Coastal Comedy at Lighthouse Poole Review
DISCLOSURE – TICKETS TO SEE THE SHOW WERE GIFTED TO THE REVIEWER AND GUEST FOR THE PURPOSES OF WRITING THE REVIEW
Reviewed by Mel S-W
The night is here! I was so very excited to walk into the Sherling Studio tonight for a night of laughter and comedy. The show is being hosted by the multi award winning Coastal Comedy Club and sponsored by United Taxis. The evening was introduced and hosted by Adrienne Coles.
These shows are intimate and held in the Sherling Studio. The Studio is a recently refurbished studio theatre that seats 130 people so perfect for a comedy showcase where you can see all the performers and tonight they announced that they would be hosting them twice a month, doubling the option to watch some fantastic performances. Having been to the Sherling Studio before, I know that you get a great view from the stage and the venue lends itself to this sort of show. Seating is unallocated and in the form of bench seating which runs along three sides. It is quite funny grabbing our seats on the third row early and then watching people opting to stay away from the front row – yes you may get caught in the firing line for some witty one liners but it’s all done in jest.
Tonight, Coastal Comedy Club are bringing us three hilarious comedians, headlining was Ben Norris, Mike Cox and in a change to the scheduling, Wayne the Weird. The night was hosted by the creator, Adrienne Coles. Adrienne was hilarious, warming up the crowd and the crowd worked well with her form of comedy. Adrienne did have some great backwards and forwards laughs and comments from the crowd, picking out some people who had attended before and only went back to those who were keen to be approached.
I especially enjoyed the audience participation. There were two intervals tonight, a 20 minute after the first act and then a shorter 10 minute break before Ben Norris. During the shorter break, Adrienne gave out a mobile number and asked for the jokes to be sent in for the chance to win tickets to the next show. The audience was made up of about a 50/50 split of those who had been to Coastal Comedy before and those who hadn’t so some were ready with their phones before it was announced. There was also a mixture of ages there tonight which was great as gags relating to the older and younger generations all landed really seamlessly. You can buy tickets on the door as well with one couple stating that they only bought tickets 30 minutes before.
Opening the show tonight was the very funny family man, Mike Cox. He has been referred to by Romesh Ranganathan as “Like an Everyman, if that Everyman had delicious cynicism and razor sharp wit,” and is also a winner of the Fosters South Coast Comedian of the Year Award and many more. He was hilarious, talking through his everyday life but with funny twists on relationships and life as a kid in the 90s. His stories and recollections ranged from meeting his wife to the time when a strange man brought a fox into school! Very funny and related to those there.
With this type of comedy night, there are disclaimers stating that the acts are likely to change based on TV/other commitments so there was a change to tonight’s schedule. We were introduced to Wayne The Weird and at one point, I thought someone had snuck on stage. I didn’t know what to expect. Wayne was a completely different type of comedy to Mike. His act was crazy! Volunteers from the audience were called upon for a comical magic style comedy and I was living for it. He had a special finale that really was something else and I won’t be able to look at ET in the same way again.
During Wayne the Weirds act, I spotted our final comedian sneak up.to the back of the audience to watch how the room reacted, who would be good sports and who didn’t look happy. This was great as when he came up on stage he was able to use his observations and names etc. Ben had some great audience participation tonight and he thought on his feet to make his segment so funny and natural. His comedy really flowed and you could see how comfortable he was on the stage. There were so many funny gags tonight but one that stuck in my mind was “did you hear that the man who invented After Eight Mints died? They couldn’t find his body and they had to open up a load of coffins to find him” …. it tickled me and a lot of others in the room.
Coastal Comedy comes to Lighthouse once a month but they will be running two a month later on in the year. I definitely will be returning to see the show. I hadn’t seen any of tonight’s comedians before, and I didn’t know what to expect. But what I can say is that I laughed tonight … and I needed to laugh because life sometimes is just too serious.
The next Coastal Comedy night is on 8th March. Advance tickets including booking fee are £19.49 (£24 on the door) from the Box Office on: 01202 280000 or www.lighthousepoole.co.uk
The Lighthouse 21 Kingland Rd, Poole BH15 1UG