The reaction to
Hal Cruttenden at this evening’s Hitchin Mostly Comedy was one of the
most vocal I remember.
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| Doggett, Cruttenden and Ephgrave after March's Hitchin Mostly Comedy (23.03.17) |
He was great.
Prior to tonight, I was more familiar with his appearances on panel shows and
on 'The Great British Bake Off: An Extra Slice' than of his stand-up, but it was
his warmth that drew my interest and made me think he’d be great for Mostly,
but even I wasn’t prepared for how good he would be; his crowd work was super-sharp and - as cliché as the this may sound - the laughs came thick and fast.
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| Joey Page at tonight's show. |
The night was a
very strong one anyway. Joey Page took the first half after us and did a great
job. He’s a lovely guy and one of our most regular go-to acts, having
played every venue we’ve run in Hitchin, London and Edinburgh, bar the Summer
Specials at the Queen Mother Theatre (though he did do the Summer Special at The Sun, which was our first gig at
the venue). He’s always had a great way with intricate surreal stories that
build, then break for a bit, then build again, and as a result is quite
different to a lot of acts that play the club as there’s another level to what
he does; he’s also great with visual comedy; the set piece he closed with was a
perfect example and was very funny.
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| Me, powering a small marionette. |
Glyn and I played
safe in the first half with the Beard Board, which we haven’t done for quite a
while, but it still got a good reaction. I also did ten minutes of
predominately new material at the beginning of the second half that went well,
which bodes well what with it being the starting blocks for this year’s show. Now
I just need to knuckle down to get more stuff finished for my extended
work-in-progress set at next month’s Mostly; this takes place the week after my
dates in Bath, so whatever happens, it will have at least been vaguely tried
out already; Bath’s loss is Hitchin’s gain.
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| Last night's agenda. |