Entertainment For Lively Minds
Omid Djalili - Work In Progress
Posted by badger_king on 10 October 2011 - 8:34pm.
When:
7th October 2011
Where:
Andover -The Lights
Comments:
A warm-up tour to test out new material, it was quite weird to see Omid in such a small venue, we were four rows from the front and could see the whites of his eyes very clearly. Worried that he would start picking upon audience members like other comics, but fears were dispelled with Djalili's good natured banter. Support from Boothby Gruffo (me neither), who got everyone singing the word Hartlepool at volume to open the stage up for the main show of well over an hour. Almost the funniest was when someone went to leave halfway through, Omid picked on him , to find out that the guy'd had a stroke and was still feeling some of the side effects. Awkward. Dealt with it well and the jokes kept coming in Djalili's unique style. Recommended for when the official tour starts. A Greek and an Irishman go to a pub for drinks. Who pays? I DO!!!
The Audience:
Very receptive to the slightly zany humour and the incredible awkwardness of the middle of the show. Joined in with Boothby's songs. Only a couple of nutters.
Food & Drink:
Two pints of Magners, so £6.50. Not too bad. Luckily not London prices.
It Made Me Think...:
Some of the best humour can be topical, some of the best humour can be surreal, but at the moment some of the best humour is Iranian.
Boothby Graffoe actually
Named after a village in my native Lincolnshire.
He's been going since the mid 80s, believe it or not. Very traditional style initially. Did a chaotic Friday night programme on Radio Lincs in the late 80s that had an audience of about 20, but could be hilarious. Then moved to London, worked the stand-up circuit, was tied into some sort of golden handcuffs deal with a US TV network for awhile, has done 2/3 series on Radio 4. Seems to have been pretty quiet for the last 6/7 years.
Not his agent, by the way!