Review: Bristol Comedy Garden

The inaugural Bristol Comedy Garden was such a success that it’s a wonder nobody thought of the idea before. Erect a big top in Queen Square, fill it with some of the best comedians in the country, and watch the punters come in droves and laugh themselves silly. This must be the start of an annual event.

Over four nights, Bristol was well and truly spoiled. Starting with local boy Russell Howard on Wednesday, and finishing with Ardal O’Hanlon of Father Ted fame on Saturday, the festival had at least one comedian each night that everybody would have heard of and could enjoy.

There was some genuine warmth from the performers as well towards the audience, all 1,500 packed into the large tent that often protected us from the driving rain outside, and I think it was clear to see that this was an event that they too want to be repeated.

Out of the performers, I laughed the most at Ed Byrne, whose best moments came when he was talking to people in the crowd, one overlong anecdote and stories about disliking celebrities two particular highlights.

Talking of going off-piste, and one of Mark Olver‘s tales memorably included that phrase (although it was slightly disappointing that I had heard that joke and some of his best material before, more than a year ago), Stephen K Amos also impressed with his banter with the crowd, skillfully turning an awkward silence after one ill-judged comment into plenty of belly laughs. Although he failed to drink much of the pint of cider that he was handed by Olver after complaining about his bottle of beer.

Thursday’s show was compered by the hyperactive Craig Campbell and featured one of the most bizarre acts of the festival, Angelos Epithemiou (above), aka Renton Skinner, best known from his appearances on Shooting Stars. Ludicrous, charming and worrying in equal measure, his childlike view of the world was a delight, as were his impressions and strip to finish his show and enable him to get back to watching the 30-stone teenager he told us lived over the road from him.

Before Angelos, some of Stewart Francis‘ one-liners were inspired. He fired out his jokes one after the other at rapid speed, and he coped admirably with a microphone failure.

Isy Suttie (above), who plays geek Dobby on Peep Show, provided some wonderful musical interludes on Friday night after late addition to the bill Stuart Goldsmith proved that men who like fleeces can be cool. One of Suttie’s songs sung in Welsh turned out simply to be conjugating verbs, while between the music she spoke charmingly with wide-eyed innocence.

Stand-up routines were Bristol Comedy Garden’s bread and butter, but my own festival highlight was Adam Buxton, who presented his look at music videos on Saturday afternoon. Mostly sat behind a desk apart from a few comedy dance routines, the best parts of this show were not the videos themselves but the incidental elements.

Buxton helping Will and Kate with their problems via clever splicing and editing was a direct descendant of what he and Jo Cornish used to do on The Adam & Jo Show on Channel Four in the late-90s, while his useful guide to telling the difference between Moby and Michael Stipe was hilarious.

Bristol Comedy Garden take a bow. See you next year.