Stephen Catling is an act I heard about in Edinburgh this summer and tried to catch in London a couple of months back. He is autistic and performed on this occasion with headgear in the shape of a dog. It's the kind of act that probably makes more sense in a full hour – if sense is what Catling is going for. I was judging and liked him more than the audience, who were amused but also bemused by his scattershot ideas.
There's no doubting that you get a wide range of styles every year at this competition so it was oddly disconcerting when Sam Roulston delivered a very conventional comedy set with anecdotes about losing his virginity and buying weed. He was perfectly OK – not someting you can oput on a poster, I guess – but on a night of comedy curveballs faied to make much of an impact on the jury.
Christian Jegard was more the sort of thing critics like. Jegard, who i've seen before, has the look of a slightly failed lounge singer, part Marcel Lucont, part Lenny Beige. And his best set piece – a song about having a party in his tiny bedsit – confirmed his low status. When you are the tenth act on a bill you've got to be good to make an impact and he was good enough to impress both the judges and the audience, nabbing second place.
Irish stand-up Marty Gleeson initially seemed to have all the makings of a star comedian but maybe has a way to go to get there. I thought for a while she was going to be offbeat in the style of Maria Bamford but the material didn't quite live up to my expectations. But maybe that's just down to a lack of comedy mileage and it will come. There is something there though – definitely a name to keep tabs on.
Lauren Carroll mixed conventional stylings with something a little more quirky as she recalled her job working in a restaurant. Her through-line about how life does not always work out as you plan was a strong one, with the underlying irony that she is good enough to suggest that her plans to be a successful stand-up might soon come to fruition.,
Samira Banks is already making waves, having won the So You Think You're Funny? final in Edinburgh in August. She is the daughter of a refugee and has a good gag about her father coming over in a van full of potatoes and some unexpected material about the homepage on pornhub. the contrast of innocence and smut worked well for Banks, and maybe it was an indication of the standard tonight that she did not make it into the top three.
Finally Leah Davis delivered a strong finish with an effective set about living and working in London. Like a few acts here Davis has all the trappings of a good comedian and just needs to get more miles on the gigging clock to become a name people will be keen to see. Again, maybe slightly too mainstream to make the judges' shortlost, but for the audience she did exactly what is required of a stand-up and sent them smiling into the night.
Picture: Steve Ullathorne
