Cal Halbert, Glasgow Comedy Festival review: 'something for everyone'

Cal Halbert: One Hour 100 Impressions, Drygate Peaks Bar, Glasgow ★★★

This might sound like the most regimented of stand-up shows, with Cal Halbert promising 100 impressions over his allotted time. He requests an audience member keeps a running total while he delivers an A-Z roll call of voices, from Alan Carr to Ziggy Stardust, reheating a Britain's Got Talent routine of his that he accepts made little impact on the public's consciousness the first time round.

Cal Halbert | Contributed

Some of the impressions are hoary as hell - Kermit the Frog and Jonathan Ross for instance. Others are delivered with such perfunctory speed and lack of discernible punchline that you've hardly clocked them before he's onto the next.

Topicality doesn't prove much of a consideration either, as evidenced by Jimmy Carter making an appearance. Yet the latter turns out to be part of an impressive sequence in which Halbert cycles through the recent US presidents, while not over-indulging in the hackneyed target of Donald Trump.

The Geordie ekes out a lovely bit of whimsy from his Taken-era Liam Neeson, while his uncanny car boot opening impression recalls Al Murray's act before he became the Pub Landlord.

Then, as Halbert begins to directly relate his voices to sporting stars and politicians he's encountered, both as a former sports broadcaster and jobbing TV talking head, solid anecdotes start to eclipse the mixed bag of the impressions.

He finishes strongly, casting an affectionate spotlight on his late father-in-law, the footballer Tommy Cassidy. The former Newcastle United midfielder and Northern Irish international seems to have had plenty of dry wit of his own, both during his playing days and even while he was ailing with Alzheimer's.

One Hour 100 Impressions is a true curate's egg of a show then, but with a little bit of something for everyone, thanks to Halbert's affable eagerness to entertain.

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