Thurs 11 Nov, The Glee Club, Cardiff
words: Angharad Brown
Although you might not recognise the name straightaway, as soon as you look back at his history of television appearances you’d be hard pushed to not know who Greg Davies is – he’s also a pretty recognisable figure standing at 6 foot 8 inches tall. He’s the head of Sixth Form, Mr Gilbert, in The Inbetweeners and has had countless appearances on Mock the Week, Never Mind the Buzzcocks and most recently as a regular guest on Rhod Gilbert’s panel show Ask Rhod.
Unsurprisingly, his gig at The Glee Club as part of an extensive UK tour, was sold out and on the back of his performance it was deservedly so. As we were seated we were told there’d be no warm up for Davies, and that instead he’d be coming on for 45 minutes then the interval then back on for another 30 minutes. At first I was unsure about this set up as I’ve seen other comedians try it and fail miserably. By the time the audience gets into the gig the comedian is coming off stage and then the second half always falls a bit flat. But I needn’t have worried. Before he even took to the stage there was a buzz amongst the audience, and as a very tall dapper looking gentleman in a flat cap and black coat was seen to arrive, the buzz amid the crowd intensified.
To the sounds of Skee Lo’s I Wish, Davies took to the stage alongside a large flipchart, which unless you could see what was written on the paper, you’d be forgiven for thinking we were about to undergo one of those bloody awful team bonding/attitude boosting work meetings. But thankfully, the flipchart was marked with the words Firing Cheeseballs at a Dog, the title of his show. Although it’s unusual, the title fitted perfectly with the tone and story-telling nature of Davies’ comedy.
Greg started by explaining the title of the show and here on in we were treated to his life story; none of the important serious stuff, only the best of his many meaningless tales. A few stories from his childhood were revealed, but the main focus of the first half was on his time as a teacher in London and some of the students he taught. Whether he was making up drama lessons as he went on or locking young girls in stock cupboards, I couldn’t help but feel envious of anyone who experienced him as a teacher – even if he did hate it.
After scabbing cigarettes from members of the audience during the interval, a breathless and asthmatic Davies came back on. This time he stepped away from the tales of a teacher and moved on to family life, starting with his family’s S&M dog – basically a dog that enjoyed being punished a bit more than he should do. He had the audience in hysterics throughout the night, but perhaps most so when he was describing an awkward Christmas lunch with the family which resulted in his mother and sister, and I quote, ‘pumping air cock’ over the dining table.
I don’t think I’ve ever witnessed a comedy gig where the audience was so engrossed in every word of a comedian’s set. He had us all in the palm of his giant sized hands. Filthy minded and obscene yes, but he never strayed towards nasty humour. What made me like Davies even more was that he refrained from the cheap comedy trick of slagging off audience members. In fact he event stated ‘I don’t do that shit’.