the laughs are and am able to solidify the material as free-standing sets. It’s pleasing that
the new stuff is being well received, though there’s still
a fair amount to be done to improve the show itself, particularly towards the
end. Hopefully I can iron this out over the next week. At least Glyn
and I can approach Mostly’s month off happy in the knowledge of a great first half of the year with some excellent line-ups. Now all we have to do is
confirm bookings for September to December; no rest for the wicked. It was also great to see a lot of positive feedback on Twitter, but the best tweet was undoubtedly this: