If laughter be the food of love, hear here
He had the audience positively howling at times
I shall be open here, I’m not sure how to review a comedian. Does it suffice to say that Alun Cochrane was hilarious? Do I have any hope of conveying the humour of his jokes by retelling them here? The answer, I suspect, to both these questions is no, so I shall give it a go. He’s a Yorkshire comedian, with a number of television appearances under his belt, and took delight in lampooning the audience’s middle-class sensibilities: he ends a joke about cooking by nonchalantly whipping out the phrase “hacher” before turning it on the audience when they laugh in recognition.
That said, there was something uncomfortable about his set; as if he’s not entirely on the ball. At times his pauses are perhaps a little too long to be deliberate and his joke about wasting much of his time staring out of windows, is lingered on awkwardly; he gazes out at the street as if trying to spot his thoughts flagging a taxi down.
But I'm probably being too harsh. My chest was heaving with laughter and he had the audience positively howling at times. However, The Royal Albert Hall’s Elgar Room itself is starting to get on my nerves. It adapts to all types of performance so effortlessly and naturally that one wonders if it isn't a bit smug about it all.
The room, which has seen a variety of music from the twee Johnny Flynn to the mind-pummelling Factory Floor, was filled with cabaret-style seating, adorned with couples giggling into their wine – 'robustly' priced wine at that – and falling into each other with laughter. After sending the paper to print, and uploading the articles to the website, finding myself in such a rarefied environment was deeply relaxing.
Luckily, Alun Cochrane’s sanity rescuing performance is only the first in a new series of comedy shows at the Royal Albert Hall. Looking ahead, on the 16th of March the rapper-turned-comedian Doc Brown takes the stage and on the 28th of April – they do like to space them out, don’t they? – Alex Zane will join his compatriots in playing one of the swankiest comedy gigs, probably in the country.
Slowly, bit by bit, creeping along at an elderly snail’s pace, Kensington is beginning to offer some entertainment for its residents. If you include The Builder’s Arms’ comedy night on Monday then who knows, Albertopolis might be turning into quite the stand-up comedy destination – well perhaps I may have stretched myself a bit there. Nevertheless, if you’re free on the 16th of March, I’ll see you at Elgar Comedy – we can share a table!
