Review: Foster’s Comedy Live, Highlight Omni

By BARRY GORDON
Published on Monday 9 January 2012 12:07

The comedy at Highlight is about as dirty as the venue’s toilets. Filthy, uncomfortable and out of order, it’s the equivalent of getting a laugh out of pencilling a male appendage onto a school jotter, where appealing to the lowest common denominator is literally the bottom line.

**

In an attempt to raise a titter, not one of the three acts on show (including the compere) could get through a sentence without mentioning a swear word. Some do this type of comedy better than others, but before we come to Craig Hill, consider host, Susan Morrison.

At 52-years-of-age, no-one really wants to know what depraved sex acts she’d like to perform on men in their 20s. You could feel your shoulders hunching up at every cringe-worthy, migraine-inducing piece of bile that poured from her potty-mouth.

However, first act Danny Angelo’s opening remarks were to comment on the lack of bodies within the venue.

Pint in hand, the Irishman informed the audience he would “take any old drugs –but not a biscuit if it fell on the floor”, and apparently has an HND in opening a Mars Bar.

Armed with a battered guitar – which he performed a hopelessly out-of-tune, five-second rant on – his biggest laugh came courtesy of a heckler. In fact, he summed it all up when he said he should have stuck in harder at school.

Geordie Mike Milligan, on the other hand, is at least mildly entertaining. Labelling himself “Thde Seventies Avenger”, his ranting shtick consisted of contrasting the cultural differences between the middle-aged and the younger generation. Not bad, but not great, either.

Craig Hill, though, is perfectly suited for this type of event. Too often constricted by TV, radio, and mild Fringe shows, he does smut perfectly.

Sporting his trademark kilt, he (almost literally) unleashed it all, bouncing around like he was downstairs at CC Blooms.

In fact, Hill’s hilarious, provocative patter could well have seen him fall foul of the SNP’s new offensive Bill against free speech.

Comments

There are 1 comments to this article

Order by:

• Newest first
• |
• Oldest first

Page 1 of 1

• 1
• Show all

1

ComedyTeddy

Wednesday, January 11, 2012 at 07:17 PM

A few things come to mind. 1) Is this review intending to suggest that it's ok for Craig Hill to discuss sex, but not Susan Morrison? If so, is that because of her age, given that there appears to be no other reason for mentioning it? 2) Danny Angelo is a character, portrayed by the Scottish comedian Jim Muir, aka the Reverend Obadiah Steppenwolfe III. The guitar is never played in the act, other than the intentional "hopelessly out of tune 5 second rant". Given the skill with which his performance took in Mr Gordon, it seems like Jim must have done pretty well in drama at school. 3) Does the wording, "the SNP’s new offensive Bill against free speech" represent The Scotsman's view or simply the reviewer's? Which aspect of Mr Hill's act would be affected by the new legislation aimed at eradicating the expression of religious bigotry? If none of it, what is the relevance of this comment to the review?

• Report Unsuitable

Order by:

• Newest first
• |
• Oldest first

Page 1 of 1

• 1
• Show all

Logged in as:

Comment here. Start typing your comment here:

Post comment

Please adhere to our Community guidelines

Your view

Please sign in to be able to comment on this story.