20th October: The Best in Stand-up at The Comedy Store

Ben Norris hosted an evening of comedy stylings at The Comedy Store with acts from Paul Tonkinson, Michael Fabbri, Andrew Bird and Phil Nichol. Ben was a great host; his comedy was witty and quick in improvisation with some urban-based Hip Hop.

The crowd was suitably drunk and rowdy and dealing with a raucous audience can be the making or breaking of a compare, but Norris dealt with them elegantly and in style.

Tonkinson was very amusing and brilliantly expressive, but with enough sexual references to border on the vulgar. Mike Fabbri’s laid-back style acclimatised to the chilly Manchester climes, with locale-relevant anecdotes of times wiled in the Camberwell Job Centre, and more than embarrassing trips to the doctor.

The second half proved to be more energetic than the first, with top quality jokes from Andrew Bird about Tiger Woods, the American belief in ‘sex addiction’, and pilots made redundant mid-flight.

To end the show, Canadian Phil Nichol, burst forth with impersonations of the local (and almost-local) likes of Morrissey, Oasis and Elvis. To round off the evening, Nichol sang the hilarious, ‘I’m the only gay Eskimo’, now firmly stuck in my head.