Tonight I was at the Hilltop Social club in Dronfield for the Laffa Cakes comedy night. This is a great gig that will hopefully grow and grow. Given that we had three great acts tonight, I can’t see any reason why it shouldn’t. Greg had a fun night compering. His easy rapport with the audience, plus his good memory for people’s names, gave him an advantage in talking to folk, even the train driver and the lady whom it turned out wasn’t actually his partner. I was very surprised to hear that one chap, Mark, had travelled all of the way from Birmingham to see one of the acts. That’s impressive.
Peter Brush
Brush is a splendid act whose cerebral style of comedy strongly appeals to me. It also appealed to a crowd of people in a social club, which was great. Without being bothered by the noise bleed from the drier in the toilet, Brush gave the room a superb set, the logical flow of which, was impeccable. He treats the audience as being smart enough to get his jokes and they most certainly do. A real highlight concerned the photos. This was fantastic.
Anna Thomas
I’d heard a lot of good stuff about Thomas, but hadn’t actually seen her perform yet, so I’d been looking forward to this. She had a belter of a gig. She’s lively, conversational and has a set that never seems to stand still. There were jokes, props, songs and a ukulele. As a result, she commanded the room with ease and I’d say the audience warmed to her in about 1 second flat. Greg was pissing himself laughing watching her and that was great to see. The material was eclectic and this works very well, especially when combined with her delivery and changes of direction. Thomas is not only a bookable act, but she’s going to make it as a pro act.
David Eagle
Eagle never put a foot wrong from his superb opening song till his closing joke. He had the audience singing, clapping along, laughing and shouting out to him. I was particularly impressed by his mental dexterity, as he not only worked in callbacks to the previous events of the night, but he also dealt with friendly shout outs. Eagle was very much living in the moment and the room joined him in that. This meant that his set felt like it was special for the audience and not just him doing a job. There were calls for more when Eagle finished his set.
This gig cost me, as a non-member of the club, £6, which seems ridiculously cheap considering just how much I enjoyed it.
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