Whew what a way to kick off year number 6 of Blizzard Comedy last Monday was! An old favourite, a couple of brilliant first-time bookings for us, and a headliner who we’ve been trying to get on for a show for literal years. What a treat this was.
Opening the show was Ali Panting, who from the moment she walks on stage wins you over with her instantly likable stage presence and cheek. She elevates that with an incredibly earnest sense of fun, undercutting that with an incredibly astute deconstructive mind that lets her squeeze huge amounts of volume out of whatever she’s set her mind to today. Ali has a real eye for punchlines and crafting routines, delivering them with a confident understated fervour that shows just how much she knows how brilliant it is. It’s a delight to witness.
It’s like being in the presence of your funniest Aunt. She’s always a delight to be around, occasionally treads close to the line of things she should say in front of nephews and nieces, but absolutely revels in the joy and cheek of it so you just laugh even more. An incredibly strong and accessible start to the show.
Next up, we had Mette Kousholt, all the way from Iceland, bringing her unique brand of absurdist comedic performance art to our humble stage. It’s hard to put into words how brilliantly batshit she was. Switching effortlessly between abstract clowning and self-aware stand-up, Mette is an absolute juggernaut of comedic energy. I feel trying to break down the bits and pieces of her set wouldn’t translate to the written form. What Mette gives you is a beautifully dynamic tour through her weird and wonderful brain, complete with expert physical and visual comedy that make for a real ‘you had to be there’ moment.
One of the best surrealist minds and physical comics of our generation no doubt, you absolutely need to check her out yourself if you missed this show, she is truly one of a kind.
A tough act to follow for sure, but old Blizzard favourite Bobbie Jones was more than capable of it. Long time fans of Blizzard Comedy will be very familiar with the brilliance of her work already, so believe me when I say this was a MASSIVE step up and turned an already great act into one of the best sets I’ve seen in my life.
Without wanting to spoil the specifics, Bobbie weaves together some old bits and new ideas into a satisfying narrative anecdote with possibly one of the greatest payoffs in Blizzard Comedy history. Bobbie has always been a phenomenally proficient and brilliant technical joke writer, but this set has elevated her set to far greater than the sum of its parts (which is already a pretty hefty sum).
If this is a sneak preview to the kind of writing we can expect from an eventual Edinburgh hour, then I am incredibly excited. Now that Blizzard is middle aged in comedy years, seeing many of our early acts develop professionally and creatively is a delight. Getting to see Bobbie in particular continuously experiment and improve and get to this stage has been an absolute treat.
To close the show, it was a long time coming, but we finally had Jake Donaldson back! After a sadly low attended preview with us back in 2022, it was great to have him back with a decent audience, and neither you nor he disappointed. Another incredibly proficient joke writer, Jake is someone who approaches each topic of discussion surgically to extract the best possible laughs to suit the narrative, and he’s such a compelling storyteller in his delivery. Immediately likable, he gives an interesting perspective as a partially sighted man, bringing a lot of thoughts, ideas and difficulties to the table that, speaking entirely for myself, some of which I hadn’t even considered due to taking sight so much for granted.
Jake’s anecdotes are sprinkled with self-deprecation to really break down any semblance of power imbalance that our tiny room curates, and tells stories so jam packed with punchlines that you do really feel like you’re listening to your mates telling you funny stories in the pub (except you don’t actually want to punch him for talking uninterrupted for half an hour).
Jake’s musings are intensely thoughtful. His story and experiences are gripping. He’s an act you really root for the whole journey through, and he’s the only act I’ve ever seen to do a “CBT” joke but not think to reference Cock n’ Ball Torture. What a sweetheart.
And that was the show! I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling very good about year 6 of Blizzard Comedy (and at the end of the day, my opinion matters the most). We have a stacked few months of previews and live shows, some of which you can book your free tickets for here now: https://www.outsavvy.com/organiser/blizzard-comedy
And you can catch the recording of this show plus any future livestreams over on twitch.tv/blizzardcomedy (available for 14 days after date of streaming – this show will be streamed on Monday 20th at 7:30pm and taken down on June 3rd at approximately the same time).
