Josh Widdicombe

Josh Widdicombe and Charlie Baker, Spring Tour Blackheath Halls, June 8 2012 There’s a very fine line between good taste and bad. Good comedians spend their lives on this edge. Cross over and they shock, stray too far and they bore, the key is in finding a balance. Josh Widdicombe is still looking for his own path to tread but in the meantime he is funny and sharp. The same can’t be said for his warm-up, Charlie Baker, who was crude and vulgar and coarse. Unstructured, unfunny, he raised barely a smile, his interaction with the audience quite dismal. And yet, between jokes, he sang jazz, what a marvellous voice, a pity he didn’t sing more. He tried too hard to please and fell flat on his face, a contrast with what was to follow. Widdicombe engaged with the audience from the start, engaging and personable and relaxed. “Why is it we call it a gravy boat”, he laments,” when the liquid stays inside the vessel?” He gathers his material from everyday life, the small things that most of us miss. Our computers keep asking, send error report? No thanks, he responds, I’m no grass. The trips down to Argos “guessing what might be stock” - “why don’t they put what they have in the shop?” Or the miniature items you can find in the gift shops like “rucksacks for guinea pigs who travel”. A Devon lad by birth (1983), his rise has been swift, his first performance back in 2008 (The Edinburgh Fringe Festival). His material has been good enough for both radio (Frank Skinner Show) and TV (Mock the Week and 8 out of 10 Cats) and he has gone on live tour with the best (Michael Macintyre and Shappi Khorsandi). While his structure is bare, the jokes keep on coming, they are clever and thoughtful and quick.” His place is quite firmly in the middle of the road and for families and children he is safe. ”What kind of house has 9 rooms but no toilet (Cluedo) and why don’t the characters call the police? The show fails to build to an out and out climax but the humour stays sharp till the end. “It’s not tetris”, he tells the waitress at Wagamama’s when added to a party of 3. Widdicombe is good and over time could be great. A comfortable and funny night out. 8/10 Dick Morgan June 2012 I’m sure that bull is much more frightened of you than you are of it’)