Reviewed by Amanda Hayes
As someone who doesn’t find politics particularly funny I was surprisingly keen to head along to The Hawth in Crawley, tonight (16 June 2017) to see the final show of Geoff Norcutt’s tour. Titled “Conswervative” it was first run at the Edinburgh fringe back in 2016 and has since done a ten-date tour up and down the country. Working class, from a council estate background Geoff is a rarity as a conservative and even more so as a right wing based comedian.
Geoff starts the show, Live at the Apollo style, with a 15-minute introduction and audience warm up prior to the support act, Ryan Mcdonnell, taking the stage. The warm up was brilliant, yes it included lots of political references but also more general comedy about his new born son and working life as a teacher. It was a small audience as it was held in The Hawth’s Studio auditorium, which I felt added to the ambience and meant that every one of the audience felt part of the show. Quite often with comedy performances you can feel left out as they pick on the first two rows for comedy effect and one liners. I am not up to date with politics normally but with the current Brexit/Election results in every newspaper around the country no one could fail to be up to to date so the show was particularly topical and very funny. Obviously as a conservative he swayed to the right but Teresa May didn’t miss out as a humorous topic.
Ryan Mcdonnell took over from Geoff and being from Northern Ireland many references to the DUP were mentioned which joined the two separate performances together well. Ryan is ginger so a large part of his act was spent incorporating his hair and how it had troubled him through his life. Ryan was a great support act and got everyone well warmed up for part two of the show.
Back after the interval Geoff was back on stage with the “Conswervative” act. Just as funny as the warm up it was still politically based but encompassed many other parts of his life, focussing especially on his one-armed father and benefits cheating mother with a small break in the middle for audience questions. The few questions that came from the audience were handled well and the laughs kept on coming.
You don’t need to have a particular political interest or bias to enjoy this act, you will be laughing out loud regardless if you sway to the left or the right. The time literally flew by which is always the sign of a good show.
We saw Geoff Norcutt in The Studio, The Hawth, Crawley which is a small theatre perfect for this production. Plenty of free parking on site, a well-stocked bar with lots of seating make it a pleasurable place to watch any show. This particular performance, even though the last in the tour was hilarious and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend the show to others, I for one will be looking forward to more from this outstanding comedian later in the year.
Rating: 5/5
For other shows at The Hawth in Crawley visit hawth.co.uk.
The Hawth, Hawth Avenue, Crawley, Sussex, RH10 6YZ | 01293 553636
