Watching your ex-girlfriend crack jokes about the demise of your
relationship in public, on a stage is not the most orthodox way to
have a good night out. But as most of the nights I've had at the
Candy Bar have been somewhat comedic, I was optimistic
nevertheless.
Compere Juliet Stephens interacted nicely with the crowd and by
the time the first act came on anyone who wasn't expecting a rather
public dissection of a failed relationship was probably suitably
relaxed. Luckily the first act, Suzi Ruffell was the aforementioned
ex-girlfriend so at least the pain was likely to be over sooner
rather than later and when I had not drunk enough to interject with
grievances regarding any factual inaccuracies. Fortunately I had
nothing to worry about as Suzi was typically excellent. Lovely
anecdotes about social misadventures, some excellent adlibs and the
acknowledgement that after a 'big break-up' she cried so much she
couldn't tell 'what was snot and what was tears'. Funny and for
some of us; cathartic. Good job Ruffell.
The next act was Katrina Vrana. Now when a comic makes you laugh
so hard you can't actually remember what they said, they can rest
assured they did well. Broadly, she took the topics of being Greek
and having big hair and crafted them into excellent comedy fodder
and I would suggest anyone who hasn't seen her rectify the
situation with considerable urgency. The final act was Adams and
Rae, a musical-comedy duo performing predominantly guitar based
numbers. Personally I find musical comedy irritating at best and
the rather formulaic approach of taking a mundane topic and
presenting it in a wacky song does little to excite me. What they
do, they do well but not being a fan of the genre it was somewhat
wasted on me. Having said that, there were moments of brilliance
when they did descend from their stools and chose to perform in a
rather less tried and tested R 'n' B style which was genuinely
excellent. In all, the Candy Bar comedy night was a lovely way to
spend a couple of hours on a Thursday evening and it's certainly
worth making a beeline for the next one.
Next show: 21 June
