Leicester Comedy festival has been and gone, my friends… and so i’ve taken it upon myself to write up a few thoughtforms of what I went to. I was going to put this in one massive post but then I thought… you’re not going to want to read all of that, are you? You’re probably not even reading this… hello? Hello?!

Well, if you are… here is part one, with reviews of RICHARD PEEL, KIRI PRICHARD-MCLANE, KATE MCCABE and NICK HELM. The second part will follow with everything I saw on the last day at the Crumblin’ Cookie. I already wrote two of the reviews for that, but… brevity is the soul of wit. Later in the week!

Richard Peel ‘MONSTERDROME’

9th February 2012 @ The Ale Wagon, Leicester

I’ve been going to Richard’s shows since first coming to Leicester in 2006, and anyone who’s seen one of these shows will know what to expect - supernatural or sci-fi tinged, zany audio comedy acted out joyously by the artist and whichever associate he’s managed to rope in to support - this one involved the highly wilful Chris Slowe who performed with real relish. And anyone who’s been to any of these before will also know that they’re fairly similar in style and humour; no bad thing as they are all reliably hilarious and this one does not disappoint. There’s even some audience participation, but I missed the second show as I was misled by Richard’s hilarious art-house deconstructions and thought the show had finished. I’m reliably informed i’ll get a second chance to see that.

Kirsty Munro Kiri Pritchard-McLane & Kate McCabe ‘DOUBLE MINT’

13th February 2012 @ The Looking Glass, Leicester

Now i’d gone to this with the intention of seeing the hometown hero (not Mat Richardson) Kirsty Munro perform, but alas! She wasn’t there, and was taken ill at the final hour. Quick thinking bill-sharer Kate McCabe thus roped in Kiri Prichard-McLane to fill in last minute - although she said she was quite daunted about filling half an hour, it didn’t show. She has the audience eating out of her hand with warm delivery, an acute sense of self-deprecation and bizarrely she also attracts the attention of a heckling octogenarian called Alf, who seems disgruntled that Alan Seaman (blast from the Ship of Fools past) won’t book him even though he probably hasn’t promoted gigs there for about 5 years. Not thrown, Kiri manages to deflect Alf’s odd outbursts not only with quick wit, but also with an affectionate kindness, which is no mean feat.

Kate McCabe is an American born comic living in Manchester, and her humour mainly derives from the idiosyncrasies of British life. So far, so cliche… or at least it would be if she didn’t do it so well and her observations were so astute. When Kate holds her mirror up to British customs and quirks, it’s not just well observed but gloriously sent up as well. I hope she does get to fulfil her ambition and move to the Ribble Valley (no, I don’t give jokes away… you’ll have to go to find out what that means)

Nick Helm ‘THIS MEANS WAR!’ (preview)

16th February 2012 @ Dave’s Curry House (Chutney Ivy), Leicester

Do you wanna know a secret? Well, it’s probably not much of a secret but… Nick Helm is actually lovely. Onstage he’s a beast, loud and abrasive but not too obnoxious; managing to keep the audience on his side. Which is just as well, seeing as how much of the humour derives from him delving into crowd to interrogate, embarrass or berate people. But it’s all good natured fun. Nick’s preview is a reliable mix of established and new material, but the joins are fairly seamless. In his singalong finale, Nick finally reaches breaking point and pulls a young(ish!) man out of the front row who isn’t singing to help, it’s none other than my dear friend Michael Love. Between the two of them, they strike up quite an onstage rapport that seems to really win the audience over. When it’s all done, Nick takes Michael’s hand and leads him offstage to raptuous applause. Michael Love, eh? Imagine if he wrote a comedy show…