A laugh-worthy night from a Mancunian and Leicester Mercury nominee…
On October 28 I had the honour of attending my first ever stand-up comedy show – or in this case, a “Comedy Box”, right here at my new home of Clifton Campus. I ended going by myself after struggling to find anyone who was willing to see stand-up comedy in the days leading up to the event. However, I am glad I went regardless. It was a friendly atmosphere and there were about twelve of us altogether.
The show was due to start at 8:30pm, but did not quite due to the ever so unusual Nottingham city traffic that happened to have coincidentally occurred. Immediately, a rushed excitement filled me up and I could not wait for the show to start.
First up was Steve Bugeja, a twenty-something Mancunian who introduced himself on-stage quite confidently with a high-pitched razor-sharp voice. His demeanour was awkwardly friendly and polite. To all of us in the audience, this was the highlight of his humour.
He started by telling us about his family background and his journey from London up to Nottingham, which was longer than anticipated. He continued in a similar style all night and he made it work effortlessly – his humour definitely appealed to all of us.
Steve’s comedy was personal and this added a much needed layer of friendliness and created quick intimacy that alleviated everyone’s nerves that were obviously in the atmosphere. Through this, we got to know Steve better. His main topics of the evening were of his family life, his high school days and of course his sex life within both time periods.
Steve’s humour further came from both his delivery of his comedy and his use of hand gestures which I realised he only used later in the show as opposed to the whole way through – perhaps this was done intentionally.
The audience were reasonably awkward in terms of a helpful reaction or response to both performers. During the evening I was asked what my name was to which I simply responded “Zach”. That did start to feel a little weird after a while as it became that a strange spotlight had fallen onto me, but I accepted it for the night.
Next up was Travis Jay, a stand-up comedian, radio presenter and actor – a triple threat – who has been on the comedy scene since 2009. He too, like Steve, was very intimate in his comedic story-telling. He joked to us about his family, lifestyle etc.
The highlight of his performance was him pointing me out with the limelight on me (again) and telling all the students in the audience that he knew me or that we were somehow related, obviously due to our pigmentation. Which he did not, but I sheepishly played along anyways. We all then burst out laughing as not a single person in the room questioned his behaviour or how I knew a reasonably popular comedian – it was absolutely brilliant.
The next Comedy Box will be at both City and Clifton Campus on November 25 at 7pm and I cannot wait to be there – if anyone else is interested in going too, please reach out to me and we can go together!
By Zach Omitowoju