Jestin' at The Western November 2017

Review by: Paul Towers, 04 November 2017

Jestin’ at The Western – November 2017

Dan Nicholas hosts Tony Cowards, Alex Kealy, Bijan Barekat, Sean Morely, Danny Clives & Top Joe

Upstairs @ The Western, Saturday, 04 November 2017

“two hours of comedy for just £8”

Upstairs at The Western hosted its monthly comedy open mike night for November with Leicester’s very own Dan Nicholas as the regular compere with two headline acts and four open mike spots.

Sean Morely drew, some would say, the short straw by being allocated the first spot. Although Dan had warmed the audience up with his usual surreality, it is still difficult to be first on. Morely grabbed the experience by the throat and bravely started his spot from within the audience. It took us a few minutes to be drawn into his crazy world but he had a sure touch and played the audience well.

Next up was Bijan Barekat. His initial material trod the well worn path of the difficulties of being an Asian and travelling the world. Where he became original and quite off the wall was his take on children’s stories and how they could be updated with extreme political dogma.

The headliner for the end of the first half was Alex Kealy, a very personable posh boy with socialist political leanings.

After a quick break Dan Nicholas sprang from behind the curtains to introduce the next batch of funny men. Danny Clives had a very nice line in self deprecation, always a fertile field to mine for comedy.

Next up was Top Joe, someone I can only describe as a Welsh peculiarist. His Rob Brydon-esque ramblings jumped from subject to subject mangling his handling of English as a second language to great effect.

The final act and second headliner (remember this was all for just £8) was Tony Cowards, a master of the one-liner, Tim Vine’s slightly younger ‘brother’. The great thing about being a devotee of the one-liner is that if one doesn’t work then there are several more champing at the bit to tickle your funny bone. Coward’s material, almost completely original, hit much more than it missed.

Next month’s Jestin’ at The Western is on Saturday 2^nd December.

 Upstairs at The Western http://upstairsatthewestern.com/

First published on Western Gazette
and Pub Theatres