Well, two live shows to go before our hiatus, and we may have just topped our record on the most batshit ludicrous show we’ve had to date.
Blizzard Comedy on July 8th was a cacophony of creative clowning, surreal silliness and just frankly fucking strange.
Opening the show we had Max Norman in his alias of “Steve Dickhammer”, an intergalactic alien trying to save and spread positive masculinity throughout the galaxy, I think? I’m not sure – the premise becomes largely irrelevant and mainly a tool for the character’s aesthetics more than the main crux of the comedy, which is excellently carried by Max’s (inter)stellar performance.
Steve Dickhammer is one of those acts that, if I try to explain it, will just sound shit. You’ve gotta take my word for it that it was an e x p e r i e n c e (affectionate) and a comic set quite unlike anything I’ve seen before. The pure joy of the physical and visual comedy, fun and low stakes interactivity, and delightfully bonkers jokes and routines, is one you absolutely need to see at least once.
Next, we had Tom Lewtas, which is a much more straight forward act than his predecessor (although frankly, most acts would be). But that didn’t take away from his finely tuned punchlines, comic ideas, and sharp, cheeky wit. Aside from a couple of punchlines that maybe didn’t quite land in our room the way they may have elsewhere, Tom shows incredible promise and clearly knows how to construct jokes with engineer like precision and deliver them with an intensely likeable and fun stage persona. Tom held the room throughout and demonstrates a grasp of comic theory that is the envy of his contemporaries. He’s definitely one to keep an eye on.
Following Tom we had Amelia Fritz, who may have been my highlight on this stacked line-up. Complementing Tom’s darker cheek very nicely from a different perspective and voice, Amelia is a comic clearly having so much fun on stage and seems to actively revel in making the audience lose their shit crying with laughter (a feat she achieved several times despite her short set). Amelia has such a gripping energy, making it look easy how entranced she has an audience hanging on every word with a skill that many seasoned pros struggle with.
There’s an underlying, understated, almost deadpan energy to Amelia’s delivery, yet one that still manages to communicate and display emotion to create a nice contrast between the extremities of the things she says and how she says them. Amelia uses this to her advantage, jumping from topic to topic, with very definitive punchlines and structured routines leaving no words to waste, barely letting you recover before hitting you with a new topic and joke premise that you absolutely cannot predict no matter how much of an annoying comedy nerd you think you are.
Amelia is a real pro. She should be mandatory viewing for anyone looking to get into stand-up. From concept to writing to structure to performance, everything is executed perfectly, and makes jokes from her set live rent free in your head for days after hearing them. A real comedy icon and well worth checking out if you haven’t been fortunate enough to see her yet.
Following Amelia is no easy feat, but Dan McKee brings us right back to the world of visual silliness and clowning. Dan is a phenomenal comedian even when just doing straight stand-up. But this set he played around with an entirely new concept to me that might be one of the most memorable things I’ve ever seen on stage. And you’ve no idea how impressive that is to say that about an act mere minutes after “Steve Dickhammer”.
Apart from a few aside jokes, Dan’s entire set consisted of him trying to get his entrance right, getting our lovely regular Jonathan into an unwitting double act. (Jonathan absolutely killed by the way – I don’t think the acts we get on know how lucky we are to have him here for nearly every show and how game he is for whatever nonsense the comedians want to do. There’s so many rooms this would not have worked in, but Jonathan was such a perfect accomplice, I’d think this was pre-planned if I didn’t know better.)
Dan McKee managed to make a clowning act where he wasn’t even the clown. This is the kind of subversive alternative comedy that I live for and makes me remember how much I love the art form no matter how jaded I get.
Dan is just bursting with comedic creativity. You just know whatever he decides to do it’s going to be unforgettably brilliant. I’ve said every act is one to watch so far, but I mean it every time, this entire line-up are phenomenal and if there’s a single one of them you’ve not seen you are missing out.
To close the show yet more physical comedy clowning excellence from Cheekykita.
Cheekykita is always a delight to watch, brining her comedy back to foundational levels of fun and nonsense. She provided 30 minutes of pure hilarity with dancing, props, jokes, surrealist whimsy, and superb silliness. I defy anyone to watch a Cheekykita set without cracking a smile and laughing your pants off whatever your mood is beforehand.
A veteran entertainer, and a comic who reminds us how fun comedy is as should be. It’s very easy to get deep and philosophical about stand-up, but sometimes you just need an act to pretend to be in space crawling into a bum hole and singing songs while eating popping candy into a microphone and dancing to the News at 10 music. This kind of comedy is so much harder to craft than anything I, or 99% of other comedians have ever done. Cheekykita is one of the absolute best at the craft. A living comic legend we can all learn from.
And that was the show – it’s so hard to put into words, so I implore you to watch the full, minimally edited livestream version on Monday 15th July at 7:30pm (BST) (or within 14 days of that date before it’s taken down) at twitch.tv/blizzardcomedy.
Or why not book tickets to our ever-dwindling number of upcoming lives shows before our Autumn break via our Outsavvy.
