This year's Komedia New Comedy Award final got off to a great start. I was one of the judges and when I arrived our table was groaning with chicken pieces, halloumi fries, chips. Definitely how to win over a journalist's heart – if you don't stop it beating first. After this though things did go slightly downhill until victory was snatched from the jaws of defeat by some of the stronger, later acts.
First up was Emma Cohen, who leaned firmly into her personality as a single mum - she's not a slag she quickly pointed out, her kids all have the same dad. There was nothing wrong with Cohen's delivery or confidence – in fact she was arguably more assured than her gags about middle-aged boobs and fingered bumholes gave her a right to be. It got the evening off to a raucous start with some pretty low hanging comedy fruit.
By contrast Prateek Kohli felt like the epitome of sophistication with his observations on the overuse of the word "namaste" by white people and his quip about mixing up the national anthem and Abba's Dancing Queen. It was good to see some political material in his short set, even though his toilet-related racism metaphor felt a little strained.
Things started to improve with Rachel Quinn, who explained that she was partially deaf - which gave her the advantage of not having to listent to men. She also traded successfully on her resemblance to someone whose speciality is arranging things. She explained that she suffered from "resting admin face" – If there had not been better acts to come Quinn might well have been placed.
Aiden Lonergan kept up the rising standard with a set which had a lot going for it, intelligent but also playful and accessible and smutty but not too smutty. A highlight was when he recalled having to explain to an older relative that he was pansexual – "not fussy". They responded by revealing an ailment that had nothing to do with their sexuality at all. It landed Lonergan a deserved joint runner-up spot.
After the interval and some very funny chat from MC Barry Ferns about having a namesake, the second half started with the act that I thought could have been the winner. Wes Defoe might have been playing a modest basement in Brighton but he had the kind of energy that could fill, well, a much bigger room above street level. He had charisma and energy to burn and some decent jokes too, starting by riffing about the fact that he was not your typical turkey-tooted Essex man. There was a bit of beatboxing banter, some chat about his mum, but the strength here was that maybe he sold some of the lesser lines through sheer force of personality. He was only joint-runner up tonight but I think Wes is going places.
And Sydney May may well be going places too, particularly if TV producers are on the lookout for a female Chris McCausland. Apart from not being able to see though – which helped her to start with an – ironically – visual gag that was the strongest joke of the night – May was not really very much like the Strictly winner at all. McCausland apparently took years to address his blindness, newbie May did it tonight with gags about having prosthetic eyeballs, watching Naked Attraction with audio description on and not liking words with the letter i in them. It was consistently funny and won May first prize of a bespoke award, a spot at Comic Boom comedy club at Komedia, and a bottle of fizz.
I'd been concerned during the interval that the acts were a little on the generic side, but the second half offered more variety. And none more so than Stanley MacDonald, whose speciality was simply being silly. With his long hair he resembled clown Paul Currie but there was also something of the lunacy of Rik Mayall about him and a touch of Spencer Jones, as he hopped from subject to subject, ocassionally throwing in a running gag and a few random notes on his melodica. He maybe needs to build on this early promise but I felt that there was a lot of potential here.
Donna Williams was a Brighton-resident but originally from Barnsley and got plenty of mileage about coming from a region where most of the queer women worked in heavy industry and then moving to the la-di-da south coast seaside. This was a good crowdpleasing set that went down very well and not just because Williams was local and relatable, though that may have helped. It was educational too - I'd never heard the phrase "goldstar lesbian" before. For the uninitiated it's a lesbian who has never had sex with a man. Gold star to Williams for teaching me something.
And finally Eli Hart, whose slightly deadpan Midland accent might have lent the end of the evening a downbeat note if he hadn't been so entertaining. Hart initially played up to the idea of being a loser, the kind of bloke who finds a third sock falling out of their trouser leg as they walk down the street, but he had an eye for a funny image and and ear for a funny phrase. For someone who was low-energy, Hat actually helped the evening end on a high. A night with a few misses but a lot more hits.
Picture: Front row - left to right - Eli Hart, Rachel Quinn, Sydney May, Emma Cohen. Second row - left to right - Aiden Lonergan, Stanley MacDonald, Wes Defoe, Donna Williams, Prateek Kohli.
