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Rather oddly, I didn't know who Rhod Gilbert was until the encore - and encores are a funny thing (ahem) in comedy. You go to a gig, and they play music, but inexplicably leave out their biggest hit, which you shout for on the encore. For comedy you can hardly shout, "do the one about the three rabbis," nor can they repeat a version of something they've already told.
I booked a ticket for Gilbert when I bought a load of tickets back in September, although I hadn't quite twigged he was 7.45 on a Thursday, a day which I am timetabled until 7.00. The class finished in sufficient time to let me catch a (running late) 7.00 bus to the campus on the hill, and gave me time to use the cash point as I was down to busfare and change and anticipated a pint later. I spotted a work colleague from a different faculty, and the solo attender who's been there almost everytime, but no other familiar faces.
There was a support act, which we didn't need, Elis James, but also Welsh. I confess I remember little of the act - much interaction with the audience and talking to people from Wales, and being a tourist in town (and as always the question is what local industry is - a cathedral and tourism, or, given that there are three universities, education).
When Rhod came on, in front of an IF.comedy slide, there were people at the front shouting "Rhod! Rhod! Rhod!", and he immediately abandoned any of his material - the show is "Rhod Gilbert and the Prize-Winning Mince Pie" - until he dealt with the (rather supportive) hecklers, who had apparently done the same thing the previous year, when his show was "Who's Eaten Gilbert's Grape?". Apparently they had brought grapes for him last time - and indeed had at this time as well. Gilbert joked about them bringing a mince pie - and indeed they had brought a packet of those.
Eventually he got back to his act - and it was only then that I realised that one of the "hecklers" was my colleague. Gilbert talked about the Royal Variety Show, and how Charles had had a go at him backstage for jokes about William and Harry vandalising a local busstop - this gave him a chance to comment on Harry's racist shenanigans. The act was about a sort of nervous breakdown at a service station over wanting to know which award the award-winning mince pies had won, and over the countdown to cleaning clock in the service station toilets. In between he talks about how he has decided not to make stuff up any more - he had invented a Welsh town, which one audience member had claimed to have been to, and played them at rugby. Revenge had been got by faking a map and directions, emailing them to the person in question, and them follow them trying to find the town, Llanbobl. (This came with video.) He also talked about having been exhausted by his girlfriend, she having come into her sexual peak, and he being twenty years after her; once he had needed a box of tissues to clean up, now he can just wipe off the top with a torn off corner. He talks about going to perform to the troops in Afghanistan, and how he must be careful not to turn his mobile on, lest the Taliban get hold of his number or, worse, his phone book - he envisions the Taliban ringing up up his mother, and reckons they would hang up before Mrs Gilbert did.
The climax of the routine was a bit of a cheat, but still very funny - sat in the director's chair he'd purchased at a service station with a mince pie, he reads out the letter from the manager of the services, who among other things notes the toilet inspection countdown is not notice for a performance, but a reassurance to customers.
At this point we'd had an interval between Elis James and Gilbert, and within Gilbert's routine. Now he came back for an audience - eating the grapes, more dealing with the hecklers (one of whom had worked at Burton's and had measured Shane Ritchie's inside leg), and going into a routine I'd recognised. He was talking about how after a while owners resemble their dogs, and in fact they'd had to get their dad to wear a hat so that they could tell them apart. Of course, the dog started wearing the hat when their father had gone out, which made life more difficult. His mother was particular upset, because she'd been fooled, and his father was upset, as she'd been unfaithful, and his younger brother was most upset of all. In the end they had to do a DNA test. In retrospect they should have realised: Patch kept pissing on trees, chasing after sticks and never went out on bonfire night. Ah - that was the material that people had written to Feedback about, complaining about jokes on bestiality.
Anyway, it was gone 10.40 when I emerged, and decided to grab a cab back to town as it was too cold to wait half an hour or more for a bus. Very, very funny and highly recommended - beautiful structured, and topped in this case by his presentation with a certificate for the mince pie that had been brought.
