Past Theatre Review: Puns and Roses

9:30pm, Mon 20 Jan 2014, Corpus Playroom

I’ll be the first to admit I was sceptical about attending an event entitled Puns and Roses – if this was the best wordplay that could be summoned from the minds of the Cambridge comedy elite, the audience was in for a shocker. Fortunately the show far exceeded the bleak expectations set by the name. 

Charlie Palmer opened the show and acted as compère throughout, introducing each act and showcasing his own comedic talents in between. Some of the gags were a little unoriginal but when delivered with Palmer’s awkward charm, went down well with the audience. Palmer attempted to warm up the audience by initiating a game of “audience battle-ship”, which did get the audience engaged despite creating temporal chaos and not really having the desired comedic effect. Wilf Bagnall enjoyed a successful comedy debut managing to get laughs from most of his gags, particularly his suggestions for new TV shows - “Nigella’s Whose Line is it Anyway?” had me in stiches. By far the most bizarre moment of the night was presented by Josh Erde, when rounding off his act with an impression of a cat he had been feuding with over the vacation. The highlight of the night was undoubtedly the final performance by Milo Edwards, the material was well-judged and up-to-the-minute: the sketch about Coronation Street’s Hayley and Roy Cropper was well-handled, followed by a hilarious piece vocalising “what the French really think of the English” complete with a terrible accent and a rather awkward meeting with the Queen – brilliant stuff .

The format of the show worked well with Palmer’s mini-sketches breaking up the individual acts, each of which was short enough to maintain interest, but long enough to give the performers time to develop their gags. As expected with a show of this nature there were a few occasions that were a little “hit and miss”, however, the performers were constantly perceptive of audience mood and so were able to effectively smooth over any dud moments with absolute minimal awkwardness. All in all a great night out packed with fun and intelligent comedy from some of Cambridge’s most promising stand-ups.
7/10

Originally published: http://www.tcs.cam.ac.uk/culture/0031509-review-puns-and-roses.html