REVIEW: Comedy at the King's Lynn Corn Exchange
All manner of stand-up comedians entertained as the Duff Morgan Comedy Club returned for its autumn season at the Alive Lynn Corn Exchange on Wednesday.
MC David Whitney stuck to his task of involving the audience in cabaret-style surroundings with relish and defended his right to drink booze on stage – “I’m not a fighter pilot!”
One thing’s for sure, the crowd will never look at pineapples the same way again.
First on was Paul F Taylor who has a slight physical resemblance to Julian Barratt of The Mighty Boosh fame – think skinny, hirsute man with surreal overtones – and wore an ill-fitting safari/leisure suit. Taylor’s own self-description was Pablo Escobar meets alcoholic Roger Federer!
Beginning one ‘bit’ on sheep playing war games, this morphed into other animal-based jokes. Then came his best material, a clever deconstruction of knock, knock and Doctor, Doctor jokes.
Second act Tom Houghton ¬– a "posh twit" (or something sounding very similar) according to the Scottish crowd he last played in front of – is the son of Sir Nicholas Houghton, former Chief of the Defence Staff of the Armed Forces, which meant Houghton junior’s bedroom was once in the Tower of London!
He plays up to this insider toff knowledge by making class-based humour and considerable fun out of different kinds of posh people (“dull or alcoholics”).
Houghton acted out a lengthy skit concerning the Royal Family and why it’s hell being Queen. By chance, an audience member he picked out for some participation was called Harry. Some jokes write themselves...
Headline act Carey Marx (pictured above), who has performed on BBC Breakfast and ITV’s Loose Women, was cruder than the rest but did a nice line in self-depreciating humour including when he opened up with: “Apologies for my appearance – I’ve given up.”
However when he went full-tilt into an airline sketch this reviewer’s heart began to sink at the prospect of stand-up cliche, but he rescued it with a confident mesh of sex and typical British embarrassment.
Like earlier with Whitney on tinned fruit, when Marx’s routine involved an intimate inclusion of the ‘hokey cokey’, the crowd will forever cringe when this dance is mentioned again.
Peter Woodhouse
