Just The Tonic 20th Birthday Bash

We love a good giggle in the office at LeftLion, so we were buzzing our balls off when we found out our Uncle Dazza had sorted out half the team with tickets to his comedy club’s birthday party. We took our seats in the Royal Concert Hall and watched the place slowly fill up with people finding party bags of paper hats and lollipops placed on their seats.

Daniel Kitson was first to grace the stage as our compere for the evening and the general consensus was that he was our favourite funny-man out the lot. The improvisational banter that flowed in and out of the audience was gold, and something we looked forward to after each act. Kitson repeatedly returned to the subject of his stammer, reassuring us that anything was possible if he’d managed to make a career out of the one thing he’s shit at. Our Community Editor couldn’t resist a heckle when everyone starting dobbing in their two bob’s worth, but Daniel took her and her pals down for expressing an interest in roller derby. Boo.

Alun Chochrane was the first comedian to come with prepared material, and he didn’t disappoint. He showered us in hilarious anecdotes about his kids; his little lad a posh boy and his daughter a feral child who pisses like a man... in the paddling pool, all over her brother. Coming across as down to earth and real, he told us how much he loved a lie down and couldn’t be arsed with the “work hard, play hard” mentality. “Actually,” he said, “You just look tired.”

At this point, Kitson came back on and was faced with some interference through his microphone. He screamed to Darrell that there were no music acts on the lineup and monitors weren’t needed on stage, so handed them to members of the audience on the front row.

Daniel Kitson

Bernard Right-On, John Thompson’s alter ego, came out donning a suit and dickie bow, equipped with a pint and an electric fag. He set up racist, homophobic and sexist jokes that came crashing down with politically correct punchlines that caught everyone by surprise and stirred a few giggles. A highlight was his story of a normal day armed with puns around every corner. Brilliantly clever.

Returning as himself, John Thompson whacked on the accent of everyone’s favourite boxing movie star, quoting “Hey Adrian” before coughing his own voice back up and saying “Well, that’s the Rocky start out the way.” Excellent. His second set was then filled with top class impressions of Bruce Willis, Bruce Forsythe, Rolf Harris, as well as various animals and artillery, but some of the limericks and puns this guy had under his belt were fantastic. “I’ve started to use Viagra eyedrops… they make me look hard.”

A headliner of the night, Johnny Vegas was greeted by a room of cheers before he dived straight into his set. Something about his pub bloke aura just makes you smile. He began with his woes in the advertising world, screaming that he’d been abandoned by a puppet monkey because his physique wasn’t the best for selling herbal tea. Someone in the audience lobbed a couple of PG Tips monkey toys on stage to add a bit of salt to the wound. It was a shame that Vegas’ set was taken over by one incessant heckler who had a grudge from an apparent thirty years ago. “I would have been twelve, you dick.” He kept standing up to ask a question and talking over Johnny, which clearly riled some members of the audience. “Sit down to ask a question, it’s not a PTA meeting.”

The eccentric Paul Foot was last to show, his act intelligently and wittily put together. Unfortunately, after a second interval and almost four hours of stand-up, attentions were dwindling, bellies were hurting and people began to leave. That, however, says nothing about Foot’s performance, which was out-the-box, honest and endearing. “Why do we all feel the need to comment on the moistness of cake?” A good question, Paul.

Just The Tonic’s 20^th Birthday Bash took place at the Nottingham Royal Concert Hall on Saturday 4 November 2014.

Just The Tonic website