Gilbert on candles, on buying bedding and on Afghanistan
I booked a ticket for Gilbert when I bought a load of tickets back in September, although I hadn't quite twigged he was 7.45 on a Thursday, a day which I am timetabled until 7.00. The class finished in sufficient time to let me catch a (running late) 7.00 bus to the campus on the hill, and gave me time to use the cash point as I was down to busfare and change and anticipated a pint later. I spotted a work colleague from a different faculty, and the solo attender who's been there almost everytime, but no other familiar faces.
There was a support act, which we didn't need, Elis James, but also Welsh. I confess I remember little of the act - much interaction with the audience and talking to people from Wales, and being a tourist in town (and as always the question is what local industry is - a cathedral and tourism, or, given that there are three universities, education).
When Rhod came on, in front of an IF.comedy slide, there were people at the front shouting "Rhod! Rhod! Rhod!", and he immediately abandoned any of his material - the show is "Rhod Gilbert and the Prize-Winning Mince Pie" - until he dealt with the (rather supportive) hecklers, who had apparently done the same thing the previous year, when his show was "Who's Eaten Gilbert's Grape?". Apparently they had brought grapes for him last time - and indeed had at this time as well. Gilbert joked about them bringing a mince pie - and indeed they had brought a packet of those.
Eventually he got back to his act - and it was only then that I realised that one of the "hecklers" was my colleague. Gilbert talked about the Royal Variety Show, and how Charles had had a go at him backstage for jokes about William and Harry vandalising a local busstop - this gave him a chance to comment on Harry's racist shenanigans. The act was about a sort of nervous breakdown at a service station over wanting to know which award the award-winning mince pies had won, and over the countdown to cleaning clock in the service station toilets. In between he talks about how he has decided not to make stuff up any more - he had invented a Welsh town, which one audience member had claimed to have been to, and played them at rugby. Revenge had been got by faking a map and directions, emailing them to the person in question, and them follow them trying to find the town, Llanbobl. (This came with video.) He also talked about having been exhausted by his girlfriend, she having come into her sexual peak, and he being twenty years after her; once he had needed a box of tissues to clean up, now he can just wipe off the top with a torn off corner. He talks about going to perform to the troops in Afghanistan, and how he must be careful not to turn his mobile on, lest the Taliban get hold of his number or, worse, his phone book - he envisions the Taliban ringing up up his mother, and reckons they would hang up before Mrs Gilbert did.
The climax of the routine was a bit of a cheat, but still very funny - sat in the director's chair he'd purchased at a service station with a mince pie, he reads out the letter from the manager of the services, who among other things notes the toilet inspection countdown is not notice for a performance, but a reassurance to customers.
At this point we'd had an interval between Elis James and Gilbert, and within Gilbert's routine. Now he came back for an audience - eating the grapes, more dealing with the hecklers (one of whom had worked at Burton's and had measured Shane Ritchie's inside leg), and going into a routine I'd recognised. He was talking about how after a while owners resemble their dogs, and in fact they'd had to get their dad to wear a hat so that they could tell them apart. Of course, the dog started wearing the hat when their father had gone out, which made life more difficult. His mother was particular upset, because she'd been fooled, and his father was upset, as she'd been unfaithful, and his younger brother was most upset of all. In the end they had to do a DNA test. In retrospect they should have realised: Patch kept pissing on trees, chasing after sticks and never went out on bonfire night. Ah - that was the material that people had written to Feedback about, complaining about jokes on bestiality.
Anyway, it was gone 10.40 when I emerged, and decided to grab a cab back to town as it was too cold to wait half an hour or more for a bus. Very, very funny and highly recommended - beautiful structured, and topped in this case by his presentation with a certificate for the mince pie that had been brought.
Gilbert on candles, on buying bedding and on Afghanistan
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