Review: Tom Wrigglesworth, Matt Kirshen and Dan Nightingale, Hyena Lounge Comedy Club (From York Press)

Review: Tom Wrigglesworth, Matt Kirshen and Dan Nightingale, Hyena Lounge Comedy Club

11:02am Tuesday 5th June 2012 in Comedy By Jonathan Wilkes

DAN Nightingale is an exuberant everyman; Matt Kirshen has a permanent smirk; and Tom Wrigglesworth is a walking talking mop. Is it any wonder The Basement’s atmosphere sometimes bordered on hysteria?

One of the top comperes in the country, if not the best, Nightingale can read a room as easily as reading a children’s book. Forming instant rapport after playfully mocking a latecomer, he has a welcoming and mischievous stagecraft. Despite unremarkable material he makes the room his own.

Following Nightingale’s all-too-easy charm there was a kinetic unpredictable energy to Kirshen’s sarcasm-heavy gags. With a skill for adding taglines to jokes and self-deprecating sincerity, he is a playful pedant, seen most in his scepticism towards GCSE French. His political material had a matter-of-fact incredulity which gave them comic heft, contrasting well with puckish impressions of Jesus, Hitler and a York taxi driver – all as a black American man.

The gangly, hirsute Wrigglesworth – as if he were “sketched by Quentin Blake” – is a charismatic comedian and gifted raconteur. Despite not having his usual overarching narrative, his anecdotal set focused on the Jubilee weekend and how Kate is not actually a “commoner”, but it was no less assured.

Easily distracted, there were plenty of tangential musings:a trip to Amsterdam, how children’s toys can be repurposed for elderly people and how Boots can be laid out anatomically. Although not stretching his storytelling talents, it was simple fun.

That goes for the entire night: nothing that memorable but pure fun and entertainment.

Tom Wrigglesworth, Matt Kirshen and Dan Nightingale, Hyena Lounge Comedy Club, The Basement, City Screen, York, Sunday, June 3.