Review Wednesday 18th March, 2009

The second night of the Laughing Penguin got off to a fantastic start with the co-founder of the Laughing Penguin Tony Jameson acting as MC for the evening engaging with the crowd working the whole room making sure everyone was made to feel welcome. His quick wit coupled with an imagination capable of taking an answer to places you never imagined kept both him and the audience on their toes and intrigued. Tony oozes the confidence you would expect from a professional MC who had been in the game a long time and matched this confidence with a solid performance throughout the night engaging in banter with both the acts and the crowd. For only his 5th attempt at Mcing his performance can be seen as nothing less than fantastic.

Carl Hutchinson opened the night with a solid crowd pleasing performance. His material is fantastic especially his recollection of his funny week which is simply outstanding and impressed the whole audience. Carl did a fantastic job opening the night setting the bar very high for the standard of the night. It was obvious why Carl has won so many awards he is destined for great things and we are looking forward to seeing Carl perform back at the Laughing Penguin very soon.

Second on the bill was Andy Fury a relatively new act on the circuit and he pulled out a performance that someone who had been in the industry for years would have been proud of. His performance oozed confidence tackling topics which a new act may have been intimidated to do so with great aplomb. Andy is a good friend of ours and we enjoyed watching him perform to the standard he did it was a joy to watch. The crowd warmed to him instantly with a memorable entrance and rewarding his well constructed material with some of the biggest laughs of the night.

Third on was Mike Dunbar who has only done a handful of gigs but showed an incredible amount of energy on stage. His material is well thought out and shows the high level of intellect Mike clearly has. He now has a solid 10 minutes of material which was well received by the audience and maintained the high standard of acts for the evening.

Next up was Kai Bosh who in his short time on the comedy circuit has built up a fantastic reputation and his performance did not disappoint. Kai carries himself with the confidence of a professional act and backs this up with some cleverly wrote material in particular his material on the credit crunch is superb. His set draws the audience in and holds their attention the whole time he is on the stage taking the audience on a journey of the workings of the mind of Kai Bosh. Kai is definitely one to watch and we are looking forward to having him back at the Laughing Penguin very soon.

Next was Laughing Penguin regular Sean McLoughlin giving another great performance of some of his proven fantastic material and experimenting with his new material which was met with a great response from the audience. A special thank you to Sean for doing the sound and introductions for the MC for the evening which in themselves were an evidence of the improvisational skills that Sean has.

Next up was one of the nicest men on the Circuit Al Dawes whose style makes him instantly likeable on stage. His material is solid and packed with punch lines. His performance was well received by the audience and kept up the high standard of acts on the night and also the risqué comedy topics of the evening. Al is a very talented act as well as a great MC and we are looking forward to seeing him MC our opening night at the white rooms in Sunderland on 30th April.
Our headline act for the evening was John Smith whose performance fitted in perfectly with the style of acts that had supported him on the evening. His material is well constructed with jokes taking twists that nobody would expect keeping the audience on its toes. It was a fantastic end to a great night at the Bridge Hotel.

Next month the Laughing Penguin have two gigs running one on the 15th April at the Bridge Hotel and one on the 30th April at the White Rooms in Sunderland please keep supporting this night.

Finally a huge thanks to the audience who were outstanding please come again the Laughing Penguin can only continue with your support.