Boom, 2nd Blizzard of the Year (excluding previews) done, and what a doozy it was. Despite an unfortunate last minute headliner change, this may still have been one of the strongest line ups we’ve ever had.
Opening the show we had a last-minute Blizzard stalwart, Tony Basnett. Tony is just an all-around great comedian. He’s full of naturally funny bones, has an endearingly cheeky stage presence, and a mastery of bringing an audience along with his set. You’re always going to have a good time with Tony Basnett on the bill.
Next, we had a first timer to Blizzard, Jibreel Arshad, who has a delightfully understated delivery style with punchlines that will catch you off guard and wheezing as you try to catch your breath from laughing so much. An incredibly unique voice in comedy and emits a cool confidence, playing with audience expectations and clearly loving every minute of it. I understand he’s only fairly recently gotten back into performing comedy, and that is to the benefit of the national circuit. Jibreel is an absolute delight to watch.
Following that we had Griff, making his Blizzard debut, showcasing a quick wit, reaction to the mood of the room, engaging delivery and some killer punchlines to boot. Another very confident and skilled performer who I feel is still on the way up and going to keep getting better every time you watch him, so keep an eye out for him on a stage near you.
Helen Brooks was next and what a phenomenal act she is. Helen is another act who lets the material speak for itself with and restrained delivery making punchlines so unpredictable yet unmissable, really taking you for a comedic ride where you don’t know which direction it’s going to take you (which incidentally is my new Tinder bio).
Whether she’s talking about the hilariously nihilistic outlook of her 8-year-old child, or being a Rock and Metal Fan in the 90s and 2000s and testing the room’s knowledge of 80s Hair Metal and the TV show MasterChef, Helen keeps a room on their toes. She never misses an opportunity to smack down that tension with peak elder millennial, slightly whimsical and depressing humour that we all love so much.
Helen has a deeply analytical mind for deconstructing, a breadth of niche knowledge she works to her favour in this room of weirdos, and a very sold wit underpinning everything that makes her punch amongst this generations’ industry veterans. An absolute must see.
And closing the show we had the incredible local legend that is Vince Atta. Originally meant to be opening the show, Vince stepped in to headline at short notice and, circumstances aside, I’m very glad he got to flex his comedy muscles for longer as his set is a treat.
Vince Atta is a natural storyteller and could really talk about anything and make it funny. He’s such an engaging performer, heightens his punchlines with snappy delivery and holds a room’s attention with ease. That alone makes him a phenomenal comedian.
And then we move onto his a capella loop pedal hip-hop, seamlessly integrating this into his comedy narrative a-la Bill Bailey’s best work, not just doing musical comedy, but comedy that deconstructs the very notions of music and recontextualizes it in scenarios that will just have you both in stitches laughing at the premise and execution, and also will have his beats drilling their way into your brain to be recalled for weeks on end as earworms.
A multi-talented performer and artist, a genuine gem of the comedy circuit. This was my first time seeing him live, and let me tell you I was missing the fuck out. If you haven’t seen him yet, see where he’s performing and go to him, don’t wait for him to come to you, you need to see this act, now.
Thankfully, if you missed our live show, you can catch a stream of the recording over on our Twitch at Twitch.tv/blizzardcomedy on Monday 19th February at 7:00pm, and available for 14 days after. He’s still definitely someone you should try to see live in the room with him at some point if you can, but if you can’t wait that long, you can experience his set and everyone else’s at this show on that date!
You can also book your free tickets to our next live show on the 11th of March with Richard Stott over on our Outsavvy page: https://www.outsavvy.com/organiser/blizzard-comedy
Thanks to everyone who came, especially all of our supporters over on Patreon! If you want to join that exclusive crowd and help this comedy night that you all seem to think is okay in the process, visit: https://www.patreon.com/blizzardcomedy
