Contributed by Jonny Collins.
September already, our live shows have been back a whole year – fancy that!
This month’s Blizzard kicked off in the incredibly capable hands of guest host Katie Mitchell – a long time friend of the club, and quite possibly the nicest, funniest and fittest queer goth to ever grace the stage of Blizzard Comedy (enjoy that throne while it lasts Katie – I’m gunning for it!).
I’ve said before that Katie will be the face of modern alternative comedy, and that is equally if not more true as an MC. She is a compere who engages the audience through shared joy and interest rather than wanting anyone to be put down or embarrassed. granting her an instant rapport with our audience.
She’s witty, she’s enchanting, and she’s just plain fun. I challenge you to try and have a bad time in her company, it’s literally impossible. She raises everyone up and curates a sense of comradery that truly proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that gay communism can succeed on a large scale with the right effort and willpower.
Also, because those quotes are very abstract out of context – Katie Mitchell is funny as fuck – promoters book her right now.
Opening the show, sadly Kieran Lawless couldn’t make it due to factors beyond our control – but he will be back another date, and we didn’t miss out because the incredible Hannah Platt stepped in last minute to deliver 20 of the best stand-up minutes you will ever see in your life.
Hannah is a comedian with a rare talent of pulling off dark humour in an incredibly accessible way. Hannah has always been brilliant, but particularly in the last year or so she’s really come into her own and her stage presence is astounding – mastering near deadpan delivery but with the engagement of the highest energy acts, distilled into blunt and real content on mental health, body dysmorphia, self harm, and more in that vein – which manages to connect with audiences who have experienced the above and make them laugh in a way that few others could manage.
Hannah Platt is the comedian to watch right now, and I can only see her getting better and better. See her for cheap at our shows now before she’s too successful to give us a look in again and you have to pay real money to see her making you laugh and feel uncomfortable in the best possible way.
Next we had a couple of first timers to Blizzard Comedy. Dan McKee is an act who has had a long on and off history with comedy, and his experience shows as he makes a flawless performance on the level of Paul Foot, Richard Herring, and some of the greatest names of the last 40+ years. With a mixture of absurdism, relatable anecdotal comedy, and delivering hooks so naturally occurring it’s like he’s not even trying to be funny as he makes you roar with hysterics. A gem of the circuit, and I’m very pleased to see him venturing into the world of comedy once more.
After him we had Justina Seselskaite, who is an act I’d been aware of for a while but never seen in person before, and boy was I missing out. Justina, like every act on tonight, was instantly likable, and more than most comedians built a relationship with every single audience member through her silly jokes, unique voice and utterly charming delivery. There are some comedians who you know you’re going to love from the moment they say their first line – and Justina is one such act. If you don’t find Justina funny, then you don’t have a soul.
And finally to close the show we had the delightful Sam Lake. Camp gay personalities aren’t exactly a rarity in comedy, but one thing I love is how they all manage to stand alone. Josh Jones, Larry Dean and Sam Lake may all share these traits in common, but I never conflate them like I have done occasionally with your average mainstream weekend bald middle aged cishet white male comedians.
Sam Lake is just one of the funniest people I have ever met/ I had some feedback from audience who hadn’t heard of him but had just come along because they love Blizzard parrot this sentiment as well. You have people who are naturally funny, and you have good comedians. They’re actually different skills, and often they don’t overlap. Sam is one of the few people I can genuinely say seems to be naturally both. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a better comedian than I am funny (and many would argue I’m not even particularly good at either.) But every now and then you’ll see an act that so effortlessly has you in hysterics that you realize comedy isn’t just a skill, it’s an art, it’s a reflection of the artists voice, and in Sam’s case, his voice was clearly meant for this art in all contexts.
That’s a very pretentious way of saying Sam Lake is fucking brilliant, but I didn’t want this write up to be too stale and repetitive, so there we are. Sam is one of the funniest people and best comedians I’ve ever seen, and I’m delighted to be able to experience him live for the first time.
If you missed the show – it will be streamed on 19/09/2022, a day where nothing of significance is happening, at 7:30PM UK Time, and available for 14 days afterwards on Twitch.tv/blizzardcomedy.
I’m biased, and I say this every time, but this line-up is honestly one of the best I’ve ever put together, and I’m still in awe that so many brilliant comedians want to come together and perform at my earnestly silly show.
If you want to book your tickets to the next show on the 3rd October with Charlie George, Kitty Messalina, Patrick Healy and Nathan Virica you can do so here: https://www.outsavvy.com/event/10408/blizzard-comedy-live-featuring-charlie-george
