Hall for Cornwall: Josh Widdicombe, Not my Cup of Tea

 This was a good fun night.  Josh is a familiar comedian to many because of his regular appearances on television.  He was exactly as you would expect.  While he engaged plenty with the audience, it wasn't in a way that humiliated those he spoke with.  He is not a mean comedian.  I like that.  It makes me uncomfortable when comedians are mean though I know many find it very funny.  I know also, that many deliberately choose to sit near the front just so they can get picked on.  It's a matter of choice.

Josh is not a comedian that needs to pick on people to be funny, he just is funny.  There is a 'set' but it feels very fluid.  I imagine if you saw multiple performances, they would likely be quite different.  There would be threads of material in common but it was clear that he dropped some threads and added others.  For instance, he started talking about the show Gladiators and then moved on to something else without expanding on it.

While talking to the audience he had discovered that the comedian Rhod Gilbert had been at the theatre the night before and that a lot of the audience had also gone to that show.  This became a thread that he repeatedly returned to.  He even texted Rhod during the interval.

Josh's quick thinking meant that he responded to his audience, his material flowed and never felt over-rehearsed.  It was a great show.  I laughed genuinely and often.  I would go and see him again.

He had a support act called Dane Buckley.  Dane's set hinged around his identity as an Irish Indian Gay man.  He was very funny but his humour was much sharper than Josh's.  I also got the feeling he made a percentage of the audience uncomfortable.  I don't think that's a bad thing.  I think it's one of comedies jobs to push people's perspectives.  He did get a little overly personal with one lady in the audience though, which I didn't like.

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