THE NEW WAVE | LIVE REVIEW
Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff, Thurs 14 Nov
Using words and phrases such as “brightest”, “most exciting”, “dynamic” and “ground-breaking” to describe the young comedy performers who make up The New Wave, this show certainly gave itself a lot to live up to. It also managed to fill the theatre in Chapter with equally young, and very enthusiastic, audience members.
Following a sell-out London residency and a critically lauded stint at the Edinburgh Fringe, the Cardiff night showcased four of the ensemble’s performers. First up was Mae Martin, a two-time Canadian Comedy Award Nominee. While that means very little to me (I hadn’t heard of the award before #mycomedyignorance), this performer managed to keep us laughing from the very start (introducing her skinny, boyish, short-haired self as ‘Justin Bieber’) until the too-soon end. Family, friends, and relationships were the main mining grounds for her material, but all subjects were spoken about with such a delightful mix of charm, insight, and quirky good humour that they seemed incredibly new and fresh. An utter delight.
Next up was David Elms, who entertained us with a series of comic songs. The first of these I liked very much indeed, it was a sweet, and very amusing, love song made up of all the words in the phonetic alphabet. Clever stuff. However, the remainder of his songs amused me rather less, although some of the audience seemed to enjoy them. Perhaps it was a little too offbeat for me, I’m not sure.
Another female, then, who once again proved that women can be funny. It is hard to describe exactly what Edinburgh Comedy Award nominee Claudia O’Doherty did. Her short set was all about chairs. She claimed to be sponsored by the National Chair Association. She gave excellent examples of situations in which a chair might be utilised. I now love chairs as a result of seeing her. Weird, wacky, inspired, hilarious.
Finally, Liam Williams took to the mic. Attempting, in his words, to be ‘a mix of clever but fucked-up’, this comic kept us mostly amused with, amongst other things, a short extract from ‘his book’, displaying, in his telling, a fine mix of the florid, the funny, and the fantastic. A lot of literary laughs for this poet-reviewer, basically.
In all, this a very good show indeed. Not sure about all the incredible hype, but it certainly was, for me, stand-out stand-up.
words MAB JONES