C4 Comedy Gala, review: One-liners fly thick and fast in epic show

Rattling through a conveyor belt of more than twenty comedians, this marathon event had one-liners flying so thick and fast it started to become exhausting, says Bruce Dessau
Changing the pace: Seann Walsh
Ellis O’Brien
Bruce Dessau9 May 2016

If you need your year’s comedy fix in one night there is no better place than C4’s annual comedy gala. But brace yourselves for a marathon. The event’s seventh year, in aid of Great Ormond Street Hospital, continued where the sixth left off, rattling through a conveyor belt of more than twenty comedians plus musician Jake Bugg, who drew the short straw by closing the three-hour show as people started streaming out.

Conveyor belt and also sausage machine, with acts occasionally blurring into each other with the same-flavoured humour. Apart from Sean Lock’s relatively topical Brexit reference, relatable observational wit was the theme. Kevin Bridges shared familiar wi-fi woes with us, Rob Beckett revealed how now he is married life is more about painting fences than painting the town red and high-energy Russell Kane offered relationship tips. Find someone very different and happiness follows.

Kerry Godliman captured the quickfire tone of the night best by calling it a “bullet-pointed odyssey of jokes” before accurately noting that landlines are only used these days to ring mislaid mobiles. Hal Cruttenden also reflected on old-school communication, claiming that his is the last courageous generation that had to call a parental house phone when asking someone out on a date.

Acts ran on and did their most reliable 10 minutes of material. There were lots of laughs but few were able to expand on ideas. Single mum Shappi Khorsandi briefly bemoaned the fact that she is too busy to keep up with the Kardashians when it comes to sexy selfies: “I don’t have time to varnish my body.” Corny quips ruled. Crooning stand-up Charlie Baker said: “I married my best friend. My wife was livid.”

Relatable observational wit: Rob Beckett
Ellis O’Brien

The most memorable moments were when the pace changed ­— Seann Walsh deftly miming how boyfriends are glued to the TV screen when there is nudity in Game of Thrones or Joel Dommett silently re-enacting the difference between men sexily waking up in films and men waking up in reality. Bold moves with 14,000 people watching you onstage.

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1/10

Eventually the one-liners flew so thick and fast it started to become exhausting. It was left to Michael McIntyre to inject an element of spontaneity into proceedings with a topical routine celebrating the sudden heatwave with a cry of “Let’s hear it for the burnt people”. Plenty of the audience put their hands up, but by the end of this epic evening it was less a case of too much sun, more a case of too much fun.

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