Paul Kerensa @ The Brindley – 29th May

I bought the ticket to go and see Paul Kerensa pretty late on (which is why it is the singular ‘ticket’, and why I ended up going on my own),  and from the online booking system I counted that there were about about 25 tickets sold, which would be the least attended comedy gig I’d ever been to – not that I saw this as a reflection on the talents of Mr Kerensa.   It would also be the first time that I had been to The Brindley, in Runcorn, so all in all, I didn’t quite know what to expect.   I’d heard the name Paul Kerensa before, and knew that he wrote for BBC sitcom Not Going Out, which I watched, but had never seen any of his live stuff before.   

I arrived at The Brindley and was impressed that it actually looked like a council-run venue that could be used by the population of the town (unlike Warrington’s odd Pyramid Centre, and outdated Parr Hall – both of which I actually do attend regularly, they just don’t happen to look right!).   The foyer/bar is designed to make the most of the sunny day we were having, and it made to a pleasant start to the evening – even though this involved me drinking a coke on my own and messing with my IPhone, and has nothing at all to do with the gig.  

I made my way to The Studio, the smaller of the venue’s two rooms.  On the booking system, you pick your seats from a traditional raised seating system, holding about a 100 people.  When I got in the room, however, I was presented with a number of small round tables scatterered around the room; it looked remarkablylike a quiz night in a school gym.  There was no stage, just a projector and small screen towards the front of the room, and the 30 or so people took their seats.  I felt for a moment like I was attending a staff motivation lecture at work, but for some strange reason, this made me warm to the venue rather than depressing me.  Just before the show started, the events coordinator (possibly not her actual job title) came out to thank everyone for coming, and to say that the attendance in these Studio comedy nights was increasing. It left me intrigued to know how many people turned up for some of the previous events. 

The show itself, called IPaul, started with a video clip that Paul had to run to the front to start, and then run back off again so he could make his entrance; it was endearingly low-tech.  The basis of the show was that as the reult of a drunken bet he agreed to listen exclusively to a diffrent genre of music for each month for a full year.  He admitted that the style of show was somewhat stolen from Dave Gorman.  I’m sure that some comedy purists would be revolted by the idea of rehashing someone elses style, but who cares what they think?  Overall the concept just about hung together, although there were parts where the material was only tangentially connected to the theme.  

There were plenty of laughs throughout the show, although you don’t really get the full effect with only 30 people in the audience.  The fact that the room was as large (and tall) as a school gym didn’t really help the building of an atmosphere, but the performance remained spirited, and overall, I think that everyone had a good time.  In true show-business style, the gig ended with a song; a rat pack style track based on his love of Roxette. What more could you ask for from an evening’s entertainment?

I’d certainly go and watch Mr Kerensa again – hopefully this time with a larger audience.  I also encourage anyone in the area to go to the next comedy event The Brindley has on in The Studio; at £10 a ticket (including booking fees & postage), it represents great value for money.

P.S.  If you think that this review is a bit odd, or just really bad, please click here for an explanation.