“Filthy Weekender” Comedy at the Nightingale Theatre
“We will fight them with a sandwich …”
By Andrew Marc
Filthy Gigdog Promotions, run by Kev Quatermass, Dan Walker and Juice FM DJ Guy Lloyd had their last Filthy Weekender Comedy show tonight, rounding off what proved to be a very successful run of stand-up nights as part of the Fringe Festival. Their five act gig, again at the Nightingale Theatre on Surrey Street, was headlined by the hilarious Brighton resident, Mark Little – the well known TV and theatre actor and sometime director who most notably won the Best Entertainment Olivier Award for his laudable performance in Rob Becker’s comedy play, Defending the Caveman, Broadway’s longest running show.
Supporting Mark on the night was the award winning comic, Anthony Ayton; Jonwayne Connolly, a four year stand-up veteran and fresh from his solo Edinburgh Fringe show, award winner Daniel Moss and a surprise appearance by Keith Farnan – hot on the heels of his performance at the Komedia gig which ended just minutes earlier.
The last show of a successful run of nights over several weeks is always difficult to get right – there is a lot of pressure on the performers to supersede what has come before, whilst the novelty of any repeated event can tend to wear off, reflecting in reduced audience figures.
Saturday night’s event was completely sold out – however, on the hottest night of the year, and competing against England’s footie match, the Eurovision song contest and a seething Brighton party atmosphere, some punters failed to turn up, meaning empty seats lurking at the back. In a way, this was fortunous to the rest of us there – the black box of the Nightingale Theatre, even with air conditioners at full pelt, was slowly becoming a sweatbox.
First on the mic and into this slightly sweaty mix was Daniel Moss – Peter Andre fan and masturbation aficionado – at least as far as a lot of his jokes were concerned. He’s been described as “a jaded middle aged man in the body of a 20 year old” – and indeed we were treated to a psuedo-grumpy moan on all sorts of topics, from Jeremy Kyle show guests, to Michael Douglas’ hairy balls, and onto twitter. Since starting stand up on 2010, he’s won several best newcomer awards, and put on a credible performance this evening.
Second on was London born Anthony Ayton. Anthony was voted best newcomer in 2010 by the Comedy Cafe, won the Leicester Kayal Gong show (Spikey Mike) the same year and has reached the semi-finals of Laughing Horse NATY this year.
He gave a competent, friendly performance – his East End upbringing influencing his well observed witticisms. I particularly enjoyed his London riots based skits and opinions – Anthony has clearly got a interest in criminology which he uses as much of his source material.
Next up was Jonwayne Connolly. Dublin born, and interestingly edgy – mixing a slightly tart comedy compote of politics (Anglo / Irish, naturally), national identities, the Catholic Church and childhood memories together for the audience. It was slightly hit and miss, but Connolly is a natural performer, with great stage presence. He covered some serious topics, but always managed to wrangle a laugh at the end, even as some of the audience were slightly unsure about where the routine was going. He’s been called a “Dave Allen for a new generation” – and with his reputation growing fast, he’ll be someone to look out for on the comedy circuit.
Keith Farnan barely made his slot, having rushed over from just completing a gig at the Komedia. Another Irish comedian, with several successful tours to his CV, he began by high-fiving the entire audience – before mentioning the film Contagion and hand infections – setting the scene for fast paced, well composed and very funny performance.
He easily took charge of the small theatre and audience, years of experience shining through, and considering it was his second gig of the evening – with another to follow after – it was impressive his energy never waned. Once you started smiling at the start of the routine, it didn’t leave your face until the end – Farnan kept up the flow with barely a pause, but never suffocated the audience. Highly enjoyable.
After the break, the headline act Mark Little took the stage (unfortunately he wouldn’t let me film his set). Snappily dressed, no – snazzily dressed, with the assured confidence of 32 years of acting under his belt, he was a little non-plussed by the small size of the audience. And, by now, the ever increasing temperature of the venue – a suit was probably not the ideal choice of clothing for the night. A consummate performer, he turned this around to his advantage – suggesting we all come back to his house to continue the show there – in jest, I presume!
Little is something of a cult figure to many people – he worked hard to unshackle his image from that Australian soap opera which originally made him a household name, appearing in various theatre productions, films, including Blackball with Vince Vaughn, varied TV shows and giving acclaimed and award winning performances in Defending the Caveman.
He’s a naturally comic actor – takes time to warm up, but once running, is as infectious as Ebola, and soon had the quite prickly audience won over. He makes clever use of psychology and audience expectations – and played a wonderful game of perceptions and bluff on the night. You couldn’t easily second guess the man – far too shrewd for that – and once he had settled in properly, had us eating out of his hands.
We happily sweated through his 30 minute set – forgetting all about the slight climatic discomforts – as Mark piled on the jokes. It’s the first time I’ve seen him perform, and I was thoroughly impressed. His lighthouse impression was just weirdly inspired, his observations on life astute, his antipodean, slightly raucous edge still evident even though he has been a UK resident since 1992 – and thank god for that – it’s at the essence of what makes his humour and performance wonderfully funny and memorable.
He ensured that the Filthy Weekender Comedy nights ended on a high note.